Web Design

Feedback Request - My Web Design Company

March 23, 2007

MWI turns away approximately 75% or more of the web design requests we receive through our RFP form due to pricing issues. Since MWI's pricing for a static, basic, corporate site starts at $15K (and we'll probably raise it to $20K soon) that puts us out of reach of all but those clients with the deep pockets, which is precisely how we want it. However, it also means we leave a lot of money on the table, and so I present to you My Web Design Company.

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MWI's Blog Ripped Off by Ion Micro

March 16, 2007

You know, it's interesting enough when your site gets ripped off, but when the very people ripping it off make extra efforts to bring it to your attention then you have to wonder if the ripoff artists are a few cigars short of a Cuban dictator. Below, you see the graphic for Ion Micro's website, evidently under construction (**Update - We have removed the link to IonMicro's site since it now appears to be a porn site). Then there is a screenshot of MWI's blog, WeLoveBlue.com. Anything look similar to you?

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Why Web Design Awards are Meaningless

December 29, 2006

And I quote...

Ogden – December 28, 2006 – Ogden based Wadman Corporation has been awarded a 1st Place Marketing Communications Award by Society of Marketing Professional Services, Utah Chapter, for outstanding electronic general for their newly redesigned website.

Criteria used to judge the entries included research and planning; implementation practices; budget and cost data; and measurable results. The award recognizes excellence in marketing communication efforts by SMPS member companies.

Why is this award meaningless?

1. The application process for the award wasn't well publicized, so the pool of applicants was probably quite small.
2. The association handing out the award has a terrible website.
3. The website receiving the award isn't very well designed.

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Web Site Templates vs. Hiring a Web Design Firm

December 15, 2006

From time to time I'm asked about these website templates you can go buy for $50. There are websites that sell them and you can browse through hundreds until you find the design you like. Then you buy it, put in your own logo and content, and you've got a decent looking website without needing to pay an expensive web design firm like mine. So where's the catch? The catch is that other people can buy the template as well. Ok, but you can generally get exclusive rights to use the template by paying more, and it's still less than hiring a firm, so where's the catch now? There are three main "catches" that I see:

1. Design quality
2. Customization
3. Differentiation and Credibility

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Why Everyone Should Openly Display Pricing Info

November 16, 2006

Lately I've been reading what the folks over at the premiere search engine optmization firm SEOMoz have to say on their blog, and I've also been looking around their website a bit. One of the things I've been impressed with is that they openly display their pricing, which is not the norm for SEO or web development firms.

For example, on their SEO consulting services page they boldly share that they charge $300-$400 per hour or $10,000 to $50,000 per project, and they don't care who knows it. When I first saw this I thought "Man, those guys don't even care, they're just gangsta like that" but the more I've thought about it, the more I wonder why we don't all display our pricing info.

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How to Pick a Web Design Firm

October 13, 2006

I just got the latest issue of Connect Magazine today. Inside is an article called How to Pick a Web Design Firm which hasn't been posted to Connect's website yet, but once it is I'll link it here. The article is written by Brandon Anderson from i4, which is one of MWI's competitors. Of the 17 points Brandon makes I agree with every single one wholeheartedly, except for the last one, with which I respectfully disagree.

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MWI's Website Ripped Off Yet Again, for the Last Time

September 20, 2006

Yet the fourth time that MWI's website has been ripped off. Thanks to Daniel Mall who caught it and Brian Sweeting who alerted me to Daniel's post. For the other ripoffs check out ripoff #1, ripoff #2, and ripoff #3. This time the culprit is a British company called Freebird.

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Website Redesign - Phase 1, Planning

July 17, 2006

How does a web development firm prepare to go about redesigning its own website? Feel free to follow along with me as the MWI website goes through that process over the next few months.

Step 1 - Planning

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The Five Factors of Web Design

April 28, 2006

Inspired by Drew McLellan's Five Most Important Considerations, I decided to come up with my own list, prior to actually reading his so that I wouldn't just be rewriting what he had already said. Every time MWI puts out a proposal I go through the same exercise of trying to show the potential client that we understand who they are, who their customers are, and that we know how to help them reach the business objectives for which they approached us in the first place.

