Holman makes the case that the people that are actually making the websites are mostly concerned with things like looks and how “cool” the site is, and not about things like usability or loading time. The reason for this, she claims, is because the “techies” are trained to use the fancy technological tools, and thus will use them.
I have some experience with making websites for companies and have friends who actually work in this field, and I'm not sure if I agree fully with Holman. Sure, I have seen the type of websites that she is referring too and you have to put blame on the person/persons who made the site. However I feel that a big portion of the blame should lie on the company, or the persons in the company that actually hired the people that made the site. No matter if you buy a shirt or if you hire someone to do a job, the buyer always needs to do some research and quality control. There are enough people/companies out there who actually knows how to make a website, they have the technological and artistic skills needed as well as the knowledge to make it fast and user friendly. And they are actually not hard to find.
But of course, if you give the job to someone who only knows the technological parts of making a website, the end result is not going to be great.
Holman also emphasizes the role of the marketer when it comes to building a site today. Ten years ago you could get a competitive website that was more or less only made by techies. But the world has changed. I fully agree that the role of the marketer is very important. One good example of this is how can people find the site? Sure, you can do advertising and other things, but that costs money. What people usually do if the want to find something is use a search engine, like google. This is especially important for smaller businesses or newcomers that perhaps don't have allot of money to spend on advertisement, but also for the bigger already established companies.
The goal is to get as high up on the list of search results as possible when someone is using you keywords. But this is not an easy task. There is a whole science devoted to this. Companies whose only product is to make you site higher on the list.
So yes, the marketers part in building a website is very important if you want a competitive end result.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Yes. sometimes "advanced tech" becomes a barrier. User centric is important. Here's an interesting insight by Seth Godin, the number 1 blogger in the world, and a prominent marketer. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/10/how-to-create-1.html
I too think that Holman's view on the problem of unusable, tech heavy web sites is a little bit exaggerated, though perhaps it was true when the interview was made, since the problem used to be more common.
I agree with what patrik said about web sight should see point of view from users. Obcourse!the feature or design of sight is important but I think that longer loading time disturbs a lot. Google is a case that eliminates all unnecessity elements that take longer loading time. So it reduces time for search. I thing character of website should depend on character of business.
Post a Comment