Webmastering Biker

Let me give you a little insight into what happens when someone asks about webdesign. Most people today have a web site, especially businesses, so the majority of corporate web work that I get professionaly is companies that have existing web sites. Now, this might seem obvious, but a webdesigner when they get an opportunity to critique a current web site is always going to look for problems in design and coding that he can exploit if you like, the opportunity of getting work. This is natural, and before you take offense to the word "exploit", the difference between an objective critique and an "rob you blind" critique is all about ethics not motive. Every web designer/developer is out to gain business, the difference between some is that they can justify the need to change or rework a site through necessity not just cosmetically.

I for instance will look for tell tale signs of 'old fashioned' design, for instance the over reliant use of tables or javascript making the code of the website run like a monk reading the magna carta. My boss has a particular bug-bear and will always look for 'mailto' tags and then invariably sigh in disgust as all too often he finds them. He alludes to it in his blog article on 'business web design' and the point we are really looking for is whether the current design is relevant and can handle the rigours of modern day business objectives.

'Mailto' tags have been around since the middle ages of webdesign and are an archaic form of contacting someone that is tantamount to waving ones arms, jumping up and down and requesting the spamming world to supply you with a lifetimes supply of viagra, with a side order of plastic surgery for various appendages. If a site has this as a part of it's web strategy (and you will be surprised how many have) what hope have you in the rest of the design. Similarly, there are still sites (and I mean business sites, not personal) who grin and impressively show off their brand new site designed in flash. I design flash sites as part of my portfolio, but I don't do many, and if I do I expressly make sure the client knows exactly what they are getting into and that they are in effect making themselves blind to search engines. In fact I make it a priority that I will not design a site in flash unless a client definitely isn't bothered about search engine optimisation. For a business site, flash is a no-no of the highest order.

Basics I know, but you will be surprised at how many people are still getting sites designed like this...