Unofficial MWS blog

Any function is only useful if it is accessible. The more functions a software has the more difficult it is to make them all accessible.

Any function is only useful if it is accessible. The more functions a software has the more difficult it is to make them all accessible.

It is worth to talk to a prospect about what other companies can charge for the same job. Especially if you know the market, and can predict those figures pretty accurately – this adds you credibility, and gives you a chance to justify your cost. So I would go: A freelancer or mirco-company (2-3 people) might quote you less because… We cost more because you pay for.. and you really want to have this. A bigger company will charge more because… it is a better choice for you if.

When going through this exercise I am not truing to sell myself, just helping a prospect to make a more informed decision. And if they go with us the relationship opens with more trust and prospects knowledge that they’ve made the right choice.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a term describing a stylesheet language used to control the presentation of a page written in HTML or other markup language.

Like other web-related standards and languages, CSS was introduced and is maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

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Why do I need to write a design brief?

You have an idea for a web site (or, for that matter, a product) and you have ideas about how it should look; but how do you get these across to a designer?

With a design brief.

In a design brief you will set out the goals, objectives and key stages of your project and hand this to a design agency (or web developer).

A good design brief enables a designer or developer to gain an understanding of what your company does, what it wants to achieve and how. A good design brief will form the basis of the relationship that will endure throughout the project lifecycle, as both parties can refer to it. Often overlooked, the design brief is crucial, not only to the designer or developer, but also to YOU!

Below are some of the key factors you should bear in mind when writing a design brief.

Your Company

A short introduction to your company will tell the designer a bit about who you are and what you do.

Introduce your company to the designer; explain:

—What your company does
—How long you have been in operation
—What your niche market is
—How you fit in to your industry sector
—Who your (online) competitors are
—What sets you apart from your competitors

Technical Competency/Technology Requirements

It helps the developer if you can give them an idea of your technical knowledge.

—Have you worked with developers before?
—Do you have any in-house technical expertise?
—Who will be the project manager from your side?
—Do you have any specific technical requirements or preferences for technology? (Maybe you have to use a specific technology to interact with an existing system).

Don’t worry if you are not technically minded: a good development team will guide you towards the optimum solution.

Your Goals

When developing or re-developing a web site, you should tell the developer why you want to develop your site and what you hope to achieve.

For example, do you want to:

—Generate sales?
—Provide information?
—Encourage enquiries?
—Gain newsletter subscribers?
—Obtain information from your audience?
—Encourage them to tell a friend?

If you are re-designing or re-developing a site, why are you doing it? It MAY be obvious, but you still need to be clear about your goals.

Your goals and objectives will become clear at this point; if not, you know that you’ll need to sit down and think about what they are. At this point, it will also help if you discuss the brief with others in the company to get a different perspective, which may help you refine your goals.

Your Target Audience

Defining your target audience is paramount when considering web design. Is your site targeting young, tech-savvy users or an older, broader spectrum of users? Are you targeting a particular market?

It helps if you can define:

—Age
—Sex
—Income
—Occupation
—Location

of your target users.

Your Budget

If you have not got a budget – or it is up to someone else to allocate – you should try and give the designer/developer some idea of how much you will have to spend. This will give the developer a realistic idea of what can be achieved.

Moreover, if you have not got a budget, it can be difficult to be taken seriously and it may be difficult to engage a developer’s interest.

Time-scale

You should provide a realistic timescale for your project and outline any key stages for modules in your project.

Language

Use plain English – try to avoid technical terms or jargon; if you must use them, supply a glossary or explain the terms.

Design Examples

If you already have a logo and branding, you should provide samples to the designer/developer. If you know what colours you would like to use, then tell the designer.

If you have no existing branding and want to leave all design elements up to the design team, you should still give them some inspiration; list some words that best describe your company or existing site.

By the way, it is perfectly legitimate to find inspiration from other sites! Do not look at a direct competitor’s site, but look at sites you like, sites you have used and that inspire you.

Do less work – do it efficiently.
You start with a million budget but then recall the 80-20 rule (or Pareto Principle) which states that, for many events, 80% of the effects comes from 20% of the causes. If you apply it successfully you will need only 1/5th of the budget. That’s 200k.

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In order for you marketing compaign to be more targeted you need to “define” your ideal client. One of the attributes of your “ideal” client could be a budget they spend with you.

