Raising Website Expectations

Before Y2K and the great dot com bubble burst, the website development business could often be frustrating. The number one problem we faced was trying to meet client expectations. That's because expectations were way out of line with reality. Anyone with even the slightest business idea thought the internet was the place to cash in. And, in fact, it didn't take much more than a business plan to get venture capital. Sadly, established businesses, looking on, felt the need to keep up with these wild trends. Many were provoked to attempt grand web initiatives. We saw many requests for proposals whose requirements were so outrageous (and corresponding budgets so out of scale) that we had to let them pass, though usually not without some word of caution to the originator. I imagine many companies look back now and wish they hadn't wasted their money. Many of these sites never saw the light of day. They ended up costing too much to complete, or were so buggy that they couldn't be used. To state it mildly, their expectations were way out of scale with the reality of that time.

Fortunately, Y2K did not bring our technology dependent culture to its knees. December 31, 1999 came and went without as much as a technology hiccup. Later that year, however, the dot com bubble burst was quite devastating - at least to internet companies. Excessive internet hype and over valued internet stock finally collapsed. Not only did many startups go belly up, but established businesses wisely decided to cut their losses and drop their overly aggressive website initiatives too. Those were tough years to be in the website development business.

Our original newsletter "Managing Client Expectations," published in September of 2001, was written in those tough times. It was written as a corrective to inflated expectations and suggested more conservative and attainable goals in light of past failures and excesses.

That was then, this is now.

Today, I am happy to report that, more often that not, a new client's expectations for their website are much too low. Perhaps there has been an expectation pendulum swing resulting from past failures. That's not to say that unrealistic expectations are never a problem. But they are more rare, and often just need adjusting rather than lowering. These days, when discussing website proposals with our clients, we're much more likely raise a client's expectations - offering capabilities they did not require or that they did not know were possible.

What kind of capabilities am I referring to? Glad you asked!

Content Management. Frequent readers of our newsletter already know how critical we believe content management is to an effective website. It's our fundamental principle and the reason why we give free and unlimited user licenses of our content management system to every Newfangled client. While giving away content management is a distinguishing characteristic of Newfangled, there are many content management systems, besides ours, that are also very affordable - some are even free under open source licensing. In any case clients that do not expect to be able to easily and instantly update content, including text, images, PDFs, audio and video files or any other kind of media to their website, are thinking way too low about their sites. Content management is simply a "don't leave home without it" requirement for today's website.

Database Driven Websites. Akin to content management are database driven sites. There are some content management approaches that are not database driven (like Adobe's fine Contribute product). However, database driven content management systems have many advantages over static sites, even when the static site has some content management capability. For one, a database driven site allows content to be reused through a website without duplicating text or hard coding links. For example, case studies can be linked to on related pages. Linking up related content reinforces expertise. A database driven site can associate and display related content in various places throughout a site with a simple content association selector. No need to enter links on every page. Cross links can be re-used and easily maintained. Links to case studies that are unpublished or deleted are then automatically removed across the site.

A database driven site is also easy to expand. New applications and new content areas can be added without massive site re-coding. That's because a database driven site separates content from display, so if the site's structure or design changes the content is still intact. Whereas redesigns of database driven sites are easily applied, redesigns of static websites are... well, you might as well start from scratch.

These days some website proposals require database driven areas for the website (when they expect to add lots of content). Rarely do proposals expect an entire site, from home page to contact page, to be database driven. But anything less cuts off tremendous advantages - and these days building a database driven website is actually easier than building a static site. For more information about the advantages of database driven sites see our newsletter "The Overlooked Advantages of Database Driven Sites."

