Last year I completed a redesign of a website for a local rescue group. It was the final project for a class I was taking, and I poured hours into creating an all-CSS, table-less layout that was organized and easy to navigate. I used semantic markup, standards, and accessibility like they were weapons in the new war on confused, content-mixed-with-style websites everywhere. My efforts paid off, and sometime around the beginning of the year the group voted to accept my redesign over everyone else’s. However, since then I have had a heck of a time getting my new site online.
Why you may wonder? Well, there is some reluctance on the part of the volunteer that built and maintains the site to change what she is doing already. As part of a recent conversation it was revealed that she has been using the same version of Adobe Page Mill for the last 10 years, and she is “quite satisfied with it”. Now this was, I’m sorry to admit, a surprise to me. I did not imagine that with my slick new site, where all you need to know is how to code up a little HTML in notepad; an h1 here, a span there; that it would be updated and probably thrown completely out of whack by a WSIYWIG editor that is 10 years old. I mean, this may be a little anal but I don’t consider myself “just” a designer; I want to ensure that the fragile code stays as intact as possible.
So my thoughts turn to this question: how will small business clients update a site I design? Obviously, if a business has the budget for it, then I would be happy to maintain the website; but what if it didn’t? I immediately started thinking about the CMS solution. Perhaps every site should be built on a Drupal or Expression Engine or WordPress system so that it just couldn’t be messed up by deleting a close tag on accident (for instance), and actually that is exactly what I would like to become proficient in doing in the near future. However, in situations where a CMS is not the answer, perhaps the open source WYSIWYG Nvu is.
Nvu is a nice, slim, non-junk-code slinging piece of software. I’ve only used it for editing so far, but for that purpose I think it will be easy for customers to use, cost nothing out of pocket, and possibly provide a solution for low budget customers that won’t break my code. I can only hope that it is enough to move the new design from concept to implementation.
Oh boy, Elaine, … you might have saved my bootie once again!! I have a client with my web partner and we’ve been trying to figure out how to service our client that wants to be able to edit the website after we’re done. (Small, small business w/ no budget for maintenance). CMS was the first answer I came up with but neither of us are well versed in it. Then I remembered reading one of your articles…(this one of course). Perhaps NVU is the answer. Gosh, I wouldn’t even have known it existed unless you posted!!
Okay, now I just need to read up on NVU and see how it works….
I’m glad that anything I’m doing is of help to anyone else (the whole point of this little endevor). I hope Nvu works out for you and your customer. Keep me updated on this.