A company once told me someone had offered to build permanent disability calculators for their website in three months for $7,500. One said six months and $20,000. Recently, another suggested it would take them a year and $40,000. My response is usually some variation on “You’ve got to take that deal. You’re wasting your time talking to me.”
It’s no big secret that building a great product takes a lot of work. The important thing to remember is that just because something is easy-to-use, that doesn’t mean its easy-to-make. ((Visit the link for a PDF of a cut-and-fold iPhone. Thanks Gizmodo!))
Difficult-to-make iPhone
Let’s take the iPhone for example. Everyone will concede its an easy phone to use. However, it was released more than two years ago on 6/29/2007. ((Wikipedia link.)) In that time the other players – BlackBerry, LG, Nokia, and Palm have all been trying to catch up. If this easy-to-use phone were easy-to-build everyone would have their own version.
Look, there’s no special magic to building a website like this. Really, anyone can do it. All you have to do is learn the calculations inside-and-out, deconstruct the math involved in the various calculations, learn some client and server side programming languages, learn a content management system, make it all work together, keep current on changes in the law, start all over again each time the law changes, and earn the respect of the workers’ compensation community. Once done, you’ll have your very own workers’ compensation calculator website!
To return to the lesson of the iPhone, building a touch screen phone that can play music and surf the web is totally doable. Doing it right is another matter entirely.
Unfortunately, one of the coolest features of my calculators is that some of them will give you the answer you’re looking for before you’ve even finished typing the search term. This works with the:
While these are all very cool while you’re sitting at your computer, I found out (much to my dismay) that this system didn’t work at all when using these online calculators from my cell phone! ((It has to do with cross-browser compatibility and inconsistent support for javascript events. I doubt anyone is interested in this.)) Well, I’ve updated the calculators to make them more compatible with more phones. ((Photo courtesy of Hunda))
Save yourself from your own workers’ compensation claim and just leave that heavy rating manual at home.
Since launching this website I’ve given a lot of thought to support for cell phones. There just are not many phones that can run these calculators. ((It would be more correct to say there are not many phones that support javascript and AJAX well enough to interact with this website in a meaningful fashion.)) The glaring and notable exception is the iPhone.
Amusingly, one of this website’s users has asked for an “iPhone app” version of this site. Seriously, you’ve got one of the few phones that can use this site and that’s not good enough for you? (Thanks Chris!)
This is huge. It means:
I can blog from the Board ((Probably a lot more interesting for me than it is for you…))
More importantly, no more bulky money charts or rating manuals at the Board!
A little while ago I posted about How NOT to Build a Successful Website using Adobe Flash. Long story short, Adobe Flash websites are extremely unfriendly to both website visitors and businesses who own the websites. ((Original photo courtesy of eriwst))
The second worst way to create a website is to build it totally out of frames. There are several workers’ compensation defense firms who have websites built out of frames – and they’re terrible.
In the early days of the internet frames were an easy way to enable navigation throughout a website. Since then easy-to-use intelligent server-side languages ((Such as PHP and MySQL.)) and client-side languages ((Such as Javascript.)) have made building website navigation tools a breeze. More importantly, these other technologies and techniques do everything frames do – only better.
Here are some of the problems with websites created using frames:
Un-bookmark-able. Just as with Adobe Flash, users can’t bookmark specific pages within a website built using frames. This means your website visitors can’t come back to visit that specific page and, more importantly, can’t send a meaningful link to their friends.
Un-navigable. Depending on how someone links to your frame based website, its very possible that they will link directly to an internal frame. This means a website visitor getting to your website from a search engine might never see your website’s name or logo!
Printing. Frame based websites don’t always interact properly with web browsers. When you go to print, you might end up printing the wrong frame. Make it easy for your clients to make a hard copy of the information they see on your website and don’t use frames.
Search Engine Optimization. Search engines are designed to be smart. Even so, search engines still have trouble untangling a website made out of frames. If people cannot reach your website by searching for exactly what you’re about, your website is a failure.
I know why there some web developers sell frame-based websites. From a development standpoint, they’re very very easy to write. Frames are little more than HTML, so they’re if you can create a Word document, you can create an frames-based website. I suppose it would be relatively easy to also recyle parts of that website in a new website. These websites are also deceptively good-looking. When the web developer is showing you a frame based website, you’re going to see exactly what you expect. The “danger” of a frame-based website, as indicated above, is that its so easy for it to be shown to your potential clients in the wrong way or out of context.
I think I also know why businesses invest in frame-based websites. They require so little skill to create that a business can just have one of their file clerks or some high school kid build the website cheaply. The website would be, for all intents and purposes, free.
A website is essentially the 21st century equivalent of a resume. You’re using it to tell your clients about you before you ever get a chance to meet them. These days everyone considers Google to be a verb. If your potential clients are already looking for you through the internet, shouldn’t you try to put your best foot forward? A cheap temporary website is fine … as long as its temporary. As soon as you can afford to do so hire someone to put togther something better.
Website Development Tips:
Never build a site out of frames.
Other web technologies and techniques do everything frames do, only better.
Think of your website as your business’s resume, since that’s what potential clients may see first.
Think of your website like a business suit. If it doesn’t look good on a first impression, a potential client may never even speak to you.
There are many different ways to put together a website. Flat HTML which does not interact with the users at all. Javascript enabled pages which allow the user to interact with the webpage a little. AJAX enabled pages which allow the user to interact with the web server and even other users.
The worst way imaginable for a website to be built is one entirely powered by Adobe Flash animation. I know of at least one workers’ compensation defense firm that has an all Flash website – and I feel sorry for them. Their clients probably never use their website. They’re squandering one of their best marketing tools.
Here are just a few of the problems with Flash websites:
Bandwidth. A picture of the word “website” is much much larger than the text “website.” In a similar way, a Flash website is going to be much much larger than the same information presented in pure HTML. The bigger your website, the longer it will take for it to load.
Maintenance. The smallest change to the website needs to be handled by the original web developer. If you “invest” in an all-Flash website, you’re basically hiring that web developer for life. With traditional websites, you can hire any code monkey to adjust your website.
Unnavigable. Flash websites do not work with the browser’s “Back” button. If your users can’t navigate your website in a normal fashion, they will leave and never come back.
Search Engine Optimization. Or, SEO, as it is known in the business. If your website is basically a bunch of moving pictures, it can’t be indexed by a search engine, so it doesn’t know what your website is about, so it doesn’t know when to show it to people who are searching for exactly the kinds of things you are trying to sell.
Repeat Business. If your website is meant to be something people look at once and never return to, I suppose its fine. The problem with a Flash website is that it will not allow users to bookmark or link to particular pages. This means if your clients really love a particular page on your site they can’t e-mail the link to their co-workers!
I know why web developers sell Flash websites. These websites show off how great you are at creating swooshing logos and nifty pages transitions. And, if your client ever needs a little change, they have to come back to you or pay someone else to build them a website from scratch. ((Heaven forbid you have a new hire or, you know, the law changes.))
I also know why businesses invest in Flash websites. They want something stylish and unique. In reality all truly successful website forgo snazzy animations for functional user friendly pages. If Amazon, eBay, and Google don’t build their websites out of Flash, why should you?
This isn’t to say that Flash animation doesn’t have its place. It think its great for product demos, presentations, and banner ads. Its an excellent way to present information in a graphical format. That said, you should never ever purchase a Flash website.
Website Development Tips:
Never build a site out of Flash.
Never use Flash to show words.
If its good enough for Google, its good enough for you.
Focus on what your customers want to see, not what you want to show them.
Make it easy for your customers to tell people about you.
