Web design and development involves three levels:

Web management
Design (navigation support, homepage layout, templates, search, etc.)
Content  (the actual writing on the pages, as well as any other media used to communicate)

Today we are discussing the need to adequately budget for ongoing maintenance of your web sites

Mistake Five Not Including Maintenance Tasks in Ongoing Budgets

The Web changes so quickly that a major update is needed at least once every other year simply to avoid an outdated look and to accommodate changing user expectations. Additional maintenance is needed throughout the year to bring fresh content online, reorganize and revise old pages, and avoid linkrot.          

If you have established a design guide and a set of templates in order to avoid the inconsistencies mentioned under Mistake 4, you also need to review these design resources. If the styles and templates do not evolve with changing environments, you will rapidly see design aging set in and the site will decompose. The most common update need is new stock graphics, new headerbars, new navigation buttons, or new icons. If you don’t have an supplier on standby for this type of item then your site’s look-and-feel will start to diverge.

NIT’s elements tools provide customers the ability to easily maintain content, templates and page layouts to keep your site fresh.  Future tips will include a discussion on why you should consider your web site as a primary marketing tool.

The technology provides Zoo Med the ability to manage their own site from any location and will provide clients with tools such as a Health Care Sheets for their pets and the ability to register on line for more information. The site includes a special section for a photo contest, and even how to manage and maintain the terrariums as well as a section for pet retailers.

The site will help the Zoo Med clients care for their pets, understand their needs, and ensure a healthy safe environment. In addition through the “Resources and Fun” section of the web site Zoo Med customers will begin to understand the nutritional and environmental needs of their particular pet. ZooMed clients will be able to focus on their specific needs and compare solutions against their needs. Gary Bagnall, President of ZooMed, states that “We have the mission to create a safe environment for all our clients pets.

One of our greatest accomplishment was our invention of UVB lighting for reptiles in 1993 which has become the standard the world over for Zoo’s, Veterinarians and reptile hobbyists alike. We understand that people’s pets are important. In many ways a member of their family. That’s why we’re not just experts in UVB lighting, but in the complete set of needs of our customer’s pet’s. For our clients it means having the peace of mind, knowing that our products are safe for their pets and that we are here to meet their special needs.” 

http://www.zoomed.com/ is one of the premier companies using New Image Technologies elementsCMS™ technology, which allows multiple users to create and maintain the site with the full suite of integrated features such as e-marketing, search engine optimization, rotating images, RSS feeds, and integrated data base management.

About New Image Technologies
New Image Technologies is the premier provider of on-line solutions and services for the Fitness, Alternate Energy and retail industry. Its elementsCMS™ tool provides a powerful set of features which allows customers to create and maintain their site. This suite provides complete content management, e-commerce, and e-marketing capability. By customers applying this technology for an online presence they achieve, e-mail marketing campaigns, on line store, and interactive visual merchandising.

With a proven record of accomplishment and years of experience in the industry, New Image Technologies help businesses leverage the Internet channel to increase revenue, lower costs and increase sales. Offered on a fully hosted software-as-a-service model, http://www.nit.cc/ New Image’s elementsCMS™ allow customers to focus on their core business, rather than technical implementations.

For more information, press only: (Steve Bridge), (805.588.2809), (SBridge@nit.cc)

• Web management
• Design (navigation support, homepage layout, templates, search, etc.)
• Content  (the actual writing on the pages, as well as any other media used to communicate)

Today we are reviewing how to meet your customer expectations and needs when they visit your site.

Mistake Four Outsourcing to Multiple Vendors

If you send / hire a new vendor for every web project your site will look like one of those quilts made at a old fashion quilting bee with patches by each of the ladies in town. The challenge with using different vendors is that each of them want to create thier own look and feel. Different vendors will have  different design philosophies and they want to be able to point to your site as a reference. It is never a good reference to point to individual pages in a web site if the look and feel is the same.

Also users become disorientated and confused when they go from pages to page on a site and they see drastically different designs. Consistency is extremely important to a user-friendly site. When all the interfaces or pages look and feel the same, the user is more confident using the site because they can transfer their learning from one page to the next rather than having to learn everything over again for each new page.

The best way to ensure consistency is to make a single group that is responsible for the design of the entire site. If this is not possible then ,create an oversight group that reviews and approves all design work and that is committed to maintaining a single style. What is even better is to have a single design group maintain the templates and deliver updated and revised graphics as needed while allowing disparate users develop content.

NIT’s elements tools provide customers the ability to have a core set of templates to control the look and feel of a site while allowing individual groups the ability to create, modify and maintain content within your site.  Keeping your site alive as well as other issues we will cover in upcoming issues.   

Katie has over twenty years experience in the programming, data base management and information management field. She has extensive experience designing, developing and maintaining Windows based client-server PC applications. Her portfolio includes expertise in SQL, Fortran, Cobol, Visual Studio, Access, Foxpro, Oracle7/8i in both the workstations and in networked environments. Katie has worked with a myriad of hardware platforms from Digital Alpha 2100 VMS cluster (OpenVMS), Hewlett Packard HP3000 (MPE), and to IBM 360/65 (OS/MVT) systems. She has developed real time applications for both business and engineering programs for both commercial and government applications.“Adding Katie’s experience to the NIT team will bring a new level of offerings for our clients,” said Jeremy LaDuque, chairman and CEO of New Image Technologies. “We look forward to adding her experience and expertise to our team. This talent will be a valuable asset as we continue to grow and add new clients to the New Image family. Through this type of expansion our professional services area is better able to support our clients and allows us to continue to provide the excellent service which has been fueling our growth.”

