The dark-skinned lady, probably an Acholi, smiled at me
from the middle of the restaurant, she had called me to come up with a web
design for her and embed a ticket booking system in it, clearly she knew what
she wanted but I didn’t know much about it except the little she had told me.
“I want something beautiful”, she said, “Something where someone comes, logs in
and books a ticket”, and shaking my head in acceptance I said yes and
I assured her that what she wanted could be done if she could particularly tell
me the different parties that would be involved and what functionalities I
would involve in the system and then I kept quiet and she looked at me with
worry painted all over her face, for a moment i though that maybe she had not
understood me or maybe she doubted me, my skills and talents in programming or
maybe she was worried about particular features I would include in the design,
but slowly she took her hand away from the table and it went down browsing for
something, she got hold of it and brought it to the table, her bag, and then
she asked, “How much……how much will it cost?”.
Sincerely speaking, I had nothing to say.
It seems the moment people hear of website designers and
software engineers, they think, yeah those guys are making zillions by the
minute, those are the Mark Zukerbergs, and Bill Gates’ of our age, they make
money when they want.
However there is much to think about before looking at the money
designers make.
Clients never think about the quality of the product the designer
has delivered, the functionalities, the small holes that may expose the system.
All they look at is the beauty of the index page and then they drown the
designer’s account with “zillions”.
Let us take a look at the worst case scenario.
Imagine you are browsing the Internet one day and bump onto this
site where the links are dispersed all over the index page, the pictures are
moving across the page whereby the pictures on the upper part are moving to the
right and the ones on the lower part are moving to the left, the heading on the
page is “BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS” and yet it has pictures of computers with their
price tags upside down. Then there is this looping picture of a boy kicking a
ball just below, the picture keeps on repeating again and again , the boy kicks
the ball and the ball goes away and then it comes back and he kicks it again
and again and again, however when you click on it, it dims the screen and a
small notice (Javascript alert) appears in the middle of the screen asking
“DO YOU WANT TO BOOK A ROOM?” you press OK and it takes you to another page
where they are displaying Caskets.
These are pure features of a bad website, pictures moving around
in a disorganized format, poor user interaction, miscommunication of the
subject matter and disorganized content. The functionalities of the different
links and buttons are completely detached from the actual purpose and the user
is pissed and jeering at him/herself at the end of the experience.
The qualities of a good website range from the physical design
to the smallest functionalities that may hinder a good user experience and
those that may even compromise the system security. The security of the
database storing the information collected by the site should always be updated
and that explains the reason why a dedicated and updated IT team in the
organization owning the website should be sensitized by the developers of the
system about how to ensure the protection of the system from intruders. The
functionalities of the buttons and the links, the guidelines on how to use the
website should be clearly stated, clear contact information for further
consultation, immediate, accurate, complete, reliable and fresh responses to
the user. All this should be put into perspective by the developer and they
should be emphasized by the client. Technically the site should
engage the user and make him/her feel at home. That’s what good sites are made
of, beauty and functionality and your site will appear first on the search
results page; not for the money you have paid Google for Search Engine
Optimization but for its perfection and efficiency in giving the user appropriate information.
Thank You for Reading.
Kusemererwa Roy.
