As a typical course day unfolds, we can see participants mentally comparing what they are hearing with their own web situation. The follow-up conversations have often led to some interesting revelations.
We have had many instances, usually at coffee breaks, when a forlorn course participant approaches the trainer and quietly confesses that they now realise that their much heralded and relaunched website in fact displays some fundamental design and writing flaws.
The most common problem concerns the design of the page templates, while others complain that web guidelines have been written by a programmer with no real appreciation of web writing, grammatical rules or usability. Or maybe none exist at all.
The most common problem concerns the design of the page templates
We have had people at the end of the day say: ‘I can now see that there is a lot wrong with our site, but I just don’t know where we should start to put it right!’
To help our clients, we now regularly provide consultancy, to discuss design issues, so that they can hear our views on their template design. We will write or edit style guidelines and offer fresh ideas on issues such as structure and content.
fashions change rapidly on the web
Our own thinking is constantly adapting to the changes going on all the time. Fashions and ideas and technical improvements mean that web design is constantly moving forward. In many cases it is possible to date a website design to within six months.
One way to keep up is by entering website to national award competitions, such as the annual CiB (Communicators in Business) Awards. Judges will score web design and content and write authoritive critiques comparing your entry with others in that category from the UK and beyond.
From my experience of judging, unsuccessful entrants are always anxious to find why their baby didn't win the prize. Sometimes they believe it's because some cutting edge idea has not been properly implemented.
But more likely it is because of a quite basic misunderstanding of how we need to communicate using the web, that most probably would even be found mentioned amongst the articles on this website.