Look at your website challenges as opportunities

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know.” It’s often used in politics. However, I think the same phrase applies to a lot of website redesign projects. When we sit down with clients, there is often one key feature of their current site that they’re afraid to let go of.

Why the nervousness about change? It’s usually one or more of these reasons:

• You know the ins and outs of what you have now, and you’re hesitant to train people on something new.
• You spent a lot of money to build what you have now, and you don’t want to feel like that was money down the drain.
• You’re afraid it will cost a fortune to build something new.

Take, for example, the interactive map that Camp Tecumseh had on their website. The site was built in 1999. It was, to be blunt, a dinosaur – and they knew it! But they knew how the dinosaur worked.

The interactive map was one of the most used, yet most problematic, parts of the site. It was a fixed width image in a pop-up window with outdated image map tags. And because it was not responsive, people had a hard time using the map on mobile devices.

OSD’s development team created a fully interactive map that is:

• Integrated with Mapbox (Google Maps) so it works like other maps people are familiar with
• Fully responsive so it works on all devices, including mobile phones and tablets
• Easy for Camp T’s staff to maintain themselves
• Really, really nice looking!

Check it out at http://www.camptecumseh.org/connect/blog/map_points/interactive-map/

So the next time you worry about updating your site because you might need to let go of that one devilish feature, think about how your challenge presents an opportunity to improve.

- Matt

As a PHP developer for OSD, Matt Amos creates interactive and responsive websites on various platforms, including WordPress, HubSpot CMS, and Drupal. He likes to solve problems for clients and make his mom proud.