Website Visitor Tracking. A database driven content management platform creates the possibility of tracking website usage in fascinating and extremely useful ways. All websites, database driven or not, include overall site statistic reports. These reports provide a bird's eye view of aggregate trends of site usage. They are common to all websites. However, in addition to these standard stats, a database driven site can track individual sessions - divying up groups of sessions based on various triggers - triggers like Google visits, email newsletters, site aliases, and links from online ad campaigns. Database driven visitor tracking can be viewed by tracking group showing popular website trends based on specific ad campaigns or email newsletters. Looking up an individual's session by email address is also possible when the site has the user's email address on file (like when the sessions result from email newsletters). This "worm's eye view" of site stats can be extremely revealing and helpful.

If standard website usage stats are the extent of expectations - it's time to raise the sights. For more information about website tracking see our newsletter "Advanced Website Tracking Tools."

Website Forms Data Integration. Adding forms to a website is a basic capability. Collecting data, emailing forms to clients, etc. is all standard stuff. But much more can be done with form data. First of all, in conjunction with website tracking tools, contact information submitted by users can be associated with individual user sessions. For example, suppose a visitor starts a session by clicking on a search results page from Google or a Google AdWord link. The anonymous visit is assigned a generic session ID. But if said user offers their email address by subscribing to an email newsletter, or by filling out any other site form, the email address can then be associated to the visitor's session records. Looking up this session when doing follow up can provide extremely helpful insight and improve customer service.

Web form data can also be multi-purposed. In addition to storing the form data, and emailing it to the people, it can also be added to third party systems like SalesForce or WebEx. Automating marketing data is a basic capability of utilizing website forms. Client's that use CRM tools like SalesForce should be thinking about integrating their forms - such capability is par for the course.

Site search. Some clients are surprised that adding site search is a standard capability. For a database driven site, search is really plug and play. In addition to overall site search it's easy enough to create content specific search mechanisms. For example, searching within products or within a knowledge base is just as easy to set up as overall site search. If site search is considered out of reach, raise the requirements - search is standard.

User Account Administration. It's no big deal to maintain user accounts to password protected sections or site features restricted to registered users. In fact, our content management system includes administrator account control by default. Any system level administrator can add and remove other site administrator accounts at will. They can even establish which administrators have access to what website pages. So if there are certain employees responsible for product related information, setting a product only content management account for these employees takes all of three minutes. And user accounts can even be set to expire at pre-determined dates.

The same goes for outside site access accounts. Automated site registrations with user controlled account management tools ("email me password," for example) can be set up easily enough. Every site handles private information differently, some accounts can be automated, but others require a human review before being authorized. Setting up email notifications and simple account activation tools facilitates managing online accounts.

Idiomas Multiples, er... that is, Multiple Languages. In today's global economy many companies need to display their sites in multiple languages. International manufacturers often service multiple foreign markets. Allowing visitors to display the site in their preferred language is necessary for global businesses. While professional translation is not automatic, website tools that allow dynamic language toggling can be integrated into any website.

Custom Applications. All the capabilities we've listed so far are considered standard, so much so that we've built website applications to make these features easy to add to any Newfangled site. But sometimes clients have an idea that's unique to their needs. While not exactly plug and play, these custom applications usually use enough pieces from our existing standard applications to minimize the cost of custom application development.

For example, check out the PlanUSA village feature (click "visit now" once you get there). We built this section of their site using custom art work, and popular AJAX techniques. The village map scrolls just like Google Maps. The map can be zoomed and icons representing village children, adults, village scenes, and Plan activities can be toggled on and off the map. Clicking these icons pulls up details including photo galleries and video clips from the actual village in Africa.

Not only is this a really cool site feature, the administrative interface allows PlanUSA staff to add and update the various people and activities in the village. We built a custom administrative interface that uses a visual map picker to define where new village element icons should be displayed. While we're not at liberty to say how much a system like this cost to build, suffice it to say that it's hardly out of reach for a business with an adequately funded website budget.

It really is a joy to be able to exceed the typical website proposal's expected requirements. Certainly this is a better situation than having to educate clients that their expectations are way too high. In the end, when a website includes many of the capabilities mentioned in this newsletter, clients are extremely satisfied with the performance of their websites. And that's a good thing.