About 11worth Design
11worth Design: The Beginning
Washington State Search and Rescue Conference
11worth Design began in 2003, when my employer decided to host the 2005 Washington State Search and Rescue Conference in Leavenworth. I wanted to learn website design, and figured this would be a good “on-the-job” training experience. I got a copy of Microsoft FrontPage (a visual-based site editing program), and went forth.
An Awakening
A view of the Icicle Canyon from East Leavenworth Road.
I soon learned FrontPage didn’t cut it, and began a steep climb up the proverbial curve to learn XHTML and CSS.
A superior, who had no experience with website design but “knew it all”, complained very early on that site development duties took up too much official work time. I was told to “keep it simple”, but there was very little communication regarding what “simple” was.
The website, in the meantime, started to expand as conference preparations developed. I had additional duties with scheduling and instructor outreach, and the site grew to over 350 pages.
The massive amount of content quickly overwhelmed the initial presentation as “simplicity” morphed into reality.
My superior resisted any further website discussion. So…I undertook the remaining 90% site development, maintenance, and completion entirely on my own time to get it done right. 11worth Design was born out of that experience.
Lessons Learned
- An agreed-upon project outline must be in place before development begins.
- A website client needs to understand how their site works, and what it takes to keep it functioning productively.
- An informed website client is a valuable partner when the goal is to produce the best site possible within reasonable time and cost parameters.
For some applications, simplicity is automatically achieved when a website may be only the Home page and a few other pages. With other sites, it’s challenging just to keep visitors from getting lost among the many pages, subpages, menus, and so forth.
Most websites lie somewhere in between. Frank, open-minded webmaster-client discussion is essential to the development process.
This doesn’t imply that a client must be web-savvy before commissioning a website (some clients prefer not to be!). However, I’m committed to best-educate a client based on the interest they have in their site.