Web Design, Clean and Simple

I've been working with HTML to create websites since 1995. I was doing this before there were WYSIWYG editors. Before everyone with a word processor thought they were a web designer. I'm still making money at it, long after the gold rushers have moved on to whatever is the latest get rich quick scheme. I will still be doing this ten years from now; not necessarily because I will still be making my living at it, but because I consider it a skill worth keeping and using.

Over the years I've learned a few things, and I don't mind sharing. I'd like to start with my three rules for business websites:

1. To have a successful Internet business, you must first have a successful business.
2. Never offer a service or product on your website that you do not already offer in person, by phone or by mail.
3. Never spend more on your website than you would on traditional advertising unless your site will reduce labor costs and then its price should not exceed those saved costs.

Simple, eh? These three simple rules have cost me a number of contracts, but they have saved those willing to listen countless dollars and headaches. I can't tell you how many times I was told "But this other company guarantees us that if they develop our site we will be getting NNNN new customers per month." A logical response of "Will they guarantee that in writing, with penalties for failure?" rarely deterred someone who saw 'www' as '$$$'. Some clients would not be dissuaded from their belief that simply putting a site on-line would draw visitors, as if there were some sort of Internet mass-consciousness that directed people to emerging websites.

The dot-com crash has pretty much killed that mentality, which makes my sales pitch a lot easier on the ears of potential clients. Sites like pets.com and etoys.com, which had no real world business prior to their birth on the Internet, are prime examples of too much money spent and dependance on their website as their sole storefront. People often prefer to be fed the hype, but in the end they can't escape the truth: The Internet is just another medium for communication.

I am often asked why sites I have designed are so 'plain', especially when there are tools like Flash that can really liven up a website. I have my reasons, and just for consistency I'll boil it down to three:

1. Accessibility
2. Development Cost
3. Bandwidth Cost

Accessibility
Let's consider one of the most successful mail order businesses of all time: The Sears Catalog. Would it be a part of American history if each new addition required you to upgrade your spectacles? Would rural farmers have relied on it if for some reason the pages had taken 60 seconds to turn? Sounds silly doesn't it? Yet this is what happens if a visitor needs the latest browser plug-ins, or if they view a 'heavy' web page from a dial-up connection.

What good is a website if some people can't view it? Each visitor turned away is a potential lost sale. Design simply and more people will be able to make better sense of your site.

Development Cost
At one point in time the web design firm Organic turned away clients whose web sites were estimated to cost less than one million dollars to develop. Organic has repealed that policy, but not before suffering incredible losses; and not soon enough to save them from a painful sell-out. I know that companies have spent more than that on television commercials, but the demographics and targeting in that arena have had fifty years to be perfected. Flashier (no pun intended) content means a higher development cost, and there is no sound market research indicating that animated graphics and cool sounds result in higher website sales. Simple sites cost less to develop and are easier to navigate.

Bandwidth Cost
What I am about to say has shattered the preconceptions of many a burgeoning Internet Entrepreneur: Bandwidth isn't free. Yup, that's right, after you build it you have to pay for each and every person who views the site. This concept went over the heads of a lot of otherwise reasonable people who had no problem with paying to have a catalog printed; yet somehow couldn't grasp that their web pages had a per-view cost as well. Bandwidth isn't sold on a page basis though, it is generally sold by the megabit per second. A 'lighter' page means more views per megabit per second, which just makes sense to me.

There is an added benefit to this approach in that it makes better use of how search engines function. More text and less graphics means a higher percentage of indexable content on each page. In the long run this will mean more visitors who find your site by means other than your direct advertising.

Don't let my guidelines fool you, I'm happy to work on an extensive web project. I've helped build some very complex and elaborate web services, that actually did reduce customer service expenses. If you are already providing a service, it may be cheaper to offer it on-line. The trick is evaluating the options and determining which will be the least expensive in the long run without assuming that Internet services are inherently more cost effective. This is where you will benefit from an objective consultant who isn't easily swayed by hype. Someone like me. :)

I hope I haven't scared you away with my level headed approach to business websites. If you still want to discuss a project with me, drop me a line: webdesign@ghostwheel.com

Peace and Love,

-Chris