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Are all
website developers cowboys?
By Nigel T Packer 06/11/09
What do
you think of your web developer?
Over the last few years we
have quietly, but at every opportunity, been asking this
question to business owners, marketing directors and
executives responsible for their company website whether
for commissioning, developing or maintaining their
online presence. We also asked if they were happy with
the website that the developer had provided, or if they
thought it was bringing tangible benefit to their
business. The responses were sharply divided. It seems
that the businesses’ experience of Web developers is
like Marmite: you either love them or hate them.
Shockingly, over 80% of
respondents reported a ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ experience
of working with a website developer or designer. Many
made comments that were very uncomplimentary toward
their web developers. Some stated that they felt they
had been, “Taken for a ride,” by those who had either
baffled them with technology and jargon, or had -
deliberately or otherwise - raised their expectations
beyond what was feasible with the investment they were
making. One had invested tens of thousands with a web
development company to build an online presence for
their business and now has a website that not only makes
no contribution to any business objective, neither has
it produced a single enquiry. The overall impression
that we gained from our research to date and a term used
by more than one unhappy respondent was that web
developers are: “A load of cowboys.”
These poor experiences
have a knock-on effect, not just for those who have been
unhappy with their outcomes but for the web development
and internet marketing industries as a whole. It
results in an increased conviction that all web
developers were likely to be the same, and that there
was no-one out there who could be trusted. In addition,
the inclination to invest any further resources and
capital on online promotion of their business was
greatly reduced. “We’ve done that and it didn’t work,”
was a common response.
What do the web developers have to say?
To balance the picture we
also surveyed web developers and web design companies to
see if we could identify what had created this tale of
woe from businesses.
Many were unaware of the
situation and some were quite frank in their derision of
business owners.
Common responses included:
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“They don’t know what they are doing,”
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“We’re not telepathic you know!”
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“They don’t understand what is involved.”
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“We never get the right information.”
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“They keep changing their minds, often before the
previous changes are completed.”
Each side seemed to blame
the other for what might be interpreted as a
straightforward breakdown in communication.
So why does this happen?
There are no doubt numerous reasons, but focusing on the
communication issue, we asked the web developers if they
ever asked for, or received, a web design brief from
their clients. The majority response was: “Rarely!” The
design briefs received mostly consisted of a single page
of vague information that lacked the detail and
specifics required. Although they usually included
requests for things that far exceeded the budget or
amount the business owner was willing to spend and were
full of wish lists and ‘good’ ideas that require bespoke
development or even new technology (for the words
‘bespoke’ and ‘new’, read – interchangeably -
‘difficult’ and ‘expensive’)!
So whose job is it?
Isn’t it part of the web
developers job to write the brief? Actually, no it
isn’t, it
is the responsibility of the business owner to
communicate their requirements, their goals, their
current situation and future plans. After all, as more
than one developer pointed out, “We’re are not
telepathic you know!”
In addition,
the pressure of trying to keep a small web development
business running (let alone in profit) in this ever
increasingly competitive industry means that there is no
time or other resources to be teaching the business
owner how to write a web design brief, even though it
would create a better outcome for everyone. For the
majority of situations, there is often no clear or
effective communication, more a case of asking questions
of the business owner – which they often don’t
understand clearly, which is no-ones fault - to get some
sort of outline and then on with the job of designing
and building the website.
Our experience - Web developers
Our experience indicates that the majority of web
developers really want to do the best job
they
can for their clients.
They have the skills and knowledge to build websites
that could work for their clients’
businesses.
They have the equipment and resources to carry out the
work. We also observe however that there are web
developers who mistake the functionality of the software
that they use for their own creative skills. Ultimately
over a period of more than a decade we have encountered
very few who would deliberately, “Take their client for
a ride,” as some businesses have claimed.
Our experience - Businesses
Websites for businesses create a particular quandary for
the business owner, manager or similar. There seems to
be a huge barrier of technology and jargon to break
through to be able to even speak the same language as
the web development world. In addition, it is very
difficult for anyone without extended experience to make
any kind of value judgement about what is good or bad.
