Filed under: Business, Design, Internet, Productivity, Adobe, Google, Yahoo!, web 2.0
Seven Web Redesign Planning Tools
Let's pretend you read this column and agree that it's time to embark on a Web site overhaul for your small business. You understand a little about Web 2.0-ness, want some interactivity, are considering using new online tools and have created a real job for the webmaster to do site updates. What's on your Web Overhaul Due Diligence To-Do List? What steps should you take to ensure that your site gets architected, designed, programmed, launched, and updated correctly? HOMEWORK – let's start browsing sites and making favorites/bookmarks out of the ones that catch your eye. Note that you like the drop-down menu in one and the fading background in another. Make a "how did they do this?" list of snazzy features to ask your designer about implementing. In fact, build a spreadsheet and make column headings such as: URL, feature, forms, Flash, menus and more so you can keep your design notes and questions in a handy electronic document to share with all the design firms you interview, and we want you to talk to more than one.
WHO DONE IT? – make an extra column on your spreadsheet to note which firm build the site you like. Most classy sites have a small credit near the footer (although some site owners forbid that). Paste the design firm's URL into your spreadsheet because you might just want to send your site's RFP to them.
YOU DESERVE AN RFP – yes, your site is big enough to warrant an RFP (Request for Proposal). Take some time with your RFP and be sure to include what your site really needs and not a laundry or wish list of over-the-top features that you can't afford and don't intend to buy. There are several online outlines for sample web site RFPs but please don't copy and paste a $100K site build for your design if your budget is $5k. Let's be a reasonable, shall we? (Download or review free RFP templates online at SiteLab – free registration), free toolkit – registration required, Emerald Strategies)
DESIGN PLAN MAGIC – plan thrice, write a check once. When the eager design companies (and you've sent your RFP to those most appropriate for your business) reply to your RFP, read each proposal. Skim the background data to ensure the firm is using real people to build your site and pay attention to what is promised.
- Will you see mockups of your design? What if you don't like the mockups?
- Are you guaranteed a delivery date? What if the design firm misses that date?
- What are you obligated to provide (logos, content, photos)? What if you don't send them on time?
- What are the extra charges after you change your mind after approving the design (and you WILL, so read this part carefully)?
- Are you paying for logo design? What formats will the logo be delivered in (print-ready, Web ready, signs, banners)?
- Who owns what when it's done? If it's not broken out, get an itemized list of what the deliverables are, including copyrights and original artwork (please promise me that you will get your original artwork!).
- Are you charged by the page? If so, are all the pages listed? What do extra pages cost? What happens if you decide to combine two pages into one?
- What are the payment terms? Are you offered options? (Please, do NOT pay for the entire design up front; there's no incentive for a firm to finish on time if there's no check dangled at completion.)
TOOLBOX – What online tools are being built, purchased, rented or incorporated into your new site? There are free, rented and custom-built tools and the price naturally goes up as you move from left-to-right. Do your due diligence: if they propose to build and charge you for form delivery, is there a free alternative? (The answer is "yes.") Demand they include Google Analytics) and make sure you are authorized to see the results. Don't get talked into a ListServ when a free online group will do (Google Groups, Yahoo Groups). If they don't suggest using free online tools up front, find another firm. Really, a good firm would try to save you money so they could charge more for design and programming without fatal sticker shock.
AFTERCARE – what happens to the design firm when the site launches? Do they run away and hide? Do they want a monthly fee for "maintenance" but insist that you do the site updates? (Exactly what are they maintaining?) Are they offering you a back-end editor to update your site? If so, try it out before signing. They should have a test site but better yet, talk over using a universal editor (like Adobe Contribute) because site editors are tricky little devils and can be browser dependent (and die when new browsers come along or don't work with your browser. Yes, I'm talking to you, you Mac user!) Will they help you work with the editor or are you charged for that service? If there's nothing set up for you to edit and update your own site, run the other way!
A chunk of good process is missing from the above admonitions: watching the site build and testing before the whole thing goes beta. We're a highly visual society and need to SEE the pages develop, as opposed to gaining 100% insight from a printed proposal. Wait for my next column on the build process but let's talk over your suggestions for the design process in comments. I know there are Web designers reading and I value what you have to say.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Todd said 10:11AM on 5-28-2008
Or ignore all of the stuff in this post and just install drupal in half an hour and be done ( spending a total of $0.00 ).
http://buytaert.net/many-universities-use-drupal
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Blog Jones said 10:17AM on 5-28-2008
That's an option, but not the best solution for every situation.
And even if you decide that Drupal is the right tool for your website, you still have to *design* the site, for which this article is still relevant.
Sue Polinsky said 10:49AM on 5-28-2008
Drupal is a handy CMS and the cost is certainly worth salivating over; however, the audience is small business owners and they are likely not to have the time to invest in learning Drupal's ins-and-outs, which like any CMS, there are many.
I encourage small business startups to consider free tools like Microsoft Office Live and Drupal (and the rest). That simply wasn't the audience for this column. No Drupal disrespect; it's a fine tool for the right job and with the right Drupal-smart developer.
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Thomas Paine said 12:21PM on 5-28-2008
doesn't compare to Joomla, though
http://www.joomla.org
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Chuck said 9:27PM on 5-28-2008
Drupal and Joomla are solid for free, open source solutions, but what happens when you turn over the website and they group doesn't watch for security patches, etc. I had this exact issue happen with a Mambo (Joomla, before it was Joomla) install for a friend's non-profit group. They got hacked by Turkish website defacers through an unpatched exploit.
I'm making the leap to Expression Engine. Its a commercial CMS, yet its extremely affordable. They offer support and also have reasonable in-house hosting options.
