What passes for a web development firm these days............

[xylex]

So, I'm helping out a "web development firm" who somehow landed a contract with a major national client, and their lead guy was worried about having SEF URL's, so I suggested cleaning them up with mod_rewrite. His reply was "What's mod_rewrite?" which, after some explanation to him, he said, "Oh, so it's like website cloaking." :confused:

Sorry, just had to vent.

[grumpyoldtechs]

run why you still can.

the biggest problem with web development at the moment is allot of design firms with great photoshop and graphics people advertise that they "DO WEB STUFF" and the reality of it is a LARGE % of the web design companies out their don't have a clue they are still making photoshop cutouts or wysiwyg html websites heavily image based.

and the biggest problem of all is THE CLIENTS DON'T HAVE A CLUE they don't know the difference between a good website and a bad one all they know is it has the information they wanted and it looks good. it doesn't matter that its completely inaccessible and uses HTML which went out of practice back in the dark ages

sorry i just get stressed with this theirs too many "web development" companys bastardizing the internet and giving us developers a bad name

[felgall]

There is a HUGE difference between web design and web development. There are very few people who are good at both and so for a company to be able to offer both they will need several staff who are experts in the different areas and who know how to work together to produce the desired result. The other alternative is to employ a web development company to develop the backend of your web site and a web design company to develop the front end.

[netbuddy]

before you can develop
before you can design

you must... Consult.

A good consultation with a client is key, it sets out clearly what is expected in way of design amd what is possible as well as to iron out any conceptual issues with the development of a sites design.

All good web site starts from a set of consultation notes which outline the clients needs, this is often translated into a "story board" of a schematic design so that the design team and developers can see what is meant to go where and to link to what and to hold certain information or perform a certain function.

The job of web design and development is only part of the job, the consultaion side of things is often the bit that is skirted over, people ask if "you can build me a web site" and the stock reply is "Sure" even if they cant and nothing in the way of desin notes and requirements are taken into consideration.