Two Cures for Boring Website Syndrome. Part 1: Fashion

This is part one of our two part series on Boring Website Syndrome.. Part two can be found here, http://cdllc.blogspot.com/2010/02/two-cures-for-boring-website-syndrome_23.html



We were recently referred to a new client who asked us to make their website more engaging.

The simplicity of the word, "engaging" is terrific. It's more personal than interactive. More descriptive than customer-oriented or useful.

And so the thinking began . . .

Generally, we're approached about existing sites with a variety of opening requests, including:

• People need "Help" with their website.
• Companies want a "Redesign" (which a lot of the time has more to do with engineering than design).
• A request for "something more 'current.'"

But our favorite opening statement—and perhaps the most honest—is this one:

"My Website is Boring."

The Boring Website Syndrome is our favorite because it presents an opportunity for further diagnosis. We have the opportunity to get to know our client better and probe for unique needs relative to the business they're in.

15+ years experience in internet consulting have taught us that Boring Website Syndrome breaks down into one of the following two categories, and often both:

1) The website looks old.
2) The website doesn't offer or do anything . . . it doesn't engage visitors.


Today, let's explore number 1, the Old Website.

This is the easiest one to qualify, but hardest to quantify.  It's very subjective. Website old-lookingness is a function of fashion. There were technologies in style 5-10 years ago that have gone the way of leisure suits and bell bottoms, and these technologies resulted in a distinct look, or "fashion," in the sites that employed them.

Some "old-fashioned" items:

* The gray-background, center-aligned website.
* Embedded background music.
* The 3 resizeable, big-bordered frames/panels.

. . . we could go on and on.

And there are technologies available today that weren't options 5-10 years ago. Some will stand the test of time, while others will go away. And this is one of the many areas in which we can help you. After so much time in the web world, we're pretty good at separating the passing, frilly technologies from the solid, lasting ones.

And, of course, we're well-versed in the latest design fashion—this includes the layout of your website container, global elements like navigation and search, the look of your deeper menus and navigation elements, and the division/layout of the primary page content inside each page container.

All of these, geeky as they sound, come back to the very practical issues of both the way your site looks and its function.

We've pointed out before that getting you set up on a Content Management System (CMS) creates drastic time and money savings by making redesigns and content publication a snap. Now let's add to that:


Making your web site look good, act the way you need, and easy to administer all go together. And we want that to be as simple for you as possible.


-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC

-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC
President
Answer Guy Central Business Support Services

"Never trouble another for what you can do yourself." -Thomas Jefferson and Web Design

In his letter to Thomas Jefferson Smith in 1825, Thomas Jefferson included the following two items in his Decalogue of Canons for Observation in Practical Life:

• "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today."
• "Never trouble another for what you can do yourself."

Just as with our friend Confucius, TJ's wisdom applies to your business web presence.

In web context the translation is this: Eliminate the bottlenecks that slow down and reduce efficiency in your web content publishing process. i.e. : reduce unneeded expenses of both time and resources.

Everyone is a content contributor—or needs to be. Why send word processor documents to a webmaster for translation to "Internet language,"  when you can handle most of the work yourself in your content management system (CMS) , having authors self publish? Yes, there are times when you might want the kind of relationship with your webmaster where he does certain things for you that you could do yourself.  However, if someone's time is more valuable spent programming and working on databases and web servers than acting as an administrative assistant, shouldn't you strive to work that way?

With CMS, you can often publish web information as easily as you can write it on a word processor. That's the kind of process CDLLC implements, and you should ask us how simple it would be for us to do it for you.

Save time. Increase efficiency. Save money. Make your life and those of the people you work with easier and more satisfying.

Or just keep throwing away money instead; your choice.

-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC

-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC
President
Answer Guy Central Business Support Services

CMS is a Beautiful Thing, or Confucianism Part IV

"Good people distinguish things in terms of categories and groups."

In prior Confucianism-inspired posts, we talked about the benefits of using Content Management (CMS) at your website. We've made the case for organizing, ordering, and arranging web pages, so now onto breaking bottlenecks in controlling costs and maintaining efficiency while moving forward with today's standards. With navigation management addressed, here are some other bottlenecks that we eliminate by using a CMS:


1) Without CMS, each time you redesign the website look-and-feel you create a need for extensive programming. This becomes both a people management and a cost issue.
2) Now add the need for multiple contributing editors/authors having to get their content to a "webmaster," and costs explode. Again.
3) Adding functionality, like forms, e-commerce, and online payment? More programming and webmaster skills get added, too. A CMS reduces the costs associated with these—tremendously.