As I've built my newest site in Expression Engine, I've found that it has a cleaner admin UI, much better documentation, and more flexibility in over web development.
And they offer a free "Core" license that you can download and play with (although there are some disabled functions here's the details: http://expressionengine.com/overview/pricing/)
And no, I do not work for Expression Engine!
Chuck
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whiskey said 11:39PM on 5-28-2008
There are other options available as far as CMS go (Joomla, Mambo, etc) and there is a place to test them is http://www.opensourcecms.com.
As for what option i use the most? I love Postnuke, stripped from most of it's core modules and having them substituted by creating custom publications and templates using Pagesetter... add a bit of Apache RewriteURL magic and you can do whatever you want.
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james 42 said 9:41PM on 5-30-2008
Spot on article. I would add that the client should have control over the domain registration and web hosting. Don't leave it to the designer, do it yourself and keep track of all the different accounts associated with the site.
Also, it's worth discussing email for the domain. I recommend that clients use Google Apps so they can access it anywhere, anytime, but be sure to back it up so you don't loose anything.
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Sue Polinsky said 9:48PM on 5-30-2008
Actually, James, I am not going to agree 100% with what you wrote above. The client should make sure that his/her domain is registered to them and they can access it but the designer also needs some control or ability to modify it. Clients don't "get" DNS and trying to talk them through it when you're not familiar with the interface is torture. Godaddy has "assign an account rep" thing which is great but doesn't give the designer DNS ability. Please see this article for more.
If our clients could manage Google Apps, I'd be thrilled. Too often, a client doesn't WANT the management but must retain ownership. I wish there were an easy solution so that the client had 100% and the designer could get 90% but not the ability to sell out the domain. OTOH, many of our clients are used to deleting anything that isn't directly in their interest sphere, and that's how domains expire. They want us to renew and bill them but we want them to act like domain owners.
Recently, a slew of "is this domain info correct" emails went out and our clients were a trifle upset by them. Not understanding what they meant, they assumed someone was trying to steal their domains. There were lots of phone calls and emails while we tried to make each one understand the value of that annual domain checkup.
IMO, the only safe thing is to work with developers you trust and who continue to earn your trust every day. I have no easy solution; domain ownership requires that domain owners grow into their roles and learn and understand domains. It's a process; we work with our clients every day.
james 42 said 1:00PM on 5-31-2008
Sue, I agree with you. I should have been more clear. Small business owners should have control over their registration accounts, but leave it to the designer to setup the DNS. The reason I personally take this route is that should something happen to me, I would not want my clients to loose their domain names.
Of course, that makes it a little harder for me should they do... unexpected things...
This is more an issue when dealing with small designer shops and should be a consideration for the business owner. Not so much of a problem for larger design shops where it is unlikely that only one person would be responsible for tracking and maintaining this information.
One of the best things a designer can do for a client is provide clear and quick communication. When my clients get freaked by an email, fax, or letter relating to their webs site that they don't understand, the first thing I want them to do is to call me.
Sue Polinsky said 1:22PM on 5-31-2008
OK, here's my two-item Web Design Wishlist.
We need a registrar who allows my company to have an account and manage domains within it BUT assigns sub-accounts for our clients so they can also access the domain without our having to have two logins (ours and theirs) and so they don't have our master login that manages hundreds of domains. It'd be cool if when we register a domain, it's right there in the interface and pre-populated with client data that we can upload.
Second wishlist item for Web design firms:
Our senior designer said yesterday that he needs client management software/database that doesn't purport to do billing (we have a billing program that we - and our accountant both like and don't want it duplicated).
We need Web-designer client management that includes the stuff we do like domain management, different jobs per client, contact name/email/phone for the domain person (who isn't usually the design contact), allows updates and change-order requests and marks them with a status, tells us which stock photos we've purchased for whom, and generally understands the magical what we do scenario (like "jobs," or multiple sites for the same site owner).
Anyone know of one? The OS ones we've looked into all want to focus on billing and frankly, we want one that talks to QuickBooks or FreshBooks or any "books" you have.
Sue Polinsky said 9:49PM on 5-30-2008
OK, it ate my URL. Here it is in plainer text.
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/05/08/scammed-out-of-your-domain/
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Sue Polinsky said 10:01PM on 5-30-2008
There's another consideration for back-end site tools that isn't addressed by the well-respected but geekier responders above and that's what clients want. To almost a client, they hate back-end CMS editors (however GUI they are) because, simply, they cannot see the page while they are editing and as I mentioned in the article, we're a highly visual society. Online editors are forms to fill out, then publish, then preview in a browser, then figure out your image isn't aligned (you see where this going).
Site owners think CMS editors are hard to use and generally don't like them. It's that simple.
There's a difference between coders who can "see" a bunch of code displaying in their heads and know how to align and add CSS to a tag and then there's civilians who need WYSIWYG. That's probably the biggest reason I prefer Adobe Contribute.
And no matter how often you explain it, there will be parts of the page off-limits to CMS users. Initially, they like that (glad to know they can't break it) and as time progresses, they want more control. I think we've all been there.
Is there a CMS that real small business owners actually like over the long haul? What is it?
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james 42 said 1:08PM on 5-31-2008
I have not found one that is easy for the average user. But then, I have not found any of the 'site tonight' type services to be usable either. The only self publishing platform that I have seen that my clients have been able to really deal with are blogs, WordPress, Blogger, and TypPad.
The other issue with CMS that small business owners won't understand right off, or like, is that content needs to stick inside the template. Though, I admit, from my perspective that might not be a bad thing. I have had more then one site that started off looking OK enough, but over time started looking like a seedy Las Vegas strip after adding 'eye catching' content the client insisted on.