SpiderServe Web Design

As a web developer, I often get people asking me to build a website and their explanation of what they want – “I want a copy of www.domain.com please”. I tend to stay away from these kind of clients, as if my client doesn’t know what they want, then I have no hope of developing a site that they will be happy with.

I have tried this once before and got my fingers severely burnt.

When I start a database driven site, I look at the full spec of the site and the database structure is decided from what the requirements of the specifications are. Telling your developer three months down the line that actually you want to be able to import data in a set structure, or providing a feed to another site that was never previously mentioned, will only serve to frustrate your developer and is likely to push the cost up, as fixes will have to be found to provide the new functionality. It will strain your client/developer relationship.

On a personal level, I also think it is good for a website owner to think about what they want their own website to do – creating a clone of someone else’s website may not provide everything you want – and a lot of what you don’t want. Besides, surfers don’t want to see replicas of the same website all over the internet – be different!

Asking a web developer to create a site that does what you want it to do requires a specification list to be drawn up. Without it you may as well ask an insurance company for a quote without providing the details of the driver and the car. A properly drawn up spec list means a developer is more likely to be able to provide a realistic quote for the work, so you are less likely to incur extra costs.

So in summary, providing your developer with a spec list means that you know what you want the finished project to be able to do, and will help to build a relationship with your developer that is built on respect.

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