The Dynamic Duo: Client and Designer.
Before you can build a site, the Client and Designer both have some learning to do. The Client needs to learn what works on the Web. The Designer needs to learn about the Client's business, the audience, and the purpose of the site.We often start this process off with an analysis of competitive sites, discussing what the client likes and dislikes, and suggesting things we'd do or wouldn't do. It's important to build an agreement of what the site needs to accomplish before we start building the site.
Prototyping
After the Client and designer are both familiar with the requirements, we bring in a quick-and-dirty prototype for review. We put the prototype on the web, in a password-protected site. It's usually very effective to let the Client see a working prototype and then choose a path.We do not deliver cookie-cutter websites cut out of existing templates. We do deliver made-to-order sites, made from scratch, using fresh ingredients and techniques.
The Web vs. Traditional Media.
When you film a commercial or print 10,000 catalogs, you need to make sure everything is just right-- because you're going to have to live with it for a while. Print is a fixed media, but the web is very flexible. You can change the content of a site overnight and inexpensively. It's the Web: Fast and Flexible.The Cathedral and the Bazaar.
When Europeans built cathedrals, the projects took generations to complete. The people who designed the work died before they saw results. The technology changed during the project. The audience who would have benefitted from the investment, the generations of people who might have found God in the cathedral, had died before it was ready.Conversely, the bazaars of the Middle East moved rapidly, developed products as soon as the need was conceived, and left room for subsequent revision. They moved while the moment was right and the market was ready.
The lesson is that you should build your website early and get it out as soon as practical, and then revise it later and often, rather than spend whole business cycles preparing a perfect website for an audience will have gone elsewhere in the meantime.
The Waterfall and the Fountain.
This is another metaphor for website development. In a waterfall process, activity begins at the top and flows straight to completion, with a linear certainty rarely seen in the real world. In a fountain process, the first work is submitted, circulated, processed, and improved, and then the cycle is repeated. The lesson in that you should build an initial site, seek comments, make improvements, put it on the Web, then continue the cycle of improvements and revision.These two notions, the Cathedral/Bazaar and the Waterfall/Fountain, are firmly rooted in the implications of the Third Wave, the Information Revolution.
Static vs. Dynamic Pages
We're used to print. Open up any book, and in every copy of the book, page 10 looks the same. Websites started off that way; they were static, fixed, unchanging. But now we can connect databases to our websites and generate the page at the moment a person asks for it. The page is built just before it's delivered, just like a Land's End monogrammed sweater.The dynamic page can contain news, weather, prices, or inventories. School pages contain daily cafeteria listings and homework assignments. Ski resort pages contain slope reports. Spa pages contain current special packages. Web pages aren't printed in books; they can vary from one moment to the next.
Back-end Support Pages
The first Web pages were for the public to see. On some sites the users could customize their pages and choose what they wanted to see, but the general theme was public pages, communicating from the business to the audience. But the business usually didn't know who was viewing the site; they may not know exactly who their customers are.But now sophisticated sites pay more attention; they have Back-end Support pages that offer the business segmented views of who the viewers are, what they're looking for, and what they're interested in.
The Back-end Admin page will allow the business to send targeted emails to viewers in different zip codes, or within certain distances, or in certain gender/income/interest profiles. They allow businesses to micro-test marketing plans with fast turnaround times.
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Click here for ideas about a site for your business. Click here to see some of the sites we've built. |
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