Adaptable Websites: More Service than Structure
For many people, designing and building a website is like building a house. You lay out a detailed plan, gather all the need materials and get to work – and once the final nail has been driven, you sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor. But is that how building a website should really be? Is the house-building analogy the best, or should we seek out a better model for building websites that are successful in the long run?
More Service than Structure
The idea of website-as-physical-structure is an old one – but I’m going to suggest that we need to start working with a new model: website-as-service. Physical structures are static, monolithic, and unchanging – they excel as being strong but are lacking in adaptability and change-readiness; while services are designed to be changeable. Services are always being refined and perfected to better serve the client.
Which are these two models best matches the needs of a modern website? A monolithic, difficult to change structure or a highly adaptable, customer-focused service? Clearly, the needs of a modern business website more closely align with the service model – and it is time for web designers to start seeing it that way.
Human Factors
Like all humans, our tastes and desires are constantly shifting. The most intuitive, user-friendly design today will feel outdated and clunky tomorrow. Investing in a website that can’t change with customer’s expectations might work for a time, but won’t work out in the end.
Websites need to be adaptable to the latest in user experience needs and expectations. Not that you need to re-design every time a new trend comes along – but your website should be built in a way to facilitates re-designs when that time comes.
SEO Factors
Search engine optimization provides another reason to keep your website agile and limber (if you’ll allow me mix my metaphors a bit here). Google and their competitors are constantly tweaking their algorithms – and regularly rolling out major updates as well. Sites that dominated the rankings five years are nowhere to found. Just like the perfectly optimized page today will suffer if it doesn’t keep up with the latest in SEO techniques.
Modern websites need to be flexible enough to keep up with changes to the SEO world – whether on the content or technical side of things. And that means having a design that allows the needed flexibility to keep up with the times.
Fusion Web Design
With Fusion Group USA, our websites are built for the modern user with one eye toward the future. Our goal is to build websites that can stand the test of time through design that is ready to adapt and change with the needs of customers and search engines.
Our web designers are ready to take on the challenge of seeing web design as more service than structure – seeing our work as combining the strength of established structure with the flexibility of a service-oriented model. Contact us today to see how we can transform your business through a modern and responsive website.
