Thoughts & Articles
Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien (the perfect is the enemy of the good)
Jim Infantino
9July 2013
Voltaire said he heard it from "a wise italian man"
In webdesign as in many things, the perfect is the enemy of the good. Just like trying to throw a shot put perfectly or not at all, or not playing golf until you can hit a hole in one on the first try is almost certainly not going to yield positive results, waiting until your website is "perfect" to go live can be a mistake.
First of all, "perfect" is irrelevant on the web. The key to existence on the web is impermanence. That which does not change, dies. Static sites are always so over, and they were over as soon as Jeffrey Zeldman became the first blogger in 1996. They were even more over when Google first launched in 1998. Websites are a place for current information, not the perfect jewel to be dusted off as if in a museum for the next 2000 years.
It took Axel Rose 10 years to release his latest album "Chinese Democracy." He spent 10 years in the studio recording it. It cost well over $13 million to make, and was still received luke warm reviews. Other musicians have stayed in the studio, year after year trying to create something perfect in a medium that is impermanent as styles of music come and go out of fashion, and the timely window for the release of their work passes them by.
This is not to say that you should not try to get the design right. You absolutely should. However, if what you currently have up there is sub-par or non-existant, get the header with your identity right, and launch a simple version of your site so long as you have the latest information entered. You don't need to have everything finished to launch. Here's why:
Many creatives and professionals have wildly outdated sites with little or no or even worse, old information. Some do not have a site at all. As soon as you have built a new site that is better than what you currently have up, go live.
If you have a site up currently that has accurate information but has an out of date design or one that cannot be seen properly on mobile devices, you are not in as much of a hurry to flip the switch as someone who has no site or even worse, outdated information. If you fit in one of the latter two categories, you are advertising to the world that you may not be in business anymore, or you do not care enough to make your presence known. It doesn't help to have a sign on your site that says "NEW WEBSITE COMING SOON," because once that sign is seen, the likelyhood that the visitor will come back later is minimal.
The launch of a website is exactly nothing like the opening of a movie. People are not sitting in the dark, making their popcorn last, waiting patiently for the curtains to part and your perfect new website to be revealed. The launch of your new website is not even like a new cafe opening on main street, with a line of people waiting to try the new cherry mocha chai latte special. On the web, main street is 8 million miles long.
So go live now. Don't delay. Get some information up there and build on it. Make changes, & make them often. Don't go for perfect. Perfect is static. Keep it fluid and keep it running and people will find you.
And of course, let us help you do it.
First of all, "perfect" is irrelevant on the web. The key to existence on the web is impermanence. That which does not change, dies. Static sites are always so over, and they were over as soon as Jeffrey Zeldman became the first blogger in 1996. They were even more over when Google first launched in 1998. Websites are a place for current information, not the perfect jewel to be dusted off as if in a museum for the next 2000 years.
It took Axel Rose 10 years to release his latest album "Chinese Democracy." He spent 10 years in the studio recording it. It cost well over $13 million to make, and was still received luke warm reviews. Other musicians have stayed in the studio, year after year trying to create something perfect in a medium that is impermanent as styles of music come and go out of fashion, and the timely window for the release of their work passes them by.
This is not to say that you should not try to get the design right. You absolutely should. However, if what you currently have up there is sub-par or non-existant, get the header with your identity right, and launch a simple version of your site so long as you have the latest information entered. You don't need to have everything finished to launch. Here's why:
Many creatives and professionals have wildly outdated sites with little or no or even worse, old information. Some do not have a site at all. As soon as you have built a new site that is better than what you currently have up, go live.
If you have a site up currently that has accurate information but has an out of date design or one that cannot be seen properly on mobile devices, you are not in as much of a hurry to flip the switch as someone who has no site or even worse, outdated information. If you fit in one of the latter two categories, you are advertising to the world that you may not be in business anymore, or you do not care enough to make your presence known. It doesn't help to have a sign on your site that says "NEW WEBSITE COMING SOON," because once that sign is seen, the likelyhood that the visitor will come back later is minimal.
The launch of a website is exactly nothing like the opening of a movie. People are not sitting in the dark, making their popcorn last, waiting patiently for the curtains to part and your perfect new website to be revealed. The launch of your new website is not even like a new cafe opening on main street, with a line of people waiting to try the new cherry mocha chai latte special. On the web, main street is 8 million miles long.
So go live now. Don't delay. Get some information up there and build on it. Make changes, & make them often. Don't go for perfect. Perfect is static. Keep it fluid and keep it running and people will find you.
And of course, let us help you do it.