Frequently Asked Questions
Web design and development are not shallow subjects. Regardless of whether you're hoping to develop your own site, or looking for a vendor-partner, it's good to have a basic understanding of the terms as you assess your goals. Please feel free to send us your further questions or comment on our answers below.
- What's the difference between a web designer, a web developer, and a web application developer?
- There seems to be a glut of Indianapolis-based web developers. How do I choose a vendor?
- What is a Web Application?
- What are the advantages of web apps?
- What are they best used for?
- I've heard that web applications are very expensive to develop. Is that true?
- Is every web site a web app?
- How much do you charge for a web site?
- My [cousin, brother-in-law, friend-of-a-friend, etc] knows how to use [FrontPage, Dreamweaver, etc] and will give me a good deal on a site. Why shouldn't I do that?
- I heard I can just pay a monthly fee for a web site, and the company will develop it for free. What's the catch?
- Everybody uses Microsoft, so I assume you do too.
- Do you host web sites?
What's the difference between a web designer, a web developer, and a web application developer?
In the strictest sense, a web designer is a graphic designer who might or might not also know how to implement a functional web site. A web developer is someone whose work entails taking design files from a designer and implementing them through HTML and CSS.1 A web application developer is one who combines HTML/CSS with a high-level programming language like PHP to accomplish tasks (e.g. taking orders; communicating; storing, analyzing, and reporting on data).
OK, so you just a read a paragraph of explanation, and you're still not sure what type of company you need to accomplish your goals. What now? Keep in mind that most projects entail elements from each of the three disciplines (web design, web development, and web application development). The trap that many of our potential clients fall into is sending out a vague request-for-proposal to three potential vendors, based on a cursory review of their web sites and maybe a brief phone call. In those situations, we have often found ourselves bidding against developers with very different skills and experience. The client received quotes differing greatly in detail and cost, and no real understanding of the difference between the quotes from Ars Nova and Cousin Eddie's Design Company. (We have also been called on to salvage projects started by Cousin Eddie, 12 months after the proposed deadline.)
For those reasons, we prefer building long-term relationships with our clients, rather than responding to blind RFPs. The project, the client, and Ars Nova all benefit immensely from this type of relationship: we understand you, your product, and your target audience, and your web site reflects that.
Obviously, this isn't always possible. In the event an unknown client is requesting a proposal from us, we recommend working with a qualified vendor like Ars Nova first to develop a detailed project specification. Only then will you truly know the extent of your project... the possibilities of your project... and the benefit of working with an experienced, qualified, and conscientious vendor.
There seems to be a glut of Indianapolis-based web developers. How do I choose a vendor?
This is perhaps the most daunting task for a company hoping to improve its web site. As in most markets of its size, there is an abundance of Indianapolis web designers, web developers, and application developers. And, like other industries, there are legitimate businesses and there are some who are not so legitimate.
In order to show up in Google's search results for "Indianapolis web designers", it seems some out-of-town developers are buying locale-specific web addresses and promoting themselves as "local". Quite often, these developers have no offices in or affiliations with Indianapolis. For an example, search Google for the phrase "developers also offer basic design services, but a firm will normally have developers AND graphic designartist". Do you notice anything similar in all those sites? Somewhere in those results, you'll find a version of that company for Indianapolis. If you can't find a mailing address on their contact page, you'd probably be best served by hitting your Back button.
Lately, it has become fashionable to farm out application development to companies in the Ukraine and India. There are some fine programmers in those countries, but, going into a project, you need to know whom you're working with. Ask potential vendors pointed questions regarding what percentage of web design, HTML development, database design, and application development is done in-house. Certainly there's nothing wrong with a vendor working with freelance desigers. Regardless of how flexible an in-house designer might be, each one is as different as each web site, and being able to choose from a variety of designers is often advantageous. But for mission-critical online applications, you need to know how many layers (and spoken languages) you'll be dealing with.
When considering working with any vendor, ask yourself these questions:
- Is your project representative of the type of work the vendor does, or is it outside the vendor's core competency?
- Is the vendor staffed with professional developers, or just a sales team who work with other developers? If the latter, what value does the vendor add to the project? (If the answer is "translation", be wary.)
- Has the vendor completed projects similar in scope and nature to your project? (Keep in mind that every project is different, and that good developers face and conquer new challenges each day. But your project shouldn't be 75% new material for your vendor.)
- Does the vendor's own web site display a professional design and intuitive navigation?
- Does the vendor's site give you clues as to their knowledge of web standards, search engine optimization, and application development? While we don't give away our consultation services for free, we need to give you enough information so you feel comfortable that we are experts in our field.
What is a Web Application?
In general, a web application (web app for short) is any piece of application software that resides on a web server and that is accessed via a web browser. They can be viewed as a three-level program: the web browser provides the user interface, a scripting program on the server provides the intelligence, and a database serves as a storage repository.
