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Talking to web sites
Nov. 10th, 2005 10:08 amOn Tuesday we hit the deadline for updating the Crime Writers' web site: the awards lunch took place, the winner of the Dagger of Daggers was declared, we shifted the new site from its temporary location to the public space and made a pot of tea. I felt that the moment deserved champagne, but we had tea first, then went out to a wine tasting and yes, there was champagne (and some interesting Portuguese wines, an Alsace pinot blanc, an astonishing deep pink rosé and Mas de Daumas Gassac). I thought I'd be posting about that, but this seems to be about web sites instead.
There is a suggestion that you should talk to your plants, that this makes them grow better. And the rational explanation seems to be that if you spend some time regularly talking to a potted plant, you will notice if it needs watering, you will pinch out excess growth while you chat, and the plant will profit from these attentions, even if the accompanying conversation has no effect.
I begin to suspect that the same is true of web sites: that the client's desire for a redesign every two or three years may be just a matter of fashion, but the exercise of applying the new look forces you to think about more than layout and colour combinations. (I'd better add that, in the case of the CWA, although the redesign has produced a site more in line with current fashions, there were other reasons, too, why it was a good idea - and not just because, hey, it's a living!) Changes may be major and structural (to do with how material is grouped, and how navigation works) or they may be minor (re-ordering paragraphs, changing wording), but the overall effect is that the site looks and works better. Visitors will notice the redesign, and that the site is improved, but probably won't notice the changes that actually make the difference.
The same is true with housework: vacuuming a room makes it look so much better, partly because the surfaces are all cleaner, but partly because I've had to tidy so much stuff away to get at those surfaces in the first place (which is probably giving away more than I should about my lack of domestic skills)!
There is a suggestion that you should talk to your plants, that this makes them grow better. And the rational explanation seems to be that if you spend some time regularly talking to a potted plant, you will notice if it needs watering, you will pinch out excess growth while you chat, and the plant will profit from these attentions, even if the accompanying conversation has no effect.
I begin to suspect that the same is true of web sites: that the client's desire for a redesign every two or three years may be just a matter of fashion, but the exercise of applying the new look forces you to think about more than layout and colour combinations. (I'd better add that, in the case of the CWA, although the redesign has produced a site more in line with current fashions, there were other reasons, too, why it was a good idea - and not just because, hey, it's a living!) Changes may be major and structural (to do with how material is grouped, and how navigation works) or they may be minor (re-ordering paragraphs, changing wording), but the overall effect is that the site looks and works better. Visitors will notice the redesign, and that the site is improved, but probably won't notice the changes that actually make the difference.
The same is true with housework: vacuuming a room makes it look so much better, partly because the surfaces are all cleaner, but partly because I've had to tidy so much stuff away to get at those surfaces in the first place (which is probably giving away more than I should about my lack of domestic skills)!
