Maintenance. What are we maintaining?
Most designers have grown up in the idea of a "job-start/job-end" culture. Every job has a beginning and an end. The end is when the printed piece, or the logo, or design, is handed over to the client.
The web is a very different place. Websites are dynamic. Content can change monthly or daily. There are even ways to make sites change visually just by pressing a button (visit simplebits.com and press the coloured buttons at the right hand top of the page to see a colour change).
Try doing this with a printed brochure.
Websites need to be treated living beings that exist, that breathe, need to be fed and exercised, given a good spit and polish occasionally, and importantly never neglected. They are your window to your customers. And if the window dressing looks shoddy, then it reflects on your brand and personality.
Like all living things, a website requires periodical maintenance to ensure that it is in a healthy state. We do provide many of our clients with a maintenance schedule that is personalised to their needs and those of the website.
Much of the process is discussed elsewhere and follows the same standards that have been discussed. A lot of it is using many of the tools specially designed to monitor, inform and maintain websites to ensure that:
- Links are current and not broken
- Any accessibility issues raised are fixed
- Ensure that the site is still valid
- There are no broken images
And (let me say it), "much, much more".
Your website has a heart beat. More and more that heart beat is directly connected to the heartbeat that runs your company. More and more the perception that your customers are left with from one will directly affect the strength and vitality of the other.
