11 Great Advice, Article

Speaking as a seasoned designer, but one new to web development, Mr. Storey proposes a method that not only helps the development team stay focused, but can help head off ideas that dilute a site’s focus. Few things can undermine a strong execution as quickly as “too much” (IE content, features, target demographic.)

posted at 04:30 pm on October 11, 2005 by Trevor Pierce

12 Need to read my comments more closely

I refer to my being new to web development, not Mr. Storey. Apologies for not reading my post closer.

posted at 04:33 pm on October 11, 2005 by Trevor Pierce

13 Thanks for the great article.

I have just set my strategy strategy .

posted at 05:07 pm on October 11, 2005 by Abdelrahman Osama

14 Greg,

Evidently I misunderstood the nature of the project.

Your description of the project in the article said:

…hired to create a website about his pair of rare and identical 1964 muscle cars.”

Not “a website to sell his pair of cars.“ No mention was made of the cars being sold via that site. No mention was made of any sort of business purpose to the project at all. My previous comments were based on the fact that it seemed as though you were troubled by him wanting to create a “fan” site for himself about his cars – a site to simply showcase them and admire them or whatever it was he wanted to do. It was unclear, based on your article, that there was, in fact, an underlying purpose to the site that you were aware of (to sell the cars) but those at the meeting seemed not to be.

As you said:

“I’m sorry,� I said, and put down the sandwich. “But I don’t really understand what you’re trying to do here. I know you want a website that has something to do with these cars, but what is it this site is for?�

If you understood at the time that the intention was to sell the cars, then what didn’t make sense in the meeting? Selling his collector cars seems like a pretty clear purpose for a website. Or, if you didn’t know that at the time, an explanation in the article about finally learning that point would have cleared things up immensley. To me, reading it, I assumed you simply objected to the nature of the project based on it being a personal site with no clear “purpose.”

Obviously that’s not the case, and I sincerely apologize for being rude in my previous comment. But I do think that the tone of your article suffers by what is a good deal of ambiguity about the situation. It may be very obvious to you what made the meeting ridiculous and what made the project ill-conceived but those points don’t come across in what you wrote about it.

Even, for the sake of argument, that you knew at the time the site was about selling cars (which, from the quote above it sounds like you didn’t), what exactly made it such an incredibly disorganized process? What about creating a site to sell rare cares eluded you in terms of a purpose and an objective? Why does excitement about design and layout turn into “mental high fiving?”

As I said before, your overall point being made in the article is a very valid and true one. But the example used to illustrate that point (the cars project) doesn’t read to me as being as something that would cause such an incredulous reaction.

Your whole tone in the article is very negative:

designers furiously sketched layouts to give the client an idea of how the website might look. This wasn’t a meeting, it was the Jerry Springer Show.

I watched the circus of mental high-fives

The project had no reason to exist except that the client wanted a website and the web designers sitting across from me liked money, so it seemed like a natural fit. Oops.

posted at 05:43 pm on October 11, 2005 by Will Henderson

15 Not Just for Websites

It’s obvious to me and may well go without saying for most, but the point that this article makes apply more widely than just web developments: A well thought out strategy is a must for nearly every business initiative.

posted at 08:35 pm on October 11, 2005 by Joseph Lindsay

16 RE: Greg,

Indeed, you to have a point, but you should be looking beyond the example. I know that you realise the point he is trying to make, so why not just take the article for its meaning – not the example used?

posted at 12:32 am on October 12, 2005 by Blake haswell

17 Fan Sites need to have purpose too

Any website, whether it’s intended to raise $1M in sales, whether its intended to display pictures of your cat, will benefit from having a clearly thought out purpose.

A clear idea of what the site – any site – is intended to achieve will be beneficial to the end result. It’ll inform what features would enhance the site, which would blur its focus. So: does the colour scheme complement the colours in the cat photos? check! How about adding a screen saver and/or a vote-for-your favourite pic facility? sounds good! What about putting some of auntie Ethel’s poems in too? Probably not. Unless they’re about the cat.

posted at 08:16 am on October 12, 2005 by Chris Hunt

18 Wahahaha

Oh dear – I actually did a google search for EIEIO thinking it had something to do with SEO :( It’s been a long day…

Nice article by the way. Always helps to have a ‘why?’ person in the team/business. Keeps things in check.

posted at 10:17 am on October 12, 2005 by Alex Bobin

19 Nice points, badly writen article

I have to agree with Will here. The article has a point and the point is much more clearly explained in 37 signals’ Getting Real: No Functional Spec. It’s just the way it’s written that bugs me.

posted at 12:49 pm on October 12, 2005 by George Varson

20 Quick question

I’ll probably have more to say later ‘cos this was a great article.

In the bank example, you got the client to admit that what he was going for was pretty much a vanity site, even though there was a pretense of some sort of commerce going on. What if you’re dealing with a client where the commerce isn’t so much pretense, but the client’s ego compells him to hijack the project for the purpose of vanity, even to the detriment of the suposed purpose of the site (commerce)?

What if the site has an objective, but the client keeps making requests that run counter to that objective and will not listen to logic, reason, or research? It’s obvious the official objective and the objective under which the client is operating are at cross purposes, but the client won’t admit it. What are our options?

posted at 01:56 pm on October 12, 2005 by Derek Pennycuff