Building a Website like a Registered Builder

Imagine I'm the client and you're the builder. If I come to you and say, "Oh yeah, my architecture plans are 90% done but you can start building now", you'd say "Absolutely No Way! – I'm not laying a single brick, concrete, or digging a single hole until you have the design 100% complete, the contract signed, and the council has approved it." Right? No builder would go anywhere near that.

It shouldn't be different with online space, because essentially, it's the same quality standard, the same principle. You buy a domain name like you buy a block of land, you buy hosting and find developers like you would buy building materials, and then you're ready to kick off your building project.

Website estimates, quotes, contracts, hosting, schedules, planning, additional requests... – all require clear communications and agreements between the clients and the 'building team' to maintain standards of integrity and avoid mismatched expectations.

It's very important for us all, as clients and website builders, to become re-educated in how we collaborate on projects. We can't assume anything, from the involvement of the client, to how much is known or unknown to the project... everything has to be discussed amongst the team, defined and agreed upon by all involved parties.

It's our responsibility as the building team to provide the client with all their choices and provide whatever details they need to make an informed decision. However, the client has a major responsibility too, and that is to make sure the right information is being shared with the building team, and all the important questions are being asked before the build is kicked off.

Let's revisit the house-building scenario. The client might think that all they've got to choose from for their floor is whether to go for floorboards, slab or carpet and that once one of these is chosen, the specific model or type will be entirely based on the look they're after. This might be true for some projects, but in other cases, the builder should raise a few issues that the client should consider before making the decision. What's the climate like in the area where the house is being built? Should carpet be used to help keep the house warm in winter? Is there anything under the current floors that might be expensive to remove if the client decides on a specific flooring? What other steps are required for each of the flooring choices? And what is the real cost of each? Carpet might be more expensive as a material but floorboards require perfectly levelled floors, glue, and underflooring... if we go for slab, what's the cost of a renovation if we ever need to access below the floor?

All of these things matter hugely down the track, they give you a completely different result in terms of how the house looks and how it is going to function when you go to live in it.

It's pretty similar for websites or digital builds, most of the choices we will offer our client, will be based on the information we've been provided with. If your priority is scalability, we will provide different options than if it is to keep the budget at a minimum. If you have a website that gets updated multiple times a day by a huge team of content editors, we will make sure your Editing experience is outstanding on top of good quality for your users.

These options will be offered to the client during the planning of the project and will be some of the most influential major factors when defining costs, timelines, and dependencies. Changing these mid-project would have a massive impact, to the point of having to start from scratch and not being able to reuse a single thing. If we do a whole bunch of coding in one direction and the client changes tack, you've got to take everything in a different direction. It's not just a case of just 'copy and paste' the code and put it 'over there'. You can't just copy and paste a roof beam; you've got to measure and source a whole new piece of wood, look at engineering, and probably get sign-off from the architect and engineers.

Does this sound like what you're looking for in a tech partner?

We work hard to collaborate with our clients most responsibly and build a platform of shared responsibility as a base for all of our work. There are way too many 'cowboys' out there in the tech world and your IT team do quite a bit of fixing 'bodged' websites where the build has gone wrong because of this shared responsibility not being honoured. We respond to requirements with more agility and ease when all of us understand how clear communication improves outcomes. 

Are you looking for a new website builder?

Don't look any further, at Your IT Team we are always ready to hear about your dream projects and website builds. Get in touch today to learn how our team can help you build the ideal site for your needs.