The sorry state of web design skills

rpm

rpm

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I logged into one of iBurst's backoffice web interfaces the other day and was shocked at the mess I found: About 4 lines of text were overlapping each other and as a result were completely unreadable.

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gregmcc

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Not to mention the lack of security that developers fail to stick into their code - sql injections, xss etc etc/
 
ToxicBunny

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and the use of template sites..

Drives me mad really, so many places just use the same templates over and over again...
 
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DragonLogos

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What ticks me off is the number of people that think the can build a site entirely on Flash
 
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Paul_S

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ToxicBunny said:
and the use of template sites..

Drives me mad really, so many places just use the same templates over and over again...
Click to expand...

On the one side you have developers who like code reusability.
On the other side you have people who call themselves web developers but haven't a clue about web programming so they just copy and paste what's available.
 
ToxicBunny

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Paul_S : Trust me i know... i work in a company full of developers being managed and controlled by web developers..... who are in turn managed by people who just have no clue....

Recipe for disaster in my opinion.
 
AirWolf

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Google uses templates on their web publishing tool :eek:
 
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K

kifoth

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DragonLogos said:
What ticks me off is the number of people that think the can build a site entirely on Flash
Click to expand...

It's not that any sane person would want to build a site entirely in Flash... It's the clueless idiots in management who push for them.

Who wants a usable, bookmarkable, deep-linkable, google-able, works-without-a-plugin, fast downloading site, when you can have one with mouse trails, background muzak and animated menus...

"Ooooh! Look! Shiny! I'll take 2!" :D

See www.do.co.za, then read my sig again...
 
gregmcc

gregmcc

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I know what you mean about the cut and paste developers. They do a google for a snippet of code, hack it and get it working on their app. Unbeknown to them the method that the code uses is out of date. Then when MS release patches that might retire the old method they whine that the MS patches have broken their code!!
 
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bekdik

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I wish web publishers would take the trouble to run a South African based spell checker on their site prior to publication, never mind having an sub-editor look at the grammer.

But I guess that applies to our newspapers as well :(
 
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jdjoubert

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So what would you oke sugest one does....?

I am a small bussiness owner who would like to have a website with photos of jobs I have done before. I have had quotes for R1800 - R3500 for just a very simple front page and a couple of thumbnails of photos.

I cant justify that kind of $$ just to have a couple of photos and a overview of what service I can provide.....

So the next best thing for me is to attempt it myself. It might look bad, but hey, its just a website. Maby if I was a web designer by trade, then yes, by all means please have a very shiny, good looking and easy to use website. But for me, a website is just a interactive advert....

my 2c
 
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kifoth

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jdjoubert said:
So the next best thing for me is to attempt it myself. It might look bad, but hey, its just a website. Maby if I was a web designer by trade, then yes, by all means please have a very shiny, good looking and easy to use website. But for me, a website is just a interactive advert...
Click to expand...

The problem with a bad website is that you hardly ever find out that it's bad. People go there, take one look and never come back (and they almost never ever tell you why). No-one links to it or refers others to it. It sits on page 7 of any relevant google results. It becomes a dead piece of cyber-scrap. The company that commissioned it regards it as a waste (but leaves it up just so that they can say they have a www page).

A good site creates business. It's designed to catch search traffic. It keeps people coming back. It's dead easy to use and it behaves as expected (not broken, slow, counter intuitive, confusing etc).

jdjoubert said:
So what would you oke sugest one does....?
Click to expand...

Take the hit and pay a pro to do it. Shop around. Find a company with a good track record of doing web sites that generate income. Do not go with the first company that shows you the prettiest pages.

Think business investment, not work of art (Remember: Google is 95% text and it's the biggest site on the web).
 
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Cara

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jdjoubert said:
So what would you oke sugest one does....?

I am a small bussiness owner who would like to have a website with photos of jobs I have done before. I have had quotes for R1800 - R3500 for just a very simple front page and a couple of thumbnails of photos.

I cant justify that kind of $$ just to have a couple of photos and a overview of what service I can provide.....

So the next best thing for me is to attempt it myself. It might look bad, but hey, its just a website. Maby if I was a web designer by trade, then yes, by all means please have a very shiny, good looking and easy to use website. But for me, a website is just a interactive advert....

my 2c
Click to expand...

You could also go oversees to getafreelancer or one of those sites where programmers and developers bid for the job. It's cheaper than SA ... just don't go for the guys from India their code is horrid.
 
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BobbyMac

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Cara said:
You could also go oversees to getafreelancer or one of those sites where programmers and developers bid for the job. It's cheaper than SA ... just don't go for the guys from India their code is horrid.
Click to expand...

There are plenty of smaller web development teams in this country that are both very capable and affordable.

Edit. The real reason behind shoddy web dev in this country is not only because of bad practices, but more because of no standards authority stamping their approval on quality of local websites. What we really need in this country is a body to regulate and rate the web development companies according to the quality and appeal of the work they do for companies. In fact, I think it's a requirement worldwide. Oh, if anyone suggests OPA to fulfill this task, then I suggest you quite your Dev job and go and shepherd Llamas.
 
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SYNERGY

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What most of the people are saying is true, but most companies want a website entirely in flash.
I advise them to go for a "hybrid" - flash & css/html.
And lets not start about flash intro's please.

One of the most hilarious things I've seen is
Code: 
http://www.web-design.co.za/
They are offering a "Web Design Award" based on clean code.
I did a quick W3C validation and found an error. Now why would I want a web design award from them??

My site is under heavy construction, not enough time, but is still uploaded as its being worked on.
Code: 
www.synergydesigns.co.za
Moving towards a fluid width web design. Need to add a right side column still...
Also, If anyone is looking for hosting, I highly reccommend serv.co.za
 
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krycor

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Other problem i see is at campus. uhm not sure who ends up doing the design and coding but sometimes programmers are asked to handle web design which can be a scary thing because universities don't put much on anything beyond basics when last i saw(and i'm not talking graphics).

Uhm i have seen the uptake of css design going steady in SA which is cool :) but with regards to the browser thing, there will always be a bit of a war. Often things in css is handled differently by some browsers, i thing ie was infamous for this a while back, heck i remember them even having some subset stuff of their own.
 
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kris860911

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SYNERGY said:
www.synergydesigns.co.za
Click to expand...

buddy, that looks terrible. how can u expect people to want to pay you to design a site for them if your's looks like that.

Here is a tip.
Make the gradient from top to bottom.
With the box that your text is in, make it a solid colour. nothing harsh.. White or a light colour. So it's easy to read.
Take away the border inside the other table border, and dont use the 3d border setting, it looks rubbish.
Dont say "The Contact form below may also be used to contact us", when there is nothing below it.
Design your top menu a bit better. Maybe a solid pane across the top with your navigation in it (Logo inside there as well).
Try and make it, so that when you click "Home", it goes to the homepage
 
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