content posted in web design  on 12 January 2007
by Andrew Lang 
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Web extremism versus the holistic approach

A good online business plan can still fail from poor web design / hosting. When considering which web design company to choose, you should play 'web design bingo' - we consider a 'full house' to be web design companies that at least mention the following in their specific sales pitch to you:-
  • YOUR business plan (talking specifically about what your purposes are, and long-term aims) - what is the web design company's opinion on your plan?
  • usability (visitors can perform all tasks easily on the website)
  • accessibility (websites that can be physically accessed by all, with content understood by its target market)
  • search engine optimization (giving your website decent rankings in search engines)
  • content management (allowing you to add/amend/delete content on your website by yourself at any time)
  • security (safety of private data, with regular backups)
  • hosting (will they host your site too? What about their servers? Do they use shared servers with hundreds of other companies, or do they have their own servers?)
  • tech support and after sales (will they be around to help you once the site goes live? How much is support? What about updates?)

Any web design company aware of all of these issues equally is following the holistic approach, covering all the main areas of web development. Ignoring one or more of the above can mean your online business will suffer.

The tendency for a lot of web design companies is to over-emphasise one area of web design they feel confident in while diminishing the importance of others, or outright ignoring them.

Two common examples of 'web extremism':-
  • search engine marketing 'fundamentalists' who focus entirely on search engine rankings - the website content is often developed around keywords rather than compelling, readable information - making sentences sound over-repetitive and mechanical.
  • accessibility 'jihadists' who think a good website is purely about semantic XHTML while completely overlooking other needs of the website - such as optimization for search engines, a good design to entice users to perform certain tasks easily, and content management.

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