Why Web Development and Design

So, a lot of people lately have been using online "tools" or outsourcing their needs for web design. They utilize things like Intuit's® site-builder, or hiring someone from India to do their design, development, search-engine registering, SEO, and Yellow Book registration. All of this for either a ton of money or hardly any money at all!

So, what's the big deal, you ask? The big deal is that these people that are using these resources and tools are taking work away from honest, hard-working, local designers and developers, like myself. That being said, on to the true meaning of this blog, why Web Development and Design.

Everyone knows that Web Development is important. You have to be able to have the content, and the different aspects of the site, to make it attractive to other people to come and look at. Development is a huge part of a new site, as it is responsible for every interactive portion of your site. From the simple display of a few graphics and tables, to the complete slideshow of photos, to an interactive blog or comment block. Everything that you may interact with is thanks to a Web Developer. Web Development is important, because it provides the opportunity for the client to have what they want put in to their site. It gives us a chance to display our knowledge, know-how, skills, talents, and abilities.

So, what's wrong with bringing in an outsourced company to do my web dev for me? Well, there's not necessarily anything "wrong" with doing that, but you lose a lot of personable touches that a local person or company could give you. If you were talking to a local person, you would have the opportunity to meet with them face-to-face. You would be able to have a conversation with that person in one sitting, probably only having to repeat yourself so your developer (or designer) could take notes. You would be able to call them whenever you wanted, and e-mail them with any changes you may need. Could you do that with someone from, say, India? Or Mexico? Or China? Would you only have to repeat yourself so that they could take good notes? Or would you have to repeat yourself because English (or whatever language is your national language) isn't their first language? I would assume the latter of the two. It's hard to communicate with someone when English isn't their first language, because they don't understand a lot of the "slang" terms that we use.

Now, let's not leave out Designers. The 2nd part of this huge thing is Designers. A lot of people now-a-days are thinking "Hey, I'll just go to this site, where there are already templates I can use, and just throw a site up within a few minutes." That's great, if you like cookie-cutter style websites. I don't know how many sites I have been to that all look the same, just with a few different colors. The navigation is the same, the displays are the same, even the layout is the same. And these are completely different businesses. So, in come the designers. I have some designer friends that all like to have fun, and create these off the wall lay-outs. They are amazing! Would someone use them for their site? Who knows, maybe. But, they also have the ability to make plain, simple, functional displays, too!

Imagine you go to a site, and you see something you like about that site. You see something you enjoy on another site that is different from the first. Then, you go to a third site, and you're WOWED at the layout, color schema, and all-together flow of it. Now, could you call up whoever creates these templates for Intuit® or anyone else, and say "Hey, I want you to build me a custom template that combines these aspects of these 3 different sites"? No, there is absolutely no way they would do it, and not charge you an excessive amount of money to do it. Designers are not that way. Designers will jump at the chance to get their creativity flowing, their skills in use. Designers are an amazing breed, and you can't go without designers.

So, put together the Developers that are local with the Designers who love what they do, and you have a heck of a team. Support local, stay local, and buy local. And by local, I mean within your home country, if not state/city. That's my take on it, and please, feel free to comment with your thoughts!

Adam J. Campbell
Owner/Web Developer
Semper Fidelis Web Design