Web designer = Web consumer.
All of my company’s network is down today. So I took some time to open a folder and re-read some chapters I kept around from diverse books. I happenned to come by a quote I did from Mark Boulton’s Five Simple Steps on the use of web applications that made me ponder on how we, web designers, fit in the big picture.
Design conventions are being born. Maturing online, and now business is starting to see the benefit. Now, if I wasn’t using these products or services, if I wasn’t a consumer of the web, I’d be blind to what was possible. It’s not enough to rest on your laurels. If you’re a web designer, you need to be a web consumer.
I think that this quote best describes the state of mind a real web designer must be in. This is how the web designer brings new ideas to his client or entertains same level discussions with hardcore application users. Consuming the web intelligently, this is the real deal. Consume it, understand it and see how you can set this usage in your work.
Not only does this allow you to keep up with trends but it also helps you know how people consume the web. In other words, you’re your own guinea pig. You will then be able to compare your consumption to that of other web users in order to, for example, work on the building of personas for usability testing.
Today, too many web designers forget that the web must be consumed and not just be a sort of magazine layout for companies. Just one question: how many Mauritian companies have a professional blog or a twitter account? Actually the question should be simpler than that: how many companies have a professional blog or a twitter account? How many web designers out there understand the social practices that are maturing on social apps and are proposing them to their clients.
About the Author:
Sachin D. Brojmohun has extensive experience in terms of graphic design, CSS integration, usability and accessibility as well as in SEO. More about him and the Web Design Bureau of Mauritius here: Web Design Mauritius.
It all goes down to applying the marketing concept in everything that you are trying to sell. I mean assessing the needs of consumers and the market and adapting what you can do as per those needs, as you have said.
“…how many Mauritian companies have a professional blog or a twitter account?” Damn! How many Mauritian companies have an online presence at all? Very few… Talking about blogs and Twitter is a very long shot when it comes to Mauritian organisations, unfortunately.
morinn´s last blog ..Waiting for the cane-cutting
Twitter: sachindb
says:
I think that on the web, the mere marketing concept is not enough. Understanding it thoroughly is really important. In my marketing department people do not use RSS readers for example. In the communication department they think that if people enter your domain name a lot in IE then Google puts your site first in its results pages. Understanding and experiencing gives you a better approach to explain things simply to people who are completely oblivious of certain technologies.
You are quite right for web presence. Mauritian companies should try to concentrate on that first.
Twitter: kurtavish
says:
How many Mauritian companies you asked?
Forget how many have a blog or twitter…since most dont even know what is a blog lol.
For many of them a blog is a “Ah twena un sit internet heeeeinnn” lol.
Kurt Avish´s last blog ..Wikipop A WordPress Plugin To Bring Wikipedia To Your Blog
Twitter: sachindb
says:
Well, I didn’t ask any Mauritian company, just made a quick Google search. Yeah, I think that we can also see the fact that for many company representatives in Mauritius anything on the web can be reduced to being a website. We might as well mix things up saying a Lamborghini Reventon and a Tata Nano are but mere cars.