• 3 11.03.09

    Dangerous curves ahead

    Matt Kaye

    Dangerous Curves Ahead

    I’ve worked at Loewy Design for five years, and over time I’ve noticed a growing trend in requests for content management systems (CMS). After building out a handful, I noticed another trend that struck me as odd. Some of the clients wanted me to make edits to their sites post-launch, even though I had just handed them a fully functional, easy-to-use CMS.

    How could this be? Did I do something wrong? Was the training I gave them on the software not good enough? A lot of thoughts like these ran through my mind. Maybe, or perhaps…there’s more to this trend.

    I’ve noted that the clients who end up not using their new CMS software have these traits in common:

    1. They’re terrified of breaking something.
      Even though it’s been explained to them that it would be very hard, if not impossible, to truly “break” the site, they still show tremendous trepidation about hitting that save button.
    2. They’ve underestimated the learning curve
      Everything new has a learning curve to it. Although we strive to use the simplest systems out there, everyone learns at his or her own pace, and some people pick up things faster than others. Either frustration sets in, or it’s too costly for them to spend all day playing with new software. And some people just don’t want to learn anything new.
    3. They generally work for larger companies
      Strangely enough, the companies that have larger budgets are the ones that don’t tend to use the systems. Clients like the idea of being able to manage their own websites, but quickly realize that although a CMS is easy to use it’s another task they need to add to their busy schedules.


    My third point brings me to a question: “How do you, as the client, know when a CMS is needed?”

    There are lots of possible scenarios, but in general, if you have a little time to invest in learning the software and a good development team supporting you along the way, you can’t beat the value and independence a CMS provides.

    The recent widespread rise in popularity enjoyed by content management systems such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and MODx has changed the way clients feel about their websites. No longer are they just hiring someone to build something. They are now really part of the process: able to affect their websites directly, without needing any programming knowledge or having to pick up the phone.

    So are you ready to move to a CMS?

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Comments

  • Tony K 11/10/2009

    I’ve always found it frustrating when you build a great, easy-to-use CMS for a client and then spend a few hours training them to use it only for them to ask you to change the text on the homepage. I think clients will always have the “I’m gonna blow up the site if I hit save” mentality, it’s just through trial and error (and blowing up sites) that developers have learned that there’s really nothing catastrophic that you can do from the admin.

    However building a great CMS for a client that doesn’t want to dive in isn’t a bad thing at all. Whether a client asks me to change content or add a page to the nav, having the CMS saves me tons of time and energy. Thinking back to Dreamweaver templates vs. MODx, the difference is night and day.

    I guess my point would be that CMS’ are just as valuable (if not more) to the developer as they are to client.

  • Kyle 03/02/2010

    When building a site with a CMS, your focus should be on the webmaster, not the client. I’ve built hundreds of content managed sites on various platforms. 95% of the time this CMS system is nothing more then a tool for ME to maintain the site. I have found the majority of end users and SMB owners don’t want to be involved in the ongoing maintenance of their website. They want you to update it. The same as they want to drop off a cheque at the bank, and expect the bank to process it.

    With that said, how does this reflect on the strategy and planning process? Well my angle is I have developer CMS’s, and I have end user CMS’s. If an end user does not show particular proficiency with my ‘easy to use’ CMS, then I generally anticipate the fact that they will not sustain in on going maintenance, and if the scope of the project benefits from the use of my developer CMS, I opt to use the more advanced CMS. Having this efficiency during the build process allows me more flexibility with the ongoing request for maintenance.

    Have a pricing in mind and think on your feet to make the best decisions for a project. Clients don’t always know what they want, they just know they want it.

  • Gilbert Midonnet 03/25/2010

    The solution that I found for that was to have a “go live” button. The page could be viewed, not only by the person who made the change but by others (supervisors, co-workers) and THEN, when they’re confident that they haven’t messed things up they click the “go live” button.

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