Build your own website or hire a designer?
December 27th, 2008 · No Comments
I have to admit I still don’t understand why someone who wouldn’t change a tire wants to build their own website.
The Grumpy Web Lady has changed tires and built websites, and can say with complete confidence that changing a tire is an all-around easier, if somewhat dirtier, task.
I have attended seminars where the prevailing sentiment is, “Why pay thousands of dollars to an overpriced, neurotic web designer when you can do it yourself?”
Perhaps because when they’re not busy nurturing their neuroses, web developers are studying tons of things that fall into the “life is too short to learn this crap” category for most people. Should you slice that graphic or use CSS layering to get it to overlap the menu bar? Why isn’t that table lining up like it’s supposed to? Why is the page coming up blank? Which of the 18 trillion shopping carts out there is best for your needs? How do you change the color of that nice web button you downloaded from red to green? Should you have a third-level domain? What the hell is a third-level domain, anyway?
If you think Web designers just create pretty pictures, wander over to Craigslist and check out a few of the job ads for web developers. The skill sets required go something like this: Must know Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Flash, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, AJAX, PHP, Perl, ASP.NET, SEO, user interface interaction and wire framing, be good to designers, small children and dogs, and know within a degree or two the temperature of the sun.
OK, I made up the bit about the sun temperature, but you get the picture. While freelance web developers may not need all those skill sets, any developer worth his or her salt knows more than a couple of them.
Trust me, the days when you could throw up a simple site in a couple of hours using Frontpage are over. While it’s true that you can install, say, WordPress and put up a simple blog in no time, creating a complex site that actually works well and is optimized to your business’s needs is another matter.
The next time you have a flat tire, call the repair shop. And when you need a website designed, call a pro.
Tags: Building a website