Most business websites have what I call the “Windows Syndrome“. Can’t really blame them. After all, they model themselves after the most successful OS software in the history of PC.
Here are some common symptoms of the Windows Syndrome:
The “all you can eat” buffet: Got an idea? Let’s jam it into our homepage. More info? Why not? Our users are smart enough to make their own decisions. It’s simple: we show them the choices and they pick.
Patching: Oh no, we can’t possibly delete any web pages or the links to them! What if someone needs them later? The fail safe solution to solve any problem is to patch it like crazy. We won’t lose anything if we keep adding to our website, right?
Without a Face: What? Use real names and show our pictures as contacts? What if something bad happens to me? Why don’t we just stick with the usual “sales”, “marketing”, and “info” email addresses? It makes me feel safer.
Error handling: Our webmaster understands our errors, and that’s more than enough. Here is what we are going to do: if something goes wrong with our website, let’s just make our users jog down the error message numbers and email those to us. There is no need explaining to them what went wrong. It will get fixed ASAP anyway.
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