However, rather than five considerations I came up with four, the first of which is:

1. Who is the target? Seemingly basic, yet many companies build websites without knowing the answer to this question. That the target is the general public is generally not a good answer. Before building a website a company should, at a minimum, identify one or more groups of people they plan to target. They should do research to learn more about the target. And they should decide which target is the most important.

Some companies make the mistake of thinking they can successfully cater to 10 targets at once by giving all 10 target audiences what they want on the homepage. But due to the clutter this produces on the homepage the reality is that there is not much of a chance that any one of the 10 targets is going to get the message the company wants them to get.

If a certain target is judged to be the most important, then 80-95% of the attention of the website should be directed at that one target, even if it means you neglect nine others. Hitting one target by focusing on them is better than hitting none because you're focused on ten.

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Using Audio on Websites

April 10, 2006

I couldn't resist reading an article by Dion Jones entitled Want to help Web visitors? Speak to them. In the article Dion, who is described on his own website as "very experienced in marketing online" claims that adding audio instructions to a website "will increase your e-mail list opt-in rate while decreasing your order page abandonment rate and visitor confusion."

While I have nothing but anecdotal evidence I'm going to say that I think adding automatically played audio to a website is generally a mistake.

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Quick MB Rips off MWI's Website

March 14, 2006

For the third time MWI's website has been blatantly ripped off/copied, this time just months after the last time. This time the culprit is some European or Icelandic company called Quick MB. If anybody knows what language that is let me know. At least this time the perpetrator had the dignity to be from some obscure former-USSR country where if you don't exactly expect this kind of behavior at least you aren't surprised by it.

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Are Websites Judged In The Blink Of An Eye?

January 31, 2006

I enjoy discussing viewpoints that oppose my personal opinions. While not completely opposed to what I believe, the article Are Websites Judged In The Blink Of An Eye? by Gerry McGovern (wasn't this guy a presidential candidate once?) could be used by some as justification for making what I feel are incorrect decisions with regards to the aesthetic appeal of a website.

I figure I should write something about this since I posted recently about how visitors judge websites and I agreed with the article that stated that design was what mattered most.

FYI - The original study upon which Gerry is commentating is The Importance of Being Pretty in Wired Magazine.

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MWI's Website Ripped Off by Swanson Holland

January 27, 2006

This happened once before, but that time it was some company that had nothing to do with providing competing services. This time, it's another web development firm.

Check out http://www.swansonholland.com/

In case they see this post and repent of their wicked ways, here are some screen shots so we can preserve the shame.

The MWI website:

The Swanson Holland website:

Notice anything similar? Hmmm.

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Judgment by Design, How Visitors Rate Websites

January 13, 2006

I've been saying this for years due to finding from a study done at Stanford University about web credibility. Now here is more evidence of what is common sense:

Web users judge sites in the blink of an eye
Potential readers can make snap decisions in just 50 milliseconds.

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Hiring a Web Design / Development Firm

November 29, 2005

Ok, you web developers and designers are going to be offended that this is under the "advertising and marketing" section of this site but the fact of the matter is that a lot of business types don't understand how separate and different advertising and marketing is from web development and design. And the fact of the matter is that a lot of web developers don't understand how important advertising and marketing are to what they do. In fact, that's what inspired me to write this.

It all started in 2004 when my firm was invited to submit a proposal for a new website to an architectural firm in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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Why Design Matters on the Web

October 29, 2005

Sometimes you read something and just have to shake your head. I'm not going to name names because this is a company that employs people I like, but on their site they have this statement:

Studies have shown that it doesn't matter how pretty your site is or how many "bells and whistles" you have. While a high-quality site is important, the majority of people today value usability more than good looks or fanciness. What really matters is getting potential customers to your site and then leading them down an easy-to-follow path that ultimately results in more revenue for your company.

While I agree with some of what is being said, logic, experience, and studies that I can reference say something quite the opposite.

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