Watch as websites in Trinidad & Tobago now move forward

As we close out November I’ll have much to write in my 2013: Year in Review article especially as I see things closing out on a high note and in stark contrast from last year. Talk about turning on a dime, the sudden change in gear around mid-2013 has been a breath of fresh air and I don’t foresee it letting up even one iota.

Finally Trini businesses have gotten it and not a moment too soon. But even though there’s going to be more companies with websites than ever before, there’s still going to be an acute shortage of high quality websites. Visitors will continue to shake their heads like they’ve been doing all along. Why do I say this?

Websites will still be poorly designed

Your web designer doesn’t set out design a poor site, and by ‘your web designer’ I mean me too. And then again, he isn’t entirely to blame. The reasons for a poor site can be of two:

1. Poor web design skills

This is the fault of the designer. You pay good money and he (she) delivers a lackluster site that would only attract dust. I’m glad that web design doesn’t require only technical skill. It requires some creative thinking so there is an art to it, some can be learned and some are innate.

Knowing how to put a text widget in the sidebar is great but knowing what to put there is a different story.

Poorly designed sites do nothing to convert visitors which is, as they say in French, their raison d’etre- reason for being and that will only leave you, as we say in Trini, ‘spinning top in mud!’

2. ‘Chinksing’ on the site

Trini businesses are notoriously cheap when it comes to paying for professional services. They don’t mind paying for some tyres or a new air conditioner because those they can see. It’s the intangibles that cause them to hesitate. After all, a website is a website, you can get one for just $1,500 TT in the classifieds, especially when my cheapest is more than double at $3,500 TT.

But for every five who ‘chinks’ (or is it ‘chinkses’?) like it’s and expense there’ll be one who will make the investment and I’m glad they come to me. Like everything else, you do get what you pay for. And with Forward Multimedia you get even more.

Just why do they ‘chinks’? One word, BELIEF. Companies truly hope their sites will work but have only a half-hearted belief they actually might. For this reason they can’t commit to doing the work without looking for the results in the short term. But they’re in little of a Catch-22 situation no matter what- spending an enormous sum on a website doesn’t guarantee good design, and spending a pittance doesn’t either.

Websites move forward

Company websites, E-Commerce, it’s all heating up and ready for a wild ride. The good thing for the time being is that there aren’t many website designers in Trinidad & Tobago who can pull it off right but I don’t (and can’t) count on that to remain.

And it won’t remain and that’s for sure. Like all things the market will grow and evolve. Your competitors’ sites would eventually be able to hold their own but that’s the name of the game. We’ve seen seemingly solid brands fade in the face of fresh upstarts and we’ve also seen them stand the test of time. Fortunately we’re not there yet so shall we get cracking?