Do Good Design

I hear from people all the time who’ve gone the Do-It-Yourself route because they “don’t have the money,” only to lose thousands of dollars and pounds in missed sales because their website is crap.

You can waste months trying to learn everything you need to know to make your website work, only to find you’re still not selling.

Unless you’re a generic, soulless business, don’t DIY

After hearing the story so many times, I thought I’d write down why I think DIY websites for your dream business — the one you started to make money AND do what you love — are a mistake to be avoided at all costs. Sure, there are many so-called internet business successes out there who did it all themselves, but most of these are snake oil salesmen who can’t live without the hard sell. They use every sleazy tactic in the book and target the lowest common denominator.

I’ll assume that’s not you, though I know how tempting it is to follow these parasites when your cash is dwindling and desperation calls. But remember, your website is your shopfront, business card and advertising rolled into one and you need to get it right.

How do you get it right? By working as a partner with a good web designer and not trying to do absolutely everything yourself. Don’t worry, even with the best designer in the world, there will still be plenty for you to do. After all, you ARE the business and only you can make the final decisions.

“But I don’t have the money,” I hear you cry. “Sure, it’s fine for the big businesses with lots of cash to hire a web designer, but I’m just a poor artist/coach/teacher/one man band and I have to/like to do things myself.”

OK, then let me tell you a bit about what to expect so you can decide whether doing it yourself is really the best business decision. And lest you think this is just a thinly veiled advertisement for my services, well, there’s some truth to that but I’m thrilled if you go to another web designer if it means you get a good website that’s going to help you succeed.

But first, if you’re still thinking of doing it yourself, here’s what you’re going to need: time. A lot of it.

Requirement #1: Time

Best schedule in time over the next year for building and fixing your website. Hundreds of hours should do.

Think I’m exaggerating? Ask anyone else who’s done it for a while and see what they say.

It’ll take you ages because you’ll need to get your head around web hosting, domain setup, FTPing, HTML and possibly Flash or CSS, or whatever system you’re using.

That includes template websites, because contrary to what they promise, they don’t do it all for you. You don’t buy a website and poof! it starts selling. You’ve got to write all the text and find images too.

Get familiar with cropping and optimising images for the web — know when to use PNGs and when to use JPEGs? You’ll need to.

Know how to write effective titles and subheaders? Time to learn.

And if you want to change anything in your website — navigation, for example, to add a new section to your site — you’re looking at using something like Photoshop or Fireworks as well. I’ve worked with Photoshop for 9 years and I know maybe 10% of that programme because it’s so massive.

All this when you’re quite possibly already feeling tired, overwhelmed and not sure where you’ll find the time to get everything else done that your business needs. Happily, a good designer can help you with all of that.

But perhaps you’ve got lots of time on your hands and this isn’t an issue. Bring on DIY Website Requirement #2: Money.

Requirement #2: Money

You thought you’d be getting around that, did you? Alas, no.

You’re going to need money to keep you going because, chances are, your website isn’t going to bring you enough of it. You’re also going to need it because all these hours you’re spending creating your website are hours you’re not spending on your business, which means lost income.

And here’s where we get into the nitty-gritty. Because what makes a successful website is many things working together.

I’ll give you just one example of something that few people know about or bother with, but that matters enormously to your potential customers: how easy your site is to use. It’s called “usability” in the web design field, and it’s one of my secret weapons I use to help my clients do better than their competitors.

“What’s usability then, and why does it matter to me?”

Think of a website you visited recently where you had to search around to find the web page you were looking for. You scanned the navigation, you looked around the home page, but it seemed to take ages to find what you wanted.

What happened when you couldn’t find what you wanted, easily, quickly? Did you hit the “back” button and go on to another business? Give up and plan to come another day?

Now how many times have you done this? If you’re like most people, you’ve done that countless times, because most sites are badly designed, with poor usability.

Website forecast: Your site won’t be easy to use

Here’s my prediction for your homegrown website: it will be confusing to use and hard to buy from. What, my website not easy to use? Hard to buy from? Nonsense, of course it will make perfect sense!

Perhaps. To you.

But what about your other visitors? What do they think? Can they find what they want on your site quickly, easily? Are there things on the site that pleasantly surprise them, make them feel like treasured customers?

Bad usability keeps visitors from becoming customers. Good usability takes serious work, and it’s something a great web designer will do for you, while you sit back and reap the rewards.

To give you an idea of what I do for my clients to make their sites more usable and therefore successful, let me tell you a bit about just one tactic: user testing.

User testing: “Here, sit down and try this website”

User testing is where I have someone try to do simple tasks on a website. If it’s a new website I’m building, I test it out with people BEFORE it goes live so I can fix problems and improve it.

It’s always humbling to watch someone try to use your design. They fumble, they can’t seem to find what they’re looking for while it’s so obvious to you where the button is, or what this word means.

You watch, horrified, as the tester says they don’t know what this business is about, or completely ignores a major section you’ve worked lovingly on for weeks.

It happens with every website because amazingly, not everyone thinks like you do. After working on a website for weeks and months, it’s all very clear to you where things are. Not so for someone coming for the first time.

The website isn’t for you, it’s for your customers

You may feel your website is (or will be) just the way it should be: not perfect maybe, but pretty good. But ultimately, your website isn’t for you, it’s for your customers.

I’ve watched a lot of user tests over the years, both of my own and other websites, including multimillion pound sites designed by top agencies, and I’ve never seen one that didn’t make a lot of changes after a testing session.

As the person building the site, you make a lot of assumptions and if you don’t test them with real people, I guarantee you’re losing people from your website.
And that’s why I always do user testing on clients’ websites.

A website is like a house

I always use this metaphor: a website is like a house. The better you want your house to be, the more you need other people who know what they’re doing to help you. And then you’re going to need to regularly maintain it yourself or else it’ll eventually crumble.

Build it all yourself and you might get a house with all the grace and charm of cheap kit houses and the durability of one too.

On the other hand, consider teaming up with a web designer who, depending on their experience and style, will act like your architect or builder.

Personally, I’m like an architect and project manager who helps her clients get their dream house: a website that helps their business make enough money to keep them doing what they love. I manage a team of builders who do the construction.

But my client is always the client: everything is designed to make his or her life (business) easy and successful.

Many web designers are more like builders who just construct exactly what you want. I’m wary of this because I’ve found that just having a website doesn’t guarantee anything. So if you’re shopping around, don’t just look at the pretty designs in their portfolio, actually go to the website and move around it. See if it works well and appears to be an active, successful business.

Finally, don’t be afraid to ask a web designer to take a look at your site or talk to them about what you’re looking for. Estimates and initial conversations are free, so you’ve got nothing to lose.

Only you can decide if it’s worth it to hire a professional, but hopefully you have a better idea of how to decide. Best of luck and let me know how you get on.

About Do Good Design

At Do Good, we create websites for small businesses who make the world a better place. We combine good design with business strategy and marketing.

Find out how we can build the perfect website for you.

Or get in touch to discuss your website project.