Website Blues

Why oh why....?

Do website designers make surfers cry?

Is it only in South Africa that the entire population of the country does not have access to a High Speed internet connection?

I'm not familiar with international internet access stats, so will stay away from the international scene. Here in South Africa about 60% of the population has internet access. About 80% of them have to rely on their mobile phones to connect to the world. Of the remainder, more than 75% have to rely on a 56k dial-up connection.

Now. As a website designer who, by my own choice, works strictly within my local market, in order to provide a custom service, I am regularly asked to quote against other designers for a particular job.

Without exception, all my clients want is a basic brochure site. A simple basic tabled html site. And without exception the aspirants are offering all kinds of bells, whistles, ribbons and bows.

It would seem that these designers are losing, or have lost site of the local TARGET market at which these sites are aimed. I am the first to agree that a website is an international window of opportunity, but I do feel that the local market in any brick and mortar business comes first. I have a current re-design that was designed with a major dose of background graphics, heavily spiced with java(most of which doesn't work), and then weighted down with graphics(none of which was resized for optimal viewing).

The client has NEVER seen the entire website! The client has a 56k dial-up, and it takes just way too long for the pages to open! The business is very local in flavour, with little to no international, or even national demand. It's just local.

My actual message here is that I really like my opposition. As long as they're happy to demonstrate that they know how to impress prospects with flashy cars and hard sales tactics, as well as incredibly high prices, I'll just toddle along, knowing that very soon I'll be in a position to be fussy about whose work I'm prepared to accept.

by Tony Flanigan