It’s come to the crunch: Your client – whose project briefs tend to be about as fickle as Paris Hilton choosing shoes for a Friday night party – wants a new website. While not huge, this one feels like it could end up going that way. What do you do?
A – Go for a bespoke method of development because you know there will be changes, adjustments, additional pages and that’s the way you know best, or
B – Install a popular CMS (content management system) and simply configure it and style it?
This scenario faces almost every designer and developer. The option I used to pick was A, mainly for the flexibility and because my CMS knowledge wasn’t the best. Things have changed though and now I feel comfortable routing for option B.
A good CMS is robust, flexible and fast, and it automatically gives you an administration section that you can configure for a beginner to use – thus down the line, if your client decides they want such a feature, it is there ready and waiting.
Learn your CMS before taking the plunge
Knowledge and experience, however, are a must. You need knowledge of the “if something goes wrong, can you fix it?” sort. This is what separates the men from the boys; the last thing you want is something going wrong and that you aren’t equipped to sort out.
Experience with a CMS is vital. You need to go through those difficult stages where those annoying errors are happening or you need to do something specific and it’s like reading the bible backwards in order to achieve your end result.
So while you may be an A-type person now, longing to become a B, from experience I would recommend always ensuring beforehand that you have used your chosen solution in a non-mission critical capacity, and that you have (or are aware of) all the desired plug-ins and custom fixes you’re likely to need to reduce problems.
By Neil Berrow