A lesson learned for each year at Wiliam

As the soon to be departing Creative Director of Australia’s best Web Development Company I have had the pleasure over these 5 years of witnessing some impressive achievements, milestones and successes.

The achievements are evident in the many sites Wiliam has launched. Big brand sites like Dan Murphy’s and Dick Smith, the explosive success of Cudo (built and launched in 6 weeks), the recent  Choosi.com.au, Australia’s biggest grass roots political site GetUp.org.au and fund raisers like the NBCF are all stand outs.

There were though, of course, some lessoned learned (and they are much more interesting to write about it) Here are just five of them.

1. Using a lemon

Dotnetstorefront. Don’t use it. The clients who chose DNSF were still delivered solid, robust and successful websites in the end, but only due to the talent of our developers rather than the quality of the platform.

It is a labyrinth of mixed up logic and fragile code, presumably designed by a man who now spends his days wearing a tin foil hat, wandering the streets, complaining aliens stole his brain. It wasn’t aliens, it was DNSF.

Whilst briefing one of our lead developers on some changes one afternoon, I saw in his eyes a man on the edge of sanity. I promised him we’d never accept another job in DNSF and to this day we never have. He has since fully recovered.

2. In iStockphoto we trust

Imagery is important. Everyone knows people don’t read websites. They scan them, look at the pictures, find the price and click the biggest button they can find. It has always been Wiliam’s advice to source quality and original imagery (at least for the most important parts of your site). It can be done a lot less expensively than you may think, and adds immeasurable value to your site.

Try finding a picture on a stock art website of a young tradesman, who embodies the trust and strength of your brand, one you imagine comes from a small Australian town and works hard to provide for his loving family. It’s a long shot to say the least. You will find about 300,000 shots of a guy that has never done a day’s work in his life, holding a spanner; wearing a hardhat and a pair of overalls that would see even a 3rd grade art teacher lose all credibility. (Example A: search ‘young tradesman’)

3. When bad staff go bad-der

Any company is only as good as its staff. Over the past 5 years I have been lucky enough to work with some amazing people, learn from them and benefit from shared experience. Wiliam now boasts an office full of talent, every one of them at the top of their game. But it took time and lessons were learned.

My trouble was that I cared too much… I believed in people and wanted to give them a chance… yeah yeah, whatever. Well that was then and this is now. I still believe, but am a little more careful now. Some of the more memorable (short-lived) members of my team are the ones that used more imagination in their excuses than in their design. I have omitted names to protect the stupid.

Junior designer - 8.55am phone call. “umm… Hi Adam, I can’t come to work today. I smoked too many bongs last night and my eyes really hurt.”

Designer - offering his resignation by text message after a month. “Hi Adam, I’ve decided to pursue my passion for film design so I’m not coming back. Sorry”

Junior designer - performance review. “Jeez, I’ve been a junior designer now for, like, 3 months. When do I become Senior?”

Senior designer - pay review meeting. “I really deserve a pay rise. I grew up rich, so I am used to having lots of money”

4. A website in sheep’s clothing

It’s become a famous in the Wiliam office. A term that strikes fear into a developer’s heart and has them reaching for their CV. Immortalised on the 2010 Wiliam Christmas t-shirt, mocked in the hope laughter can keep it trapped forever in the darkest corner of hell, one statement that dooms any project to disaster. It’s just a re-skin.

In reality there is not a site on the entire web that needs ‘just a re-skin’. No site exists that is so perfect in every other way except for ‘a new front-end’. Once you open up a website and look inside who knows what you’ll find? Crappy code, terrible technology, unsuitable CSS and many other amazingly alliterative abominations. Re-skins are a myth, living only in the minds of ambitious BDM’s and the idealistic producer.

Don’t re-skin your website, rebuild it. 

5. Just build it and they will come (and make it like Facebook while you’re at it)

The number one lesson that I think myself, Wiliam, the industry and every client ever burned by a failed website project has ever learned is that without a plan you are going no-where.

Wiliam won’t start a project without a plan. There are countless blogs on our website explaining the importance of strategy, discovery, prototyping and specific business goals.

“It’s going to be a combination of Facebook and Twitter, with a catchy name like ‘Krizzizzifi’ ”, this isn’t a plan.

It might end up being the next big thing but only if there is some blueprint for success. Spend a week (maybe two) defining your goals, objectives and a roadmap to make them reality. The cram as many consonants together as you can to make a brand name and you’ll still have a good chance of success (krizzizzifi.com is available btw).

The final part of this lesson and perhaps a lesson in itself. Don’t trust your website to just anyone, find a professional, passionate and intelligent web design firm. And then listen to them.