Thoughts from web developers

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07/03/11 - Improving through constraints

In 1954, Life magazine published an article on illiteracy among schoolchildren, reporting that children were not learning to read because their books were boring. Publisher William Spaulding of Houghton Mifflin wanted to change that. He approached his friend Theodore Geisel to write a much more lively primer. But he gave Geisel a challenge: the book could only use a vocabulary of 225 words, so that beginning readers could read it. Nine months later The Cat In The Hat was finished, which used 223 words that appeared on the list plus 13 words that did not.

It is inevitable that many businesses will become dissatisfied with their website. This may be due to the website looking outdated or the business becoming so intimate with their site that they are aware of every tiny blemish. They decide to engage their web developer to revamp their site but can they really afford this? Do they have the time to go through this process? And ultimately do they need to?

When facing the challenge of updating a website many businesses believe that changing the sites aesthetics such as text colour will generate more business. This is often a personal response due to their familiarity with their site, and a time saving response because they can offset the changes onto a third party. However, in most cases the aesthetic value of a website is of secondary importance. Website branding should establish trust in its professionalism. However, once satisfied potential customers are more interested in finding what they are looking for effectively.

If you have the tools to edit your website content such as through a CMS (Content Management System) you will have a number of options available to enhance your site. By setting the constraint that initially you will focus on the content of your site and not the design, you will find it easier to identify issues that are affecting your ability to make sales. Such issues are:

 1. Out of date content
2. Bad spelling and grammar
3. Pages do not have focus
4. Not enough internal linking of related pages
5. Contact details are hard to find or only at the top on a large page
6. Users do not know what they should do next 

In today's society it is commonly thought that choice gives us freedom. Whilst this can be true, too much choice is confusing, disabling and dissatisfying. With multiple options of what is available, your expectations of what makes a good website goes up. This can result in less satisfaction in results even though they are good results. Sometimes it is better to look at how you can solve a problem yourself rather than opting for the quick change, which may not be what is needed. Once you have done this when you do decide that you need to engage a website development company you will be empowered with the knowledge that you know what you are looking for and how it will have an impact on attaining your goals.

AFX is always happy to provide no-obligation insights into how websites could be made stronger. You can contact AFX at:

0207 193 1064
info@afxdesign.com