MyBlog < Diffily.com

Why do so many websites fail?

Because they focus on the ’cool’ things - and ignore the basics.

This presentation of mine gives you 4 tips for making sure you site will succeed:

1. Equip yourself for success - hire great people.

2. Don’t overstretch.

3. Get a little better every day.

4. Measure yourself.

View more presentations from Shane Diffily.

Liz Windsor (aka 'The Queen') gets in the Irish mood by wearing shamrock hat.

Someone told me that Liz Windsor (aka 'The Queen') is coming to Ireland soon for a long weekend.

I hear she is already getting in the Irish mood & taken to wearing a shamrock hat at public engagements.

Gawd bless ya ma'am!

Ireland's unluckiest bird heard on Cruit Island, Co.Donegal.

Ireland's unluckiest bird (after the eagle) is the Corncrake.

Its sad decline has been well publicised for many years. Only a few sanctuaries remain ... and yet over the recent June bank holiday (2010) my uncle and I heard one in full voice on Oileán Cruit in West Donegal. (Listen to what we heard in the video below.)

I have been visiting there for over 30 years and never heard one before - nor has my uncle or anyone in his family.

However, there are 6 or 7 nesting on nearby Oileán Uaigh - so the bird we heard may be part of a new vanguard. He squawked his heart out for days.

Cruit seems well suited to him - lots of long grass. I just hope he manages to find a mate and survive.

A photo of the volcanic ash cloud as it approaches Dublin.

My advice is ... take in your washing.

Yes, I'm kidding ;)

Getting web governance right isn't easy - it requires trial and error

Getting web governance right isn't easy. It is likely that you will have to experiment with a few different approaches before it finally takes hold.

And this isn't such a bad thing

My User Experience colleagues sometimes refer to the principle of Iterative Design. This is based on the knowledge that few websites are 100% perfect when launched. Ongoing tweaks and changes will always be needed.

Successful websites recognise this by investing in skilled staff. Such staff combine insights from analytics and user feedback with their own expertise, to build progressively better experiences.

Governance requires a similar approach

No governance system - no matter how well designed - will be 100% right when implemented. What can seem a great idea during planning simply may not work in practice.

Look at the attached photo.

It shows an update schedule for a small firm’s website (that will remain anyonymous). It was pinned to the wall of a supervisor's office.

Look at the dates. It shows a start date of 2005 and a final entry from February 2006. It is now 2010. (Perhaps no one has the heart to remove it from the wall.)

Success or failure

This schedule is an artefact of a procedure that didn't work or is no longer needed.

Because I know that the website concerned is well maintained, it shows that the business has moved on.

Perhaps they found that the paper-based approach did not work. Perhaps they migrated to a CMS system.

It is tempting to think that this photo shows a governance failure.

That is too simplistic.

It shows trial, error and development. It shows governance 'in the wild'.

Speaking at Dun Laoghaire Enterprise Week event

Tomorrow I will be presenting at the Dun Laoghaire Enterprise Week event. The topic of my presentation is "Healthchecking your website." Almost 100 SMEs and entrepreneurs are expected to attend.

This event is run in conjuction with the IIA eBusiness Seminars.

Media action since Xmas

Since Xmas I have been on the radio 4 times about the website - LikePlace.ie - that myself & my brother Ronan created last year. That is quite some traction!

4FM Breakfast Show with Garreth O'Callaghan (Listen to MP3: 5-mins duration. 3.6MB © 4FM)
The Right Hook on News Talk 106 (Listen to MP3: 5-mins duration. 9.2MB © News Talk)
Bearrscéalta ar Raidió na Gaeltachta (Eist leis an MP3: 5-bom ar fad. 5.4MB © RnaG)
Near FM Dublin

Our findings were also featured in The Star newspaper (see the article) and The Kerryman.

LikePlace Zeitgeist 2009: Co.Donegal voted best county to live in. Co.Cork is the worst.

