Part 2 : Brochureware, blunders, credibility and boot camp

The Sullivan Media web site is really engaging. Among other things, you highlight "10 Best Ways to Get Run Over on the Information Superhighway": those awful mistakes made by poorly conceived and designed sites. Tell us more about "brochureware" and other common blunders.
Brochureware operates on the assumption that the World Wide Web is a useful place to park an electronic version of your brochure. Wrong. You wouldn't put a business card on TV, would you? If you did everyone would think you were boring, with no imagination - same with a brochure on the Web.

The web is dynamic; it's real-time, 24/7; it's interactive, it's hyperlinked; it's not one dead flat page after another. So you build a web site that works on the web - sounds like common sense, but too many companies still think they just have "to put something up just to get on." Ever ask why?

The next biggest blunder is to build a site that tries to exploit web attributes, but is unusable. By which I mean it's tough to figure out and/or the features don't work. If your site designer thinks like a consumer (even if your site is meant to go B to B - other businesses act just like consumers), he/she won't make a bunch of design and usability mistakes.

All of which begs the question: why do all those well-trained, highly paid designers make these elementary mistakes?
Because they don't think like consumers when they think for their clients. Consumers don't care if the client wants a fabulous splash page that takes 35 seconds to get through - consumers just want the promise of the site fulfilled as quickly as possible, and the splash page just gets in the way.

Ask yourself why any self-respecting designer would build an elaborate intro page, charge thousands of dollars, and then add a "Skip Intro" button. And you'll be surprised at the number of designers who can't even demonstrate the promise of the site - most likely because they're not sure what it is, or because they're applying a formula to the customer's site without considering if it's the appropriate formula.

When clients approach Sullivan Media, do they already know what they want? And is this a bad thing...?
Some do, some don't. It's not a bad thing if they've figured out what they want to say, who they want to say it to, and what they expect to happen once they've said it. But it's hard to work with somebody who is avoiding those fundamental questions. Why would anyone do that? Well, the reasons are legion. Fear, ego, penny-wise, pound-foolish, etc. The Web is a mirror of human folly. Interactive, too!

What is the most challenging aspect of any project? The pre-planning, the actual site design, or the post-launch care and feeding of the site, and the client?
They're all challenging, and they're all important. I love clients, actually. I love working with them to find solutions. I'm a happy guy when the client is deeply involved, even when it gets messy. That person is going to get a web site that works, because that person cares. Really, the two parts that are most often left out of web plans are the pre-planning and the on-going site management.

Without clear focus and objectives, you're thrashing around, building a house of cards. Without an on-going management strategy and resources, you're going to end up with a "cobweb" site. It doesn't take long for information to start going out of date.

And nothing does more to hurt your credibility than to promote something that's coming up in June, and it's September already.

Tell our worldwide readers something about B.C's thriving web culture, and the Simon Fraser "boot camp."
The Lower Mainland is a hot bed of dot.com activity, because it has always been an entrepreneurial place willing to try new things. Partially because it's the "Left Coast," partially because of the wacky tradition of the [now defunct, heavily tech laden] Vancouver Stock Exchange. I miss the VSE; I think we should reinvent it. Well, maybe not.

But the energy here is great. Every week I meet someone with a new idea that just might work. People such as Tod Maffin, Emma Smith, Robert Craig, Robert Ouimet, Kathryn Grafton, Don Mattrick, Dave Schultz etc. make this a really interesting town to work in.

And of course, all those people play a part at our annual Simon Fraser Web Workshop, which happens every July. We bring in a lot of people who actually work in Web, and we have a boot camp atmosphere where our participants develop a presentation for a week, and then present it to a "client" at the end of the week. It's nerve-wracking, but you learn a ton, and there's the world-famous traditional Jolt and cold pizza breakfast on Saturday, which is D-day. We're using live ammo out there!

Continued...