Spider Design

A web is truly a design masterpiece, combining beauty and functionality.

Spiders are born with all the skills needed to create a perfect web.  When it comes to web design, I am continually surprised by the number of humans, who think they also have this innate skill.   Even a cursory survey of web sites is enough to disprove this myth.  So why does it persist?

Perhaps it’s because basic web development is easy.    Even in the early days, one only had to have an  html-head-body template to create a basic page. Today, there is a proliferation of free templates that let amateurs create their own sites and add a fair amount of variety.  These do a fine job for those with personal sites and blogs, allowing the author to select colors and images that reflect their personal taste and interests.  This does not translate to business sites, where personal preferences may not attract or retain customers.  Business sites also require far more functionality than personal pages.  Visitors will quickly leave a site, if they experience navigation difficulties, such as finding a needed service or slow page loading.   

My niece’s husband, a creative director for a New York web design firm, has met many clients, who first tried to develop their own sites, in order to avoid the cost of professional design.  Frequently, the resulting business loss cost them far more than professional web design services.  The morale? Unless you are a spider, it’s far more cost effective to leave your web design to the professionals.