What,direction,you,see,the,net DIY What direction do you see the net going in?
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in When starting a new work at home business it is very easy to become consumed by it. We spend so much time trying to get the business up and running that we may end up becoming burned out and lose our motivation. There is so much to learn and
This last year, ecommerce has been all the rage. Going back a year or so,Java applets were hot. That is, the public perception of websites was that"good" websites had ecommerce, or Java applets on them.If we go back before the applets, say three years ago, streaming video,vivo, was the "hot" topic. There is not a lot of talk of streaming videoanymore. It has been incorporated into the universe of web design, and hascooled considerably as a "hot" topic.This is mostly because people have realized that streaming video has hugebandwidth. That even 30 minutes of quality programming is quite expensive toproduce, and that we already a very effective streaming video technologyfilled with desultory content.There seems to be a laypersons metric of website quality, but this metric isfroth on the sea, and changes with time. The issues involved in trulymeasuring website quality are subtler and more long-term. A website'squality or effectiveness cannot be assessed by simply pointing to thepresence or absence of a particular feature. This past year, the media have focussed heavily on ecommerce, as a buzzword,but this buzzword is almost never defined.If we take ecommerce as the current laypersons metric, hmmm, well, what isit? Do we mean the capacity to process purchases online, secure server andclosed sales? This is great, but only part of the picture, many businesseswant and need to create interest without needing to close a sale online.If we take a wider definition of ecommerce, we might come up with somethinglike: websites designed for easy use, whose primary purpose is commercial.Such websites frequently also allow online purchasing, but their first andforemost function is to provide product information. Some sales will closeonline, but many will not.For example, several years ago, I used the Web to find a hotel near whereour family reunion would be held. I saw that they had an indoor pool, and soI knew to take swim shorts in February. No money was transferred across thenet, but all arrangements were made in advance of our arrival. I never didactually use the pool, but my options were more open.I consider this to be a perfect example of ecommerce. As web designers, we need to recognize that many ecommerce systems can beinterfaced as needed to other tech, and that ecommerce as narrowly definedwill only ever apply, with maximum saturation, to a segment of the market. The high tech companies contribute to these bad metrics. Both in sales andin hiring, companies talk in terms of ASP, CGI, VBScript. To the averagebusiness person, these terms are not helpful. Quite the opposite. Theycreate a "cognitive barrier". Jargon is useful within a specialized group,but actually impairs communication between groups.By talking jargon to non-technical people, we actually make what we as webdesigners and IT architects do, harder for them to understand. We can use a narrow definition of ecommerce, and we therefore have asituation in which ecommerce modules can typically be rented for $50 a monthand plugged into existing websites.Or we can take a wider definition, one which includes customer service,product support, complaints and returns-handling, and, of course, onlinesales as indicated. This is not a $50 solution, not something that can becooked up in a day or a week.Instead, design of an effective ecommerce solution requires care, expertise,and the experience of the client. The flow and arhitecture of the site, thecontent and emphasis, must be designed with The industry as a whole is best served if we try to be less technically andmore "user" oriented. That is, to talk not in terms of CGI, Java orJavaScript or ASP, but rather in terms of catalogues, shopping baskets, andcurrency converters. If we submerge the technology and instead focus on thefunctionality, then indeed terms such as ecommerce become far more meaningful.But more than this, each website can then be geared to individual needs,without the expectation that a "good" website must have ecommerce, orstreaming video, or feature A, or B, or C.
What,direction,you,see,the,net