Rumor had it that the presenter had meticulously prepared for this meeting, …down to the finest detail: the invitations, his appearance, even his entrance.
The presentation was scheduled. The attendees had marked their calendars weeks ahead of time, and together they encircled the conference table in expectation of the speaker. At last, he arrived.
The door swung open and he confidently strolled in. They first noticed the fancy swinging briefcase, then the exotic leather shoes. And that suit. A month’s salary to buy that suit. At least.
He surveyed the room, sat down, and was introduced to the group. Then, silence. He didn’t say anything. Just kind pivoted his head around like an oscillating fan, staring at everybody. Thirty seconds passed, then minutes.
Finally, the audience just kind of got up and walked out. Not everybody at once, but gradually they all left, wondering what it was all about. That suit, the shoes, the briefcase, and that haircut, but no substance. In spite of showing up and going through the motions, the presenter simply had nothing to communicate …or perhaps he failed to put forth any effort to prepare, something to communicate.
Regardless of how well a website is designed and coded and regardless of how fancy the content management tools are, the potential for a confused, bewildered audience is always there. Without current, informative, logical content, the website will be a failure. A waste of time. Packaging without product. A concert without music.
Sometimes it’s a challenge to work with particular departments and organizations at a University when they don’t understand the importance of “communicating” with a website, or won’t invest the time required to write even small increments of copy. Others still may keep the mindset of the print world. Once the initial content is written and posted and live, it’s done. Time slowly eats away the value of such content to the point where it’s better to NOT have a website than to have one with incorrect, dated information.
August 16th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Hallelujah brother.
I don’t know how many times I have tried to convey this sentiment to would-be website owners…and I still see ‘under construction’ or ‘content to come’ messages. Out-of-date content is just as bad, if not worse.
Keep up the good work.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:23 pm
[...] Without these people, the designers, the developers, the usability experts, and the webmaster server types are useless. In the absence of substance, our tools mean nothing. It’s packaging without product; A concert without music. [...]