In 2009 LikePlace.ie collected over 1630 ratings about life in Ireland. We have now gathered the BEST & WORST of what we discovered into a Zeitgeist. http://www.likeplace.ie/zeitgeist/

The Zeitgeist highlights winners, losers & key trends from '09. It shows what you really think of Ireland as a place to live.

The best place to live during 2009 was Galway City with a score of 4.4-out-of-5.
Bray (Co.Wicklow) was the worst, with a score of just 2.6-out-of-5.
The best county was Co.Donegal.
The worst was Co.Cork.

LikePlace Zeitgeist

The Zeitgeist reveals that in 2009 the Irish people were a pretty satisfied bunch.

We were MOST HAPPY with the quality of our 'Environment', but LEAST HAPPY with the 'Cost of Living' and the ‘Economy’ . So, no surprises there!

LikePlace also collected many unusual and just plain weird comments about life in Ireland.

According to Willie, Ballyclare in Co.Antrim "Smells like a pigsty. Tastes like peach ice cream." !?
Jobstown in Co.Dublin was described as "A social experiment gone wrong." by Billo.
Reviewer Frank from Tallaght in Dublin 24 said “I’d prefer to live in Basra”.

A free diagram of website governance

Over the past few years many of the long-standing issues of website development have been solved (or are at least being far better handled). This includes technology, design and content.

However, one area continues to be both little understood and extremely poorly implemented - Website Governance.

Website governance is a means for supervising the activities of website management in a controlled & orderly way.

Part of the problem is that lots of web managers simply don't know what they're supposed to be doing. My book tries to address this problem by listing everything you need to do and - critically - how to do it.

But the book is big and can be hard to digest.

Download a FREE diagram of web governance

To help you out, I have created a simple diagram that maps all the major areas of activity and key tasks within each.

Download it now for free, print it out (A3 size) and pin it to your wall (PDF 2.2Mb).

It should help you both structure your work and communicate what it is a web manager/webmaster actually does.

Laughter Lounge? I felt like crying...

Looking for a good night out in Dublin with a good welcome, pleasant staff, a nice atmosphere and general nice vibe?

DON'T go to the Laughter Lounge in Dublin. It is awful.

The arrival is an ordeal - a list of rules from 3 meaty bouncers about what you cannot do. Smiles? No. Welcome? No.

Their business model seems to be ... shovel them in, get them drunk and turf them out.

The comedy was pretty poor too.

"Have web budget. Must spend." leads to bad websites

I spend a lot of time telling organisations they need to be on the web.

But, you know what? I should spend more time telling them NOT to develop a website.

Am I CrAzY?

For a long time getting the web into a communications budget was hard work. Oh boy. We had to "sell the internet" to so many people.

Eventually some of them got it and started to fund useful sites.

But success has its drawbacks.

Over time the web has become a "line item", a "check box", a "budget allocation".

A lot of internet managers don't have to justify their funding any more. They get budget by default. Especially in government.

And let me tell you "Have web budget, must spend" does not lead to good websites.

Oh no.

Such "line item" sites have:

No clear goals
No clear audiences
No metrics to measure success.

Beauty is skin deep - ugliness goes right to the bone

In short, they may look great - but their true ugliness cuts to the bone.

They are pointless and a waste of money. Taxpayers money. Your money.

The money spent on such sites would be better spent elsewhere. On printed brochures, on newspaper ads, on door-to-door visits, on sky writing aeroplanes, on anything. But not on the web.

I make websites

But, a word in your ear - if the only reason you are starting your web project is because "we got the budget" ... STOP.

Ask "Is this really right for the web? Can the web really help? Would this money actually get a better return if spent elsewhere?"

Sure, I can make the website for you if you insist.

But - you know what - I'll feel bad for you.

How long does it take to create a new website?

Thought experiment.

How long does it take to create a new website?

You’re right. It’s a stupid question.

Like the proverbial ‘piece of string’.

OK, let’s define it a bit better.

Suppose you first have to clarify the website’s strategy and identify its target audience.

