Jelly and Custard

The Ubiquitous Bloke in the Pub

November 21st, 2005

The ubiquitous bloke in the pub is the bloke who can get you anything. He's also a web designer. Or he knows a web designer. Rather, he knows someone whose brother is a web designer and can 'knock you up a website, no problems'.

Its always amazed me that no one would trust someone to 'knock you up a car' or 'get you a cracking deal on a new tv'. No, you'd tend to go to the experts to get a car or a new tv - especially as they know what they are talking about.

With the explosion of the internet and various WYSIWYG editors (Don't make me laugh!), there is also an increase in what I'd call 'sloppy sites'. Its quite obvious from looking at some websites that this is totally true.

When I used to freelance, I could guarantee that of the small businesses and clients I was quoting for, a vast majority would come back to me with something along the lines of, "Oh, but my nephew can do my website for £50!" when I've submitted a quote for a lot higher than this. Its a common scenario for almost all freelancers. The problem is then trying to show the client what the difference is.

Let's face it, the majority of 'nephews' are not Web Professionals. Someone who knocks up a logo or a template in photoshop is not necessarily a web professional. Yes, they can design, they have an artistic flair, but that's not all you need. Someone who can knock up a page of html without using Dreamweaver (Bravo!) doesn't necessarily have the innate creativity a designer would. Getting your site done properly and professionally usually requires the skills of more than one person, which is why asking the 'ubiquitous bloke in the pub' for a website is akin to into McDonalds and asking for Steak Tartare - it just isn't going to happen.

With a vast range of browsers currently available, alongside an ever increasing number of platforms (mobile phones, PDA's etc), creating your site in a WYSIWYG program is going to get harder and harder. Whatever looks good in one browser looks broken in another, images go out of alignment etc. What is needed is someone who understands the inner workings of the technology being used, be it XHTML, CSS, XSLT etc to locate and remedy the problem. Try getting your £50 designer to sort out those!

I think with the increased demand for websites, we'll see more and more sites appearing as though they've been knocked together with two bits of dreamweaver and a liberal splashing of flash to hold it all together as companies try to go for the cheaper option. Yet this isn't what creates a good website and will inevitably end up costing you a lot more in the long run in missed sales, frustrated customers and pitiful search engine rankings.

The solution? Try using a real webdesign company and you'll be amazed at the difference. Enquire about their expertise, make sure you are comfortable with them - see what they've done before, and take satisfaction that these experts are going to be doing a more experienced job working on your site then all the sites in their portfolio.

Some useful reading.

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Entry Filed under: Accessibility, Markup