When Agile Project Management can fall over

Agile project management can not be abused for clients to simply avoid interacting and leave the agency just "doing stuff" in the expectation that, at the last minute, all can be fixed, changed and polished - because it's "Agile".

Nor can Agile embrace endless rounds of amends and "oh. I've just thought it really needs to be like xyz."... In fact, Agile often can fall over in smaller projects where time-frames are in days and not weeks or months, budgets are locked down (and smaller!) and the project isn't actually the client contact's core role for turning up to work every day.

In short, sometimes, a smaller project needs a combination of waterfall and agile. And a brutal realisation that, if key decision makers don't actually confirm something and sign it off NOW, the project will fail.

As an aside, I think it is a confident, experienced and highly professional agency that has the balls to tell their client so. Even if this upsets them in the short term. Being too nice will just lead to collapse at the end and everyone being fired.

And we don't do "getting fired" now do we!

Content Management Systems are Expensive

It seems that organisations want content management systems to do everything. To become a workflow of their business. To embrace every quirk and corner of the organisations way of doing things.

It seems that agencies and consultants are more than willing to sell in highly priced CMS systems, consultancy, configuration and endless support in order to help companies strive for the nectar that is their fantasy.

The trouble is that.... this fantasy simply doesn't exist. In truth, companies want an CMS to "know" when an event has happened, write all the content, find all the imagery and publish it to their site without anyone actually having to up-skill or do pretty much anything. That would be their perfect dream.

Well, if it's a marketing press release, we need it to work like X... but if it's a corporate press release, it needs to work like Y. We can't let people have access on a Sunday because there's no sign off process available on that day. Document management isn't standardised across the organisation due to historical differences... And, if it's raining, we need the whole thing to put the thermostat up a notch and make us all tea.

The truth is that organisations are spending a fortune on trying to have a system which means their staff don't have to know anything technical and thinks for them in terms of management processes. Finds things instantly even though the user hasn't assigned any meta data... and writes reports for you... "You know.. it's like the last report with a bit of thinking... can't the CMS do that"....

I have had a client ask (and this is no lie), "When I log in to the CMS admin to edit the About Us page, I want it to take me straight to that page in the back end so I can edit it immediately. ". Mind reading CMS software isn't available yet I carefully explained.

When you're spending tens (hundreds?) of thousands of pounds on the CMS in the first place and then days (months!) of configuration at £1200 a day from consultants, it begs the question... Couldn't you just train some people internally (or hire PAYE people on £24K/year) to take ownership and responsibility for handling the content and getting it up in the right place, in the right format at the right time... people who can train colleagues in what is actually very simple work (if you can use Word and play on a Wii, you can use a basic CMS)...

And save hundreds and thousands of pounds on IT... and invest in upskilling.

Sorry all you big shot CMS guys out there !

3 Reasons why you might want a 'new' website

Firstly, you very seldom 100% neeeeeeeeed a new website. Hence why it is often a project that gets sticky plastered, left, delayed or just ignored.

Partly because a website requires a business to do some deep deep thinking about how it should be percieved and how it needs to talk about itself and present itself. It needs clarity. This takes time.. and everyone is busy so it gets left.

This blog tries to very quickly explain why you would neeeeeeeed a new website.

1. You have changed the focus of your business

Your business is changing. And your website hasn't. It's crucial that the business proposition is articulated swiftly on your website and that your new business opportunities and strategies are reflected in the sites aspirations.

Time to re-think the site and engage a web design agency that can understand your business, marketing, branding and communications challenges and turn that into a web solution.

2. Your expanding the website's capability

Your existing site might be 'OK', but there were things you wanted to improve before that you never had the budget for. And now you want to add in some interactivity or data capture or even some mini-applications or widgets that enhance the site for your users. You may even want a secure login for your sales staff - or a maketing toolkit hidden away for distributors... or even develop an ecommerce solution.

Either way, you're at a point where the current capability of the site is in question and the opportunity to utilise its capabilities better is a commercially tempting one.

You need to engage a web agency that can help your site become all it can be.

