In Search of Quality, and Why it Matters

This is a forum topic for discussing the article "In Search of Quality, and Why it Matters":

http://www.elated.com/articles/in-search-of-quality-and-why-it-matters/

Simon Meek argues that, when it comes to building a successful website (and design business), quality and attention to detail are king.

Yes - agreed. Very good post.
It actually made me think that I need to spend some time tweaking a few live sites that are gaining traffic. Need to book that in... oh extra time where art thou!?

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http://elliscreative.co.uk

Very interesting post and it couldn't have come at a better time for me! "Basically, great work begets great clients and more money", this has now become my most favourite quote. Thanks.

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http://www.mauconline.net

Artistically that sounds great, but remember to charge the client enough to cover that amount of detail. There are times when you have to let some things go for business reasons.

You can't sell someone a site worth 10 hours of time, then spend 20 hours refining it anyway because it just has to be perfect.

Fabulous article - very well argued and I very much agree - it's the attention to detail that can make a website really shine.

One problem that I come up against time and time again, is a topic you just covered in this month's newsletter - clients entering their own content: either full of typos or CMS-related CSS issues or poor images. Is it worth spending time getting the other stuff right when the content is not up to scratch?

I tend to check over a site post-launch to fix these initial problems, (must remember to build this into the budget!), but it doesn't prevent the same problems cropping up next time the content is changed. Maybe there's a need for more training here, rather than the fix it yourself approach?

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http://web.soothed.com.au/
Web design for natural therapists

Right! Sorry everyone. Tech gremlins meant I haven't had a single email reply to this, so I had no idea anyone had even read this post! Bear with me…

@unklellis Yes, I've been going over a few things too in the light of what I wrote!

@mauco - cheers for that - I was quite pleased with that quote too =)

@jn441 Interesting point. I think that if people are on board and picking up these gremlins at every stage then really it needn't take that much longer (if at all). Plus, if you know you only have ten hours then the initial designs/scope can be done so that you offer a great but simple product, rather than a sketchy more complex thing.

Also, occasionally (very occasionally), I think it's acceptable to take a time hit on a high-profile client since so many people will see it. Again: "great work begets great clients and more money". In the long run at least!

@Cat You know my thoughts on CMS WYSIWYG text editors! I hate the things for exactly the reasons you mention. This is my point really. Anyone updating a site needs to be a copywriter, a designer, know basic HTML, have an eye for detail, be able to produce great images etc. Poor things!

Training's great, but realistically, unless they're doing it all the time, they forget the lot very quickly. It's like anything else - you lose skills you rarely use.

Glad to see people are interested in this. I've written a followup article for publication next week centering around getting the best from a team. Watch this space!

Simon

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ELATED : )
http://www.PageKits.com
Professional Website Templates

Most of the problem is nobody really knows what they mean by a "quality" website.

To the designer: It means pixel perfection.

To the developer: It means perfectly laid out code that validates.

To the copywriter: It means a perfectly composed "story" that can get a reaction or an emotive response.

To the client: It simply means a website that fulfills their purpose.

It might not be pixel perfect, it might not be perfect code, it might not be perfectly worded, but it "speaks" to the client, their customers and converts well.

So shouldn't we be defining "quality" as "fit for purpose" rather than striving for what we each see as perfect?

[Edited by chrishirst on 25-Oct-10 14:52]

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Chris.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
http://webmaster-talk.eu/

Hi Chris,

That's a very cogent thought, but I can't help feeling that it's not enough.

I think the aim should be for the designer, developer, copywriter and client (plus other stakeholders) to all be happy at every stage. That way, so long as someone's looking after big picture stuff the whole should also be good.

"For for purpose" seems to me to be another way of saying "good enough", which I never find very satisfactory.

I would add that I'm guilty of saying it - I'm not in the position to be able to make the final judgement calls on what goes out, so it's all a bit hypothetical. Maybe I'm setting the ground rules here for anything I do in later life!

Simon

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ELATED : )
http://www.PageKits.com
Professional Website Templates