Question: What's one thing a business owner building a new website MUST demand from their development/design team?
Question by: Ashley
My Content Management What?
'In general, a website should be user-friendly for its owner(s). I meet a lot of entrepreneurs who overthink and overspend on their website when a common CMS (content management system) like WordPress or Drupal would've work just fine.'
- Derek Shanahan | Co-Founder, Foodtree
User-Friendly Interface
'In their attempts to add on all the bells and whistles, business owners can lose site of a good user experience. Simple navigation, uncluttered design, and quick load time are key.'
- Steph Auteri | career coach, writer, and editor, Word Nerd Pro
Style Through Simplicity
'Consumer ADD is only getting worse. Web development teams must not only know how to create through programming, but they must also be passionate about consumer behavior. More is not better. Developers should aim to marry style and simplicity to avoid stirring feelings of overwhelm or distraction.'
- Kent Healy | Founder and CEO, The Uncommon Life
Where's the Accountability?
'Without tight accountability to deadlines and deliverables, the business owner may end up with a site and design that does not meet expectations. It's best to document each deliverable, whether web page or graphics, with as much detail as possible so each side has a point of reference. Then the owner can hold their team accountable and avoid 'he said, she said' debates.'
- Kelly Azevedo | Founder, She's Got Systems
Mobile Compatibility
'You need to ensure your website looks good on the iPhone, iPad, Android phones, etc. Mobile web usage is growing at a massive rate, and it's important that your business website is accessible and easy-to-use on handheld devices.'
- Matt Mickiewicz | Co-Founder, Flippa and 99designs
Follow the Blueprint
'If the developers provide a comprehensive blueprint, it will help to keep them on track and will leave them accountable if tasks take significantly longer than estimated.'
- Josh Weiss | Founder and President, Bluegala
Here's an Example
'New website builds go well when there's smooth communication with technology and design teams. Often, the jargon, design or tech development can differ greatly from how a businessperson would describe something, so make sure there are no errors by reviewing examples. Adding a feature or design element? See how the feature or elements work on existing, comparable sites first.'
- Doreen Bloch | CEO / Founder, Poshly Inc.
Critical Response
'The team should have an understanding of how the site will achieve its most critical response. A good aesthetic is important, but it means nothing if it's not directly tied to how a lead will be captured, what happens to that lead and, ultimately, how a sale is made (ideally automatically without direct team involvement). This allows you to scale your marketing and customer acquisition method.'
- Yanik Silver | Chaos Catalyst, Maverick1000.com
Social Is Necessary
'Every website these days should have a social aspect to it, whether it's simply adding a Facebook Like Box or integrating a gameification platform. It's important to stay up to date with the latest social plugins that can be added to your site.'
- Ben Lang | Founder, EpicLaunch
Rapid Iteration
'The design/development organization should be structured in a way that encourages rapid development and deploying of the site. Etsy is a great example of this culture. They make small, frequent changes to the live site on a daily basis and have open-sourced their methods for other developers to use.'
- Jennifer Vargas | Founder, Accompl.sh
Ownership of All Assets
'As you concern yourself with the look and feel of the website, you might overlook some of the legal aspects involved. For example, if you don't specify outright that any logos or creative designs made are completely yours in an initial agreement, you could end up in a legal battle over which party actually owns the materials on your website.'
- Logan Lenz | Founder / President, Endagon
Control Over Your Control Panel
'If you are handing over the responsibility of finding a host and registering your domain to your development/design team, ask that you are the primary administrator over your control panel. This gives you the ability to remove the user if the relationship goes sour. In the same light, always make sure that whoever registers a domain for you is doing so under your name and contact information.'
- Jennifer Donogh | President, Ovaleye, LLC
Get Ready for the Next Developer!
'Your development team will change at some point, whether you simply expand your development team or even switch developers. As with all resources in a startup, development time and money should be treasured. Make sure that your development and design teams leave a very clean and annotated back-end system so that new folks can build upon the work!'
- Aaron Schwartz | Founder and CEO, Modify Watches
The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.
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