This approach of defining a budget starts with a group sise and project duration. Your company might be woring in bigger groups with different structure. And projects can be of different duration. This is just one of alternative apprroaches to consider.

Budget

What’s our target monthly budget (ideal client)?
Senior consultant/project coordinator 20*80 = £1600
Technical project lead 40*75 = £3000
Programmers 160*35 = £5600
Other supporting personal (design, sysadmin etc) 20*30 = 600
Total per month: £10800

Can it be more then that? Yes if the project can fork into independent sub-projects.

Minimum budget:
Technical project lead 40*50 = £2000
Programmers 80*35 = £1400
Total per month = £3400

Can it be less than that? - unlikely. If it is less than that your bet will be a freelancer or a micro company (designer, programmer plus part time admin or marketing person)

What is the total project budget then?
The minimum reasonable timescale of any project is 4 months (even if the application itself is finished in 2-3 weeks there is lots of other work)
£3400*4 = £13600

The optimum for us would be project running over at least 2 or 3 years (£200k - £400k over that period of time)

Introduction

Video on demand is one of the popular web technologies playing an important role in Web 2.0 and modern Internet marketing. Usually referred to as “VOD”, it can either stream the video content or allow to download it and watch it later.

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If you run a business and you take advantage of IT technologies, then you are running software; but what sort of software are you running? And is it actually helping you run your business?

Software usually falls into two categories: packaged (or proprietary), i.e. bought or downloaded ‘off-the-shelf’ or bespoke, that’s to say, custom-made.

If you only use standalone software (applications working locally on your computer) or have only a simple requirement, e.g. word processing, the proprietary option may be satisfactory for you; a good example would be Microsoft Office. But if you need an application that caters to the specific needs of your enterprise, you might find the bespoke option more suitable.

But why? And should you consider it for your business?

Packaged software will often include superfluous features that you don’t need for running your business, because it’s been made for many hundreds, possibly thousands of users. It’s a compromise.

Conversely, specific features your organisation really needs might not be included and any requests to the software vendors will most likely go unheeded due to the large number of requests, often conflicting, from other clients. Worse still, you may have to change the way your business operates to use a packaged software, driving up costs and increasing inefficiencies.

And if many other businesses are using the same software, it may be difficult to gain any competitive advantage.

What if the packaged software fails to perform, where do you turn? You may be up against a faceless organisation, which doesn’t care so much about YOUR business as it does about the number of units it has shifted, directs you to inadequate FAQs or charges £1.50/min for support.

Working with a development company on a bespoke application brings advantages.

There is a direct relationship, which can bring an understanding of your business AND understanding of your needs. A bespoke application is written to your requirements and fits in with your business.

The developers can be more responsive to your needs and thus changes can be made more quickly, allowing you to adapt more easily. You can control the pace of changes, rather than waiting for next release.

Furthermore, if the application is built to your requirements, you’ll save time and money when it comes to teaching your staff how to use it. An application developed according to your own specification will probably require much less configuration work (if any) and much less training. It’s replicating your existing business process(es) and should be intuitive to your staff (if it’s not, you’ve probably gone wrong somewhere).

A good custom application can also bring effiencies by automating manual tasks and a good developer can even point out further efficiencies to be gained.

Bespoke software was once the preserve of large companies, but the cost of developing bespoke applications has fallen because of robust applicaiton frameworks, a vast array of off-the-shelf modules and rapid development tools, putting it within reach of SMEs.

Of course, there are still some considerations you need to be aware of:

—A good developer will not have a problem with letting you have the source code, so that you retain independence and control over your software should the relationship go sour.
—A bespoke application IS a serious investment and one not to be taken lightly, thus you should carry out a cost-benefit analysis before embaking on a project.
—As with all industries, there are incompetent or unprofessional developers out there, so make sure you see examples of the developers’ work, get references and follow them up.

In summary, there are many sound reasons why you should seriously consider investing in a bespoke solution.

The list of dubious means of search engine optimisation lengthens year on year. In theory, of course, we could all employ such means, but there are ethical issues to be tackled. And even if we ignore fair-play principles for a moment, it’s worth pointing out that cheap, scam-like promotion methods usually look cheap and scam-like, annoy Internet users and have a short lifespan because counter-measures are created.

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