Compatibility
When you look a website it's easy to assume that what you see is always the same as other people who are looking at the same site. Unfortunately, this is not always the case because the way a website looks depends on how it is being accessed.
Most people double-click on the following icon to access the world wide web.
The reason they do that is often simply because it is the default option that comes with their computer installation. However it is just one kind of 'web browser' and many people now use the following ones instead:
To complicate things even more, not everyone has the same kind of operating system and this also changes how they access the web: some people use Macs, others use Windows PCs and Linux is gaining popularity. And then there are the smartphones such as the iphone, blackberry and a range of devices supporting the Android operating system.
This impacts the job of the affordable web designer in a number of ways. Building a website becomes more challenging because we all need to ensure that your site displays consistently across the different platforms.
During the setup I am happy to spend a considerable amount of time testing on various platforms to ensure an all-round good experience for your visitors. I have come across a lot of designers who basically cannot be bothered to make the effort - and the reason why is that clients would rarely check themselves to see if there are any problems. As well as testing it myself, I would even challenge my clients to do the same so that we can ensure their sites succeed.
It is worth being aware that there are times when certain technologies will not work on all the platforms but part of the job is to ensure that this is dealt with in a professional way. For example, on the home page of this site I have a kind of animation that visually explains some of the key points about my service. It's created using a great piece of software called "Flash" which is commonly used throughout the web. However, Flash does not work on the iphone or Blackberry. And so I use a special script which detects if Flash is working - if it not working then instead of the animation an appropriate image is displayed in its place.
In most cases, it is possible to make the user experience the same on different platforms and that is what any good designer should do. In those cases where different technologies are supported there is often some kind of "workaround" solution. The key factor is caring about the solution and standards enough to handle it properly and that is part of what my service is all about.