what we ve learned about the web

what we've learned about the web

Over the course of the last year, I had the great fun and good fortune to talk to nearly 50 web veterans about what they've learned. These industry experts (who are listed starting on page 344) came from a range of disciplines design, engineering, marketing, finance and spent the last 5 10 years working on a wide range of sites: from small start-ups like gURL.com and BlackPlanet (now leaders in their category) to corporate ventures like Levis.com. From small business sites like, say, The Yoga House of Bellevue, to large portals like MSN and Yahoo!.

These interviews helped me solidify ideas and confirm (or reject) theories I was hatching. They also expanded the scope of the book, bringing in lessons I hadn't yet learned (and from which I'll now be spared!). For example, many people independently mentioned without prompting that pull-down menus are an absolute disaster as a navigation device. I didn't know that, actually. But now I do. And you do, too. (See why pull-downs are not for navigation on page 113.)

The interviews also brought out a larger theme that greatly changed the content of the book. I heard over and over again that the real challenge of web development isn't technology or design or bandwidth or funding. It's people. People and their organizational politics. So I expanded the book to shed some light on workplace issues.

More than anything, these interviews confirmed my suspicions that there's a growing body of knowledge about web development that's broadly applicable across all kinds of sites and for all kinds of industries. It was striking to me how many web developers had independently reached very similar conclusions about what was working and why. Also striking was how universal these lessons seemed, across sites large and small, independent and corporate, commercial and not-for-profit.

So, what exactly did we learn? Well, above all, we learned to focus on the user to build sites that meet their needs, speak their language, and make sense to them, visually. We learned to start small and stay focused. We learned to evolve our sites over time to better meet our customers' (and business') needs. We learned to use clear (not clever) names for site sections. We learned to promote our sites online, to improve our rankings in search engines, and to encourage our customers to spread the word. We learned that site speed matters. We learned to use email to keep visitors coming back. And we learned how to collaborate, compromise, and communicate across disciplines essential for the balanced teams that develop successful sites.

These lessons are incorporated throughout the book, of course. But you'll find highlights on the front and back covers that tell you honestly almost everything you need to know.

However, it's important to remember that the web is still in its infancy. The industry is in its very early stages, and a lot of things including industry leaders, winning strategies, audience expectations, and interface conventions will change over time.

But I have a hunch that many of these early lessons focusing on the user, defining goals, evolving the site, labeling things clearly, testing thoroughly, and, of course, resolving office conflicts will remain relevant for years to come.

June Cohen
New York City
May 2003