Suppose that the output of that process is a plan for a brochureware-type site of about 250 pages.

Imagine each page contains 500 words (more-or-less) and 1 image. All this content needs to be compiled from existing online & offline media, with heavy editing required.

As that work progresses, a full design cycle must begin – from organising the sites structure to deciding on colours and imagery.

Following that, the HTML templates are created and integrated into a Content Management System. Content is then inserted and formatted.

Finally, everything must be tested, signed off and made ready for golive.

So how long did that take?

Here’s my guess. 5 months minimum.

Seems a long time doesn’t it? Yet, experience indicates that is the time frame we are dealing with.

For some this might seem intolerably long. Can it not happen faster?

Well, yes it can . . . if you work in a small organisation with lots of skilled people, loads of money, huge commitment and no distractions – you can probably do it faster.

But let’s not kid ourselves.

So why does it take so long?

Let’s look at 2 elements.

Content

For 1 person to rewrite, edit and get sign-off on a single page of the type described, can take up to 4 hours. (And that’s a conservative estimate.)

Do the math. It adds up to 26 man-weeks for 250 pages. Half a year right there.

Even if we assume corners can be cut, we are still talking about several months of work.

Design

This site is being made from scratch.

It needs an Information Architecture, as well as wireframes and visual designs for at least 3 (probably more) template types. For example, a homepage, a gallery page and a standard content page.

Several weeks of work there too.

Sure, some activities can occur concurrently. But it all adds up.

And guess what. We made loads of assumptions to keep time to a minimum. For example, we assumed:

A project team is in place, including a project manager, designer, content writer, code developer & technical administrator.
Everyone has all the skills needed to implement a website of the type described
The web infrastructure and all technical solutions have already been chosen.
There are no finicky security, technology integration or other issues to handle.
Everything goes smoothly.

The lesson is time.

Making a website takes time. So plan for it.

Find the best (& worst) places to live in Ireland on LikePlace.ie

Myself and my brother have launched a website, www.likeplace.ie.

Find and rate the best (and worst) places to live in Ireland on LikePlace.ie

The purpose of the site is to help people find a great place to live in Ireland - based on ratings and comments from the people who live there (or know it well). It has been live now for about 1 month and gone thru various refinements from user testing (!) since then.

So far over 170 places have been rated from hundreds more submissions and comments.

Part time project

This has been very much a part time project. We have been working on it over weekends & evenings since last July. I did the design, HTML and CSS. My bro did the client and server side scripting.

Some issues we are aware of:

It is not accessible.
It is a real code soup.

Unfortunately, both were unavoidable given the part time nature of our committment. However, we do have plans to clean things up in due course.

So have a look AND - most important - rate the place where you live!

PS - Watch video and see more pictures on the LikePlace Facebook page.

In a cave again...

I first visited Uaigh na gCat (Cave of the Cats) about 15 years ago, but was ill equipped at the time. Having done a lot of caving in Fermanagh and Clare recently I decided to return.

In ancient times it was considered an entrance to the underworld of the Sí - the fairy people. Rathcroghan is a very ancient landscape with many barrows, ring forts and other structures. It is also the reputed domain of Queen Méabh and the starting point of An Tain Bó Cuailgne.

While the cave is a natural structure, it seems to have been modified in past times and reinforced with slabs of limestone. This includes an ogham stone that was placed into the roof. Of itself the stone has nothing to do with the cave (it is actually a grave marker that was moved here) though it certainly adds some mystery.

The cave is about 20 metres deep and 50 metres long. Quite a simple passage - wet and with a large chamber.

When I was there I saw the remains of some candles and crow feathers stuck into the walls. Looks like some crusty folk were perhaps conducting secret rituals down below.

iQ Web Boot Camp 2009: Ireland's leading web usability & design conference

Dublin, 9th - 11th June.

Discover how to weather the recession and not only survive, but thrive online!

At iQ Boot Camp, you'll get the skills you need to improve your website, increase visitor numbers and satisfaction, cut costs and increase revenues. And a whole lot more.

