2013 website amends invoice attached!

You’ve finally agreed on your new website design & structure. Your decisions have been supported by some good insight into what your customers are looking for & what your competition is doing. You’ve incorporated good practice in coding, so that it can be easily found by the search engines. Best of all it doesn’t seem to cost a huge amount but…

…have you considered the longer term costs?

For example is the all singing, all dancing platform suggested by your web team flexible to adapt with your business? Can anyone in your organisation update the site content with ease?

There should be a section in your digital brief called Future Proofing.

Here’s what I think should be included;

Design Update – We may want to change the look & feel of our site in the future.  The current design should be an overlay to the site structure & content. Any visual changes should be easily implemented without affecting site functionality.

Bolt On – The selected platform must have a strong support system so new modules & functionality can be easily added when required.

Content – Our web visitors expect our site to change as we introduced new products, services, offers & knowledge.  The selected Content Management System should be intuitive to use by anyone with basic computer skills & allow them to edit, add or delete content and menu headings.

You will have noticed I’ve used ‘selected’ a couple of times in the above.

I’m increasingly of the view that your web team shouldn’t be wedded to a single system or platform. Instead they should have a range to offer & be able to identify which is the most appropriate for your requirements today & in the future.

Alternatively ensure you brief at least 3 or 4 web teams & keep asking those searching questions to avoid a nasty website amends invoice in 12 months time!