Consider a
different
situation: whether you eat in a restaurant often or not,
because you do eat every day, if you go into a
restaurant, it is possible to make some kind of
judgement as to whether you had a good experience,
whether the food was good, whether the service was
acceptable or excellent. Of course this is subjective
to your own preferences and experiences, but at least
you understand what a restaurant is, what it is supposed
to do or be for and so on.
In our survey we ask a further question of businesses:
“What is your website for, why did you get a website?”
Very few offered any kind of clear response, the most
common being:
“Because we needed a website,” or “Because our
competitors had one.” We also hear: “To generate
sales/leads/enquiries etc.“ quite often, which is at
least focused on business, but is nowhere near specific
enough to be called an objective.
If it is not common for businesses to even understand
what the website is for, or why they are getting one
developed, how can it be possible for them to make a
judgement
on what is good or bad, other than it produces no
results. Even this judgement requires something to
measure the results - or lack thereof - against.
Management by abdication
In so many cases the business abdicates responsibility
for the website to a web developer in the mistaken
belief that ‘they know best’. While the web developer
knows
about websites, they are likely to know little or
nothing about the client’s business and even less about
the customers who will use the website. Together with
the lack of communication between the web developer and
the business owner it is not difficult to see why so
many websites are poorly designed, deliver bad user
experiences and ultimately poor or no results for the
business.
Is there a solution?
The first step to a solution is to address the
communication problem. It is clear that there must be
effective communication and the first stage of this
would normally take
the
form of a clear and concise website design brief.
The website design brief
The last time we reported on web design briefs we had
surveyed 57 web development
companies,
further surveying has now brought this number to nearly
100. While everyone does it slightly differently, they
all had information requirements in common.
Remember
that:
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The document needs to be clear and concise,
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The document is prepared for someone outside your
business who doesn’t necessarily know anything about
your business or industry. Even if they claim to
have worked in your industry before, unless they are
specialists, then you should assume nothing.
Its purpose
is to state clearly your requirements, including:
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A profile of your business, its
existing image, brand and products or other
offerings including future plans
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The objectives of the site – stated
clearly in terms that can be measured, not woolly
‘to generate enquiries’ or similar, think detail and
be specific.
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The target market – who will be the
users of the site, what will be their requirements?
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Functionality requirements – often
expressed as an outline, and as a business owner you
may not be able to describe this well, but for
example, do you require online payments and if so
are you already accepting credit cards in your
business. - remember, adding functionality usually
increases cost far more than increasing the number
of pages in the site.
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The scale and scope of the
development project – how big, how many pages, who
will provide what and so on.
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What are the project constraints,
budget, timescale etc.
This
document is not a wish list (although you could include
things that you would like
to
do as well as but not instead of the above), it is the
document that the developer works to and effectively
forms part of your contract with them and is therefore
subject to discussion and revision before being
finalised.
This subject is covered in more detail in the book:
INTERNET MARKETING How to Get a
Website
that Works for Your Business, by Nigel T Packer ISBN
978-0-7160-3020-1 including a free downloadable website
design brief template.
In conclusion
The commissioning of a website is a much bigger project
than appears at the beginning. Websites are not
‘job-and-finish’ projects. You need to form a good
relationship with your web developer because you will be
working with them for a long time, and the first step to
a successful relationship is sorting out the
communication.
It is your business, if you have articulated clearly
what you want, why your business needs it, and provided
all the information the developer requires including
realistic expectations, budgets and timescales then if
it isn’t delivered to the brief then you can
blame the web developer. Otherwise accept that it is
your problem, not their fault that they are not
telepathic.
Furthermore, you need to take responsibility for the
project, but also recognise that the
development
of a website is a team game, not something to be simply
handed over and then moaned about when it was not quite
what you were thinking of.
Last word
If you are serious about selling online or using the
internet to promote your business it is important to
recognise that you need to make a considerable
investment of
time and effort or you might as well take your money and
simply thrown up in the air!
Nigel T Packer
is the author of
Internet Marketing How to
get a website that works for your business.
He is lead
consultant
at Business for Business Internet Marketing Ltd and has
specialised in website promotion for the last ten
years.
nigel@businessforbusiness.co.uk
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