The line up:

23 workshops over 3 days (including 9 NEW courses)
Future Now seminar
Aprés Boot networking event

What you'll learn

What you learn at Boot Camp will make your site measurably better. And you'll get to learn and network with a community of peers who share your challenges.

Budget-friendly fees

We've lowered registration fees by 10% from last year, so everyone can attend. And if you book before May 20, you'll get an Early Bird discount of up to 20%.

It's the best money you'll spend on your website this year.

Register now: http://www.iqcontent.com/events/bootcamp/

Find us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/m2Nc

Shane on TV

As mentioned below, the company I work for (iQ Content) is giving away 10,000 Euro to Ireland's most original web startup.

This initiative has attracted a LOT of media attention.

Last night, we were featured on RTÉ News Two.

Watch the video on the RTÉ website (from 19mins 37secs onwards) or watch a lower quality YouTube grab below.

A wonderful station really (ignoring what I wrote in a previous post, ahem.)

Incandescent

Reactionary nonsense from both RTÉ and government over this caricature.

Money, money, money ...

The company I work for - iQ Content - is giving away €10,000 to help grow a good web idea into a great business. No strings attached.

No, seriously. No strings.

There are just 2 conditions:

The prize will go to the best business plan for an internet start-up.
You must be based on the island of Ireland.

Find out more at www.iqprize.ie

Great face for radio

Some while ago I wrote about RaboDirect and how they are putting it up to conservative Irish banks through their innovative use of the web.

NewsTalk 106FM provides another example of adventurous web content. Since last Friday the Right Hook show has been streamed live on the web. A screen grab of the new talk website, showing a smiling George Hook

A screen grab of the new talk website, showing a smiling George Hook

Nothing new there you say.

However, they are not just streaming audio - but video as well. That means you can watch George Hook as well as listen to him.

Is it a good idea?

Well, let's wait and see. The screen-capture at right shows that only 134 people were watching at that moment. That must be a tiny percentage of the total listenership.

But even if this video idea proves to be a flop, at least they had the guts to try it out. They didn't just slavishly try to imitate the BBC. They created interesting web content within the constraints of their own budget.

So hats off to Hookie & team.

Rant, rage and no wifi

Who would have thought it would be so effing hard to find a cafe with wireless web access in Dublin city centre.

An don't get me started about Malahide. I went into every single cafe there 3 weeks ago looking for wifi. None. Nada. Zip.

While innumerable pubs and restaurants have free wifi, almost no cafes do. What's that about?! Am I more likely to want to use my computer over a cup of coffee, or over a rake of pints or a slap-up meal?

Very frustrating.

Get with it Dublin. You embarrass me.

Why do so many websites fail?

Liz Windsor (aka 'The Queen') gets in the Irish mood by wearing shamrock hat.

Ireland's unluckiest bird heard on Cruit Island, Co.Donegal.

A photo of the volcanic ash cloud as it approaches Dublin.

Getting web governance right isn't easy - it requires trial and error

And this isn't such a bad thing

Governance requires a similar approach

Success or failure

Speaking at Dun Laoghaire Enterprise Week event

Media action since Xmas

LikePlace Zeitgeist 2009: Co.Donegal voted best county to live in. Co.Cork is the worst.

A free diagram of website governance

Download a FREE diagram of web governance

Read more...

Laughter Lounge? I felt like crying...

"Have web budget. Must spend." leads to bad websites

How long does it take to create a new website?

How long does it take to create a new website?

So how long did that take?

So why does it take so long?

Content

Design

Find the best (& worst) places to live in Ireland on LikePlace.ie

In a cave again...

iQ Web Boot Camp 2009: Ireland's leading web usability & design conference

What you'll learn

Budget-friendly fees

Shane on TV

Incandescent

Money, money, money ...

Great face for radio

Is it a good idea?

Rant, rage and no wifi

MyBlog

More Blogging

Previous Posts

Archives