Growing Trend of Horrible Sites
By: Brett
GoDaddy.com just announced they will be offering “Custom built” websites along with their hosting and other such services. GoDaddy is probably the leader in hosting and now people will be using these Frontpage designs. From the screenshots they have (main page) they seem to be an extension of the Myspace realm. There is this mis-conception out there that any website is a good website, and I really believe the world of Myspace has punished web designers.
I was working on this site for a client that had gone through Web Pros I believe. He was going to be paying 80 dollars a month to be able to customize his own site, pick out his own colors, add his own text, and drop in his own pictures. Sure this might qualify as “Custom” but it is far far from it. Users are asked to pick a template and based on that template they are allowed to add text and picture and change colors, only in certain areas of the page. Not to mention, these templates rival a 14 year olds Myspace page. He really thought his site that he had created using this Web Pros was pretty cool. He was able to do all of these things without having to ask anyone else. I can completely understand that appeal.
The thing is, when prospective clients/customers visit your site, they aren’t looking at it like “Wow, this is neat that they can make all these changes by themselves.” They are viewing your site and immediately pressing the back button or simply shutting off their computer. There are companies out there these options do make sense, but for a minimal fee you can have a designer create something that is just as functional and much much more appealing to your target audience. For a company that charges 80 dollars a month like Web Pros.. you could take that money you would spend on their 2-3 year contract or whatever and have yourself a professionally designed site.
I just believe these types of services undermine what web designers/developers do. I guess it’s like the whole Walmart-Little Guy syndrome. You can only church up a pair of dickies and a nascar shirt so much.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 6:30 pmand is filed under Computers, Web Design, Daily Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
“Growing Trend of Horrible Sites”
July 19th, 2007 at 12:18 am
That’s exactly what I was frustrated about but only for a moment, Just remember that if your a good designer (it seams so anyway) there is a big differences between bad and mediocre to a WOW factor.
If people are content with template base, generic, add your pictures and text by yourself designs - so be it. But when they start browsing and see competitors original stuff they wont be content for long.
Its also people want nice stuff and not to pay for it.someone saw one of my sites that I work and maintain and asked for something similar when I quoted the price for him (which is not a saving account go for broke quote) he fell of his chair and told me He’ll do it by himself with templates - well it looks like that and nothing like my site.
So don’t loose heart.
Ronnie
July 19th, 2007 at 11:06 am
Yeah true, but I would like to help people understand standards, optimization, usability.. and when you have these sites/companies that offer one-stop shops that do nothing in those terms it’s really frustrating.
I really don’t think small business owners are all that worried about their “online” competition. They are more focused on JUST getting a website up and running and since most of them have got to where they are today by doing things themselves, for themselves, they believe it’s a great benefit.
July 20th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Nerds, all of you