3. It's Just Old - and people can tell!!

The mention of trusty old ford cortinas wont wash. It's not trusty - it's rusty... and I don't see any business execs driving old ford cortinas either... so the website is not up to the job. A website can become old because coding 'rules' move on. Just like an old car might go from A-B, if it is pumping out a shed load of black smoke, it's no longer allowed on the road. If your website has some tell-tale signs, it neeeeeeds to be replaced.

First off - just from a design perspective... look around at the latest sites and your hottest competitors. Now be honest. Is yours really cutting it? Really? Because what the eye does not admire - the heart will not desire. People buy from well designed businesses/products/people.. and websites.

Secondly... technical.. Don't be daunted. This is how to find out... Go to your website. Right-click the screen (but not on an image) and do View Source. Don't be afraid. Web coders aren't rocket scientists - this stuff isn't that hard. This is what you're looking for.

Table Tags

If you can see somethig like the image below, you have tables. And, unless this is actually displaying tabular data, this is a massive No No. This is like having an exhibition stand designed in Microsoft Word. You need a new site.. and you need it soon.

Rogue Styles

If you can see something like the image below, you have rogue styles. Not 100% a crime but it shows that the site was built before there were some accepted wisdoms. Back to our car analogy... if you smoke in your car with the kids in the back, it's not illegal... but it's definitely not something you want to be doing right?

Embedded JavaScript and StyleSheets

If you can see somethig like the image below, you have Javascipt and/or Styles in the HTML code... and they shouldn't be. They should be held in external files and linked to. This is crucial for keeping the content of the HTML file as low as possible. As above, it's not 100% a crime but, in our opinion, any web agency building sites like this now is not fit for purpose. It's a real No No as it slows down site load, it means any amends to style or script have to be done to each page of your site individually rather than just to 1 stylesheet file. It's clumsey, old and slow... and it is supposed to be less friendly for SEO.



So, there you go. Have a critical look at your site and, if you could do with some help, please have a look at www.oobainteractive.co.uk and we'll try and help.

Old Websites Sure Are Funny

http://gizmodo.com/349333/old-websites-sure-are-funny

Web Design Process

Well we've been designing and building web sites for a while now and a couple of things have come to mind in the last few months.

That of Design.... and Brand. We'll do the brand again later...

I'll start with Designing a website. The thing is, it's not about web design. It's about your business, your brand and, most importantly, your users.

Design is bigger than nice pics or fancy buttons or a whizzy gallery. Design is about how intuitive the usability is for your audience. And how it doesn't make the user 'think'.

If you had to 'think' on our website (i.e. "errrm what does that do?") then we want to know. And we'll jump right on it.

The art of a beautifully designed website is the effortlessness (is that a word?) that the users whizz through it - without really noticing that they are making any effort at all.

Web Galleries are a classic.... "I want that one like what the BBC have got.". Rational: BBC=Award Winning website. Their gallery must be good.

In fact, at the time of writing this, it's tragicaly bad. Clicking along a row of number-buttons ([1] [2] [3] etc ) in order to see what's next without any idea of a preview. It's linear and analogue and tiresome.

Or... "I want that one where the little tiny icon - you click on it and it hides the rest of the page and does a whizzy thing and pops up in a kinda new window thing"... Yep.. a lot better. But wait. You still have to open... close... open... close... It might be more 'digital' - but it's still tiresome.

So, check out our gallery.

http://www.oobainteractive.co.uk/portfolio

It's really boring - From a web whizz bang perspective. But really useful from a user's perspective.

You get a matrix of thumbnails and a nice 'big enough' preview image. Then, as you roll over that thumbnail, the preview image changes. Then, click the thumbnail and you get the full sized one. Genius. Just what you need when you want to skim through the images and just jump on the pic you actually want to see.

It's not whizzy. It's not clever. But it is designed with the user in mind. And users prefer it. Massively.

Here's another example how, with design, less can be more. Many clients ask for an all singing all dancing HTML designed eshot.

But, it has been proved time and again that an email that just... well.. errm... looks like an email is so much more effective at gettings sales results.

So, forget what bigger brands are doing... often they are way behind the curve. Less is more. Simplicity is everything and beautiful web design is way way way more than just what it looks like.