CMS makes life easier by separating/disentangling content editing, copy writing, and navigational elements of your web site, design, and functionality.

1) Design becomes a separate module- a wrapper for the web pages. With CMS you change this design wrapper in one place, and the changes take effect globally throughout every page of the website.
2) As many content editors as you need can login, protect pages, and change just the content they're responsible for without the risk of breaking the design.
3) Applications that "do stuff" are programmed and arranged independently, so modification and re-programming creates no risk to the rest of the website.
4) And while we've already mentioned this, it bears repeating for the cost savings it brings you: changing the order and hierarchy of the navigational links becomes as simple as making a few clicks with a mouse.

Sounds almost like magic, right? With a CMS, the magic comes from putting all your stuff inside a database, grouped and categorized with an eye toward Internet presentation as needed to suit your company's needs relative to customers, vendors, employees, and whomever else stumbles upon it. The pieces are stored separately so they don't get entangled with one another, and "global site elements", like search engine META tags, polls, online payment, and sign-up forms are all grouped separately so changes to them only have to be made once!

And with a database, EVERYTHING is easier to categorize and group. For example, if you set up and write an FAQ section and it grows unwieldy, it's stored in the database so modification of the Q&A is a snap.

CMS is all about simplicity. How much so? Let's take our buddy's words, and summarize them as though he was hosting a radio program, circa 2010:

Confucius, out. (thanks, Ryan Seacrest!)


-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC

-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC
President, Answer Guy Central Business Support Services

From Web Pages to Web Sites, or Confuciansim Part III

"Good people order and arrange"

Had enough Confucius yet? 'Cause that old dude had the Internet pegged!

Remember the days of the coal-and-steam-powered internet, when you had to walk miles in the snow to a university to make changes to your website, and ration your disk space usage because there wasn't enough to go around?

Ah, sweet memories. Your personal "Home Page." Your Corporate "Home Page." Build it once and it'll last years . . . just like a when-the-heck-did-they-last-change-that-thing old billboard!

Guess what? They don't make 'em like they used to, and you can't build 'em the way you used to.

That shoddy billboard became the cover page for a leaflet, as you created specialized pages with unique information to grab peoples' interest. And yep: that Web PAGE became . . . a Web SITE!

Content multiplies. Suddenly there are more pages, more information, more content that needs to be grouped and arranged according to context.

Sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? It can be. Without site management tools, or a Content Management System, whenever the hierarchy of the web pages changes, a new navigational menu needs to be programmed. And today a good website has to change fast. Monthly, weekly, even daily, depending on your objective and audience.

This is not your father's shoddy old billboard.

One (huge) benefit of building your site on a Content Management System is the automation of menu creation. Manually programming a navigational menu on every one of those pages becomes a thing of the past. And you can even make the changes yourself, easily, using a method that feels just like using a word processor.

Ordering, arranging, re-ordering, re-arranging, it's all simple.

So why aren't you using a CMS ? It probably comes down to inertia. Your old, billboard-style web site is good enough for your needs.

Maybe, but that's becoming a less-and-less valid way to look at doing business on the Internet. No, you may not need an e-commerce system, because not everybody "sells stuff" online. But if your web site is to be worth any more than your "when-the-heck-did-I-last-use-one, anyway?" business cards, you need more. And without a CMS in place, you're making your job harder, and more expensive.

And that old billboard? You know how you laugh every time you pass it and wonder why its owner doesn't update it? Case closed.


-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC

-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC
President, Answer Guy Central Business Support Services

Money-Saving Tip for Color Printer Users!

Do you have a color printing device that you use primarily for black and white printing?

I do.

Know what bothers me A LOT?

PROBLEM:

Have you noticed the device will reach an ink level at which it actually disallows further printing and insists an ink cartridge be replaced? I have witnessed this with both HP and Epson devices, so I can only assume this has somehow become acceptable as industry standard.

Well I don't want to replace my yellow ink cartridge, because I need to print my grayscale memo NOW!

SOLUTION:
Here is a trick so you only have to purchase a replacement ONCE.

Having said that, the first time, you simply follow orders- replace the ink cartridge, but BE SURE TO KEEP THE [allegedly] depleted cartridge. A zip-lock bag will do for storage.

Henceforth, every time the printing device goes on strike for a replacement color ink cartridge... let's say- your yellow cartridge.

Simply remove your previously [allegedly] depleted yellow ink cartridge from the zip-lock bag where you have stowed it away for the past few weeks,.and insert it into the printer.

The printer then reverts to simply warning about low ink levels, and it ceases to prohibit printing.

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Editor's note:

This has been working for me for the past two months, and as an IT business owner, I am an extremely high-volume black/white/grayscale print user.