What are the advantages of web apps?
One advantage of a web app over a traditional client-side app (e.g. MS Office) is that there is no need for each user to have the latest version of the software installed — there's only one copy in existence. Another advantage is that they are platform-independent and location-independent: any device that has a web browser and an Internet connection can use the app — from anywhere. They therefore serve as an excellent way for a company to centralize their data storage and at the same time to make that data available to all users or customers.
What are they best used for?
Some web apps that everyone is familiar with include search engines (e.g. Google), web-based email readers (e.g. Hotmail), online job sites (Monster) and online shopping (e.g. Amazon). If you want to tell your customers about your current products or services, show them your current prices and inventories, and let them order online, then certainly you need a web app. If you want to consolidate and streamline your business processes, a web application might help.
I've heard that web applications are very expensive to develop. Is that true?
During the past 13 years, we have noticed a well-defined trend in web development. A company's web site used to be just a marketing tool — an online brochure. Every company needed one, but once it was up, updates were optional. Therefore, maintaining and updating the site was seen as a luxury in tight fiscal situations. But because of the ability of web applications to save our clients both time and money, the web sites we develop are now seen as necessary and effective business tools, empowering our clients to reach their customers more efficiently.
Is web application development expensive? Sometimes. But it's not uncommon for a well-produced web application to pay for itself in six months, by increasing your communications with your customers and decreasing your labor costs through efficiency. We often hear our clients say they can't imagine going back to the old way of doing business.
Is every web site a web app?
No. There are two general categories of web sites: static sites and dynamic sites. As the names suggest, static sites are ones that seldom change, while dynamic sites are those that change frequently. A static site can only be changed by editing the code that generates the web pages, which is not something you want to do every time your inventory or prices change. A web app generates dynamic pages — in fact it doesn't generate the HTML for a page until the user asks to see it — which means the information on the page always reflects the latest data from the database.
How much do you charge for a web site?
That's an impossible question to answer. Static sites are much simpler and therefore cheaper than web-app-driven dynamic sites, but even for static sites there's a very wide price range. For web apps, the usual bidding process can yield disastrous results for all parties involved. We prefer to build a relationship with a customer, so that you trust us to deliver high-quality software at a fair price.
My [cousin, brother-in-law, friend-of-a-friend, etc] knows how to use [FrontPage, Dreamweaver, etc] and will give me a good deal on a site. Why shouldn't I do that?
There are many WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") web tools out there that make a lot a people think they're web developers. Those tools can yield satisfactory results on simple static web sites, though the code they generate is usually hideous, which can lead to slow-loading pages, erratic results on different browsers, and difficulty in maintaining the site, especially if you ever try to switch to a different tool. WYSIWYG tools are not suited for developing web apps. Period.
I heard I can just pay a monthly fee for a web site, and the company will develop it for free. What's the catch?
These businesses are called "Application Service Providers" (abbreviated "ASP", and often confused with the other ASP, a family of Microsoft web app scripting languages). Application service providers do develop web apps, and certainly the up-front cost is attractive. However, you do not end up owning the resulting application; you are only renting it. If you decide to stop paying that rent, you not only lose "your" web site, but you may also lose your data. Also, the apps they produce are usually created from a template, which may or may not fit your needs. And, just as renting a TV is a bad deal in the long run, you can easily end up paying more in the long term for an ASP-developed site than you would have for a custom site.
Everybody uses Microsoft, so I assume you do too.
Wrong on both counts. We prefer the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) web apps environment.
The majority of the world's web servers are Unix (usually Linux) machines. Unix servers are generally more reliable and less expensive to maintain than Windows servers. For data supporting our decision to develop on Linux, please review Netcraft's web hosting provider ranking, and look at the dominance of Unix flavors (Linux, Unix, FreeBSD, Solaris) over Windows among the 50 most reliable providers. Apache is the ubiquitous web server software for the Unix world. MySQL is our database of choice; it is known for being lightning-fast and, because it's open-source, there are a variety of excellent web-based data management tools available for it. PHP is an open-source server-side scripting language and will run on both Unix and Windows servers.
Do you host web sites?
Yes, we do. We host most of the web applications we develope for ease of development, for the convenience of the customer, and to ensure quick responses to our customers' requests. Our servers are located in a secure off-site data center, featuring:
- Management - Proactively managed and monitored 24/7.
- Power - Full UPS and generator backup systems installed and tested weekly.
- Security - All facility entrances/exits card key controlled.
- Environmental - Redundant 30-ton Liebert HVAC systems.
- Connectivity - Multiple gigabits of high quality bandwidth.
- Fire Suppression - Pre-action dry-pipe system covering entire facility.
Notes
1 HTML and CSS are considered "markup languages". They are not full-fledged programming languages, in that they merely organize and display content; they do not execute a series of instructions to accomplish a task. << return