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Get Smart
By Ian Lurie 1.15.2001 The more often you update your website, and the more the site changes with each update, the more likely you are to need a "smart" site. What’s a Smart Site? A "smart site," in my Mad Prophet’s lexicon, is a website that builds web pages on demand, from the contents of a database. If you change the database, then the website changes, automatically. Here's a useful analogy. The ‘mail merge’ tool in a word processor works much the same way: You write a letter, and then point the word processor at a file or spreadsheet that contains a recipient list. When you click "go," the word processor automatically produces many copies of your letter, addressed to each recipient. On a smart site, the "letter" is the layout of each web page – the "addresses file" is the database full of site content. "Smart" sites do cost more upfront--they start at around $15,000--but they can save you a bundle in the long run, and deliver a more compelling user experience. How? A smart site is the difference between using an HTML programmer or designer for every update vs. having existing staff maintain your site. You can recover the higher upfront costs very quickly. And, building your site smart now can save you a rebuild later, if you decide to add new features; once a web site is powered by a database, you have a foundation upon which to add those features. If you build your website in static HTML, and then decide to add "smart" features, you will have to scrap the HTML site and start over again. Advantages Smart sites are easier to update. One of our clients wanted to build a document library into their web site. The smart site they now use lets their administrative staff manage the library using a web browser. And their staff didn’t have to learn HTML. Smart sites have richer content. Because their entire administrative department could administer the library, updates happened more quickly, and their site was more up-to-date. Smart sites can grow. Because the online library is database-powered, our client can massage the information stored in thousands of ways. Our client can add a tool that emails registered visitors when new documents are added to specific areas of the website. Or, they can "syndicate" their content to other websites. Smart sites are more compelling. Richer content and expandability make smart sites more nimble than their static counterparts. Smart site owners can add features and modify content quickly, which makes them more responsive to their customers. Hitting the HardRoad One good example of a smart site is www.hardroad.com, which my company developed and won several design awards for. HardRoad is a music site with a story – six young journalists travel around the country, interviewing independent bands and reviewing their music. These journalists send new articles, MP3s and sometimes QuickTime movies to the HardRoad editors. The editors don’t know HTML, and they didn’t want to learn – they had enough to do editing and laying out images. So, we built the site smart, with an administrative ‘back end’ that lets them add and update content using their web browser. Every day, two editors take content from the six journalists and update HardRoad.com. The site has grown to 10 times its size at launch five months ago. The result? Rising traffic, cool content, and a low maintenance cost. Imagine what it would be like running HardRoad.com if it were a static site. Six journalists, sending one story, five days a week, plus one or more MP3s. That means at least 40 site modifications each week, in a fairly complex layout. HardRoad would need expert designers to add the content without messing up the look of the site. Do I need a Smart Site? As great as this all sounds, not everyone needs a smart site. Smart sites cost at least 100% more than static ones. So, you need to make sure that the investment makes sense. Take this short quiz: ***How often do you need to update your website? ***How much of the site do you change with each update? ***Do you anticipate someday selling your content to other websites, allowing visitors to "personalize" the site to their needs, or implementing some other new feature in the future? It all comes down to long- versus short-term costs. Smart sites cost more right now, but they inevitably save money in the long run. |
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