“New Image Technologies is a great place to work and expanding my programming experience into the online world working on powerful web sites for NIT clients is an exciting opportunity for me. Katie said. “I look forward to helping the company implement their vision in the marketplace achieving solutions for our clients.”

For more information about New Image Technologies, please visit http://www.nit.cc/ for information on elements CMS™ visit http://www.elementscms.com/

About New Image Technologies
New Image Technologies is a leading provider web site development solutions and elements CMS™ the premier tool for small and mid size business to develop, manage and maintain their own web sites. elements CMS™ includes sophisticated web content management, e-commerce, e-marketing, search engine optimization tools. Companies nationally use these features to manage and maintain their online presence and to improve marketing performance.

For more information, contact New Image Technologies. Voice: (805) 547-1160. Fax: (805) 547-1159. Address: 141 Suburban Rd Suite A1, San Luis Obispo CA 93401.

Web site: http://www.nit.cc/.

elements CMS™ and New Image Technologies are trademarks of Transformational
technologies, inc. Other trademarks belong to their respective owners.

Robin honed client management skills at The Pismo Group working primarily working with large organizations such as the Motion Picture and Television Fund, The Franchise Group and Paul Davis Restoration; and at Web Associates, handling clients such as Marvell Semiconductor, Linear Technologies and Yahoo. And before moving to the web industry. Previously, Robin lent a creative eye to the Nestle Corporation, the LA Weekly and Men’s Fitness Magazine as a graphic and publication designer. Robin has a BA in Journalism and a minor in graphic design from the University of Oregon.

“Robin is supremely talented and has a broad range of expertise in project management and web and media design,” said Jeremy LaDuque, chairman and CEO of New Image Technologies. “We look forward to adding her experience and expertise to our team. This talent will be a valuable asset as we continue to grow and add new clients to the New Image family. Through this type of expansion our professional services area is better able to support our clients and allows us to continue to provide the excellent service which has been fueling our growth.”

“New Image Technologies is realizing a unique vision of powerful web sites managed by their clients through elements CMS™ their latest offering for small and mid sized companies. Robin said. “I look forward to helping the company implement that vision in the growing marketplace for such capabilities.”

For more information about New Image Technologies, please visit www.nit.cc for information on elements CMS™ visit www.elementscms.com

About New Image Technologies
New Image Technologies is a leading provider web site development solutions and elements CMS™ the premier tool for small and mid size business to develop, manage and maintain their own web sites. elements CMS™ includes sophisticated web content management, e-commerce, e-marketing, search engine optimization tools. Companies nationally use these features to manage and maintain their online presence and to improve marketing performance. For more information, contact New Image Technologies. Voice: (805) 547-1160. Fax: (805) 547-1159. Address: 141 Suburban Rd Suite A1, San Luis Obispo CA 93401. Web site: www.nit.cc.

elements CMS™ and New Image Technologies are trademarks of Transformational
technologies, inc. Other trademarks belong to their respective owners.

Therefor they should not be able to figure out your organizational structure from how you build your website. Sure it is easy to assign responsibility for the content in the site to divisions and departments according to existing chains of command and budget or cost center, but this will result in an site of interest to you rather than a customer-focused site.

The web site should be designed  by the tasks your clients wish to perform on your site, even if that requires two very different departments contributing to a single page.

Sometimes it is necessary to have information from one department show up in two or more parts of the site, and many times you must collaborate between multiple departments to meet your clients expectations. 

All of this is great on the “about us ” but never on the home page. Remember that your company is not usually what the customer is interested in. They are the center of their world, not you.

Your site should be designed with your customers’ needs in mind and not to pat yourself on the back with how great your company is.

Don’t build a site that you will love: you are not the target audience.

Web design and development involves three levels:

Web management
Design (navigation support, homepage layout, templates, search, etc.)
Content  (the actual writing on the pages, as well as any other media used to communicate)
Just as in a good sandwich, the middle layer is the most tasty and gets the most attention, including much of NIT’s own work on Web usability. We have come to realize that the outer two layers are more important in many ways: users only care about content (the medium is not the message; the message is the message) and the user friendliness of a website is more about how it is managed than how good designers are.

The first mistake on my list is Not Knowing ‘Why’

It is truly surprising how many websites are built simply because some executive said “We need a website” without describing what the site should achieve.  The fact that “everybody else is doing it.”  is not a legitimate business reason.It is a fact that a website is now considered a must for a professional business. Not being on the Web is like not having a phone: other businesses wonder if you are real or going to be gone tomorrow. So it is alright to make a “brochure site” with a small amount of corporate image building, directions to your various facilities, and some information on your services or products. However, this is not the most effective use of the Web, and a site along these lines should only be built with the knowledge you are not going to invest in active use of the Web for business.

The first step in a  web design should be a determining ways  in which you can provide true customer value with your site. Provide your customers a true benefit from spending time on your site, allow them interact with you, and their business will follow.

Recent News
NIT has recently merged with The Pismo Group which brought additional strategic market planning to our company. During our discover phase for web development we explore the “why” of building your web site as well as other issues we will cover in upcoming issues.