The seven deadly sins of cyberspace
by Andrew Weston

Andrew Weston spends most of his life in cyberspace. As developer of SiteAnswer, a new software tool designed to revolutionise the world of content management, Andrew knows what makes a site good, bad or downright ugly. Here he sets out his seven deadly sins of the Internet, and how to avoid them.

One of the fascinating things about the Internet is that nobody has had time to establish any rules about design or content management. It has all happened too quickly. Result: complete confusion.

John from accounts, who has a PC at home and is a bit of a surfer, fancies he knows a thing or two about designing a web site. Next moment, he is the office guru and making all the decisions about how his company should present itself on the web. Not that John has a clue actually, but he's hardly likely to tell anyone because playing Webmaster is much more fun than life in Purchase Ledger.

Scenario two. Bob and Dave, graphics designers (marvellous mailers, amazing adverts and brilliant brochures), think that the web is a great opportunity for them to transfer their skills to a new medium and make shed loads of cash. Trouble is though they don't bother to find out anything about Internet technology first or how it integrates with corporate systems. Never mind all that, their sites look good so everyone comes beating a path to their door. For the time being at least.

Perhaps all this goes some way towards explaining why there are so many truly awful sites, some representing household name companies, clogging up the Internet. And the situation is getting progressively worse as new design software gives people even greater opportunities to express themselves creatively.

Part of the problem is that too many managers think that developing a great web site is all about the way it looks and feels.  What they should really be focusing on is information and producing a website where content can be maintained easily and efficiently without risking damage to the design.  Countless numbers of companies have created websites that look fabulous but are completely out-of-date because the process of editing the content is so complex that only the web consultant can make any changes.

At Weston Technology we spend countless hours looking at web sites, admiring the few really good ones and cringing with embarrassment at the vast majority, which all seem to suffer from one or more of what we have come to know as the Seven Deadly Sins of Cyberspace. So here they are, in no special order of gravity.

Home Page humbug. Home pages are where designers tend to cut loose and try out all their fancy graphics and animation. Sometimes they take so long to download and then run, that you feel you are sitting through the uncut version of Ben Hur. Home pages should be quick to download, give a single message and make it easy for the user to see where to go next.

Black hole buttons.  Great, you think as you see a button marked New Vacancies. Just what I'm looking for as a job applicant. Click. Nothing happens. Click. Still nothing. Click, click, click, click cli.....I've had enough of this, thinks the user, I'm off to a competitor's site. Never have black hole buttons, even if you mean to add some content some day soon. They tend to get forgotten.

Contact calamity. There is nothing, but nothing, more frustrating than filling out a complicated form to establish contact with a consultancy, or to go on their mailing list, only for the system not to work. Test your contact system. Then test it again. And keep it simple. People have lives to lead.

Ancient history. You can always tell a site that is not being maintained properly. Check the date of the latest news release or list of current vacancies. They are such tell tale signs. So are those once funky features like revolving globes and animated logos. All very 1990s, I'm afraid.

Flaky functionality. Just click here to download a really interesting report that is essential reading for anyone thinking of applying for a job with us. Great. Click. Hold on, what's all this. This takes me back to the home page. Click. Hello, I seem to be looking at a map now. Oh dear. Make sure your system works. Otherwise, what's the point of having a site in the first place? A bad site can really damage your image.

Content famine. There's only one thing worse than going on to a site that is too thick with content you just cannot fight your way through it. And that's a site that is all design and no data. Who wants flashy graphics and not enough words? Get the balance right, and remember that most people visit web sites for information.

Click fever. Much as I love my mouse, I don't want to spend all day using it, just to get a phone number off a web site. The other day, I found a site that took me nine clicks to get an address. And then it turned out to be an old one. Grrrrr. Two clicks, or at worst three, should be all that's needed to find anything you want from a site.

So there are the Seven Deadly Sins of Cyberspace. If I'm honest, I could think of seventy-seven given half a chance. But perhaps it's better to focus on one essential truth about web development: think of your site as an integral part of your business, not as a nice-to-have little extra.  It is vital that it not only looks fantastic, but is also an accurate source of information, which means that the state of the art graphics should not get in the way of being able to make quick editorial changes to the content.

You can contact Andrew Weston at Weston Technology on visit www.siteanswer.com or call .

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