I watched a two hour video by a well known web/technology guru. Only in my dreams could I speak this well in public. The audience was made up of executive directors of not-for-profit organizations. The speaker wanted to focused on three points: FREE, ONLY FOUR DOLLARS A MONTH, and HOW CAN I CUT THAT COST IN HALF?

I didn’t disagree with everything he said, but I would like to contest some of his logic that third party software is the main solution for not-for-profit websites. Third party software works great for a particular solution, but they are rarely built to work in unison with each other. As you begin to link one third party system to another you not only generate time wasting passwords that you must organize and keep track of, but you lose all continuity that makes using a website enjoyable.

If you take into account the usability problems, and additional labor on the part of the not-for-profits staff, it could end up costing even more in the long run. Shannon-Rose Design employs this type of software when needed, but we spend a considerable time with customization, building them directly into the site with a single password, and turn off all irrelevant CMS tools that are not needed.

Web development in this manner may solve the issues of a fragmented website developed from third party software, but it will add to the final cost dramatically. Users don’t like spend time on disfunctional websites. In the end some money is saved, but there are issues that the speaker never addressed, and he finished by stateing don’t call me on any of this because my company doesn’t do this type of work. From an engineering standpoint he is absolutely correct, but from the point of view of someone trying to use a site made up of a conglomerate of unrelated webpages, it could be a risky long-term solution.

Posted by Richard Kline

Tags:   affordable website · not-for-profit · third party software · usability