My mother recently asked me to speak to her Database Management class about the role of database design in building websites. Being the good son I am, I said yes. I then rushed into her office to try to skim read the database design basics!
I know something about databases. But the fact that I’m not an official expert in databases, but am paid (or rather – expected) to work with them triggered a bigger concern.
Most 180 clients don’t come with a checklist of their needs, so they can compare them against 180’s capabilities. Many of them wouldn’t even know what to put on that checklist. But once employment begins, they expect everything to work out great.
Even if they dont’ know specifically what they need, clients trust 180 to look out for the things they aren’t too sure about. Our clients are happily blessed, but rest of the world is riddled with stories of disappointment.
Web-industry clients continue to get frustrated and burned due to incautious providers taking on work too large or complicated for their own abilities.
This happens due to the ease-of-entrance to offering web creation as a service. Almost anyone can build a website now days. From lab geeks straight out of college to advertising and design agencies: many providers will add ‘web creation’ on their services list. However, they may not understand that ‘web creation’ is a huge field of sub-disciplines.
One of those sub-disciplines is bound to be remotely important. And anything important will be expected, even if their client doesn’t understand or ask for it explicitly.
The temptation to ‘fudge’ on quality is usually in areas that no one is checking: the proverbial foundations and attics of a building.
Grey areas in a project, as one could imagine, are where small design flaws can wreak havoc later on for both clients and service providers.
Therefore companies must exert equal energy into any service they offer, regardless of their client’s familiarity with those services.
This concept isn’t new. It’s basically the “do good work” principle we’ve all been taught. Google calls it “do no evil.” It is easy to incorporate into any practice by staying focused on strengths, and dropping or deferring all those other grey areas.