I’ve got a great idea for a website (or how to tell if your idea really is great)

It’s the phrase we hear more than almost any other in the web industry. “I’ve got a great idea for a website”. Personally I think this has been a problem ever since the explosion of Google and it’s only become worse with the rise of Facebook. People now have this romantic vision of being struck with a moment of inspiration and then the money will just magically appear. Let me be really clear for everyone’s sake right now – the internet is NOT a money tree.

There really are plenty of good ideas for websites, there are even some great ones. Before you go sinking your time and money into an idea, learn how to tell the difference between the great, the good and the dangerous.

The Great:

• Great web ideas are simple and meet a specific user need
• Great web ideas make something easier for users
• Great web ideas are clear in their design and execution (form follows function)
• Great web ideas offer something new or unique

The Good:

• Good web ideas refine existing tools or functions
• Good web ideas apply new technology to existing applications
• Good web ideas allow new and unique technologies to be accessed or used more widely

• Dangerous web ideas are derivative (“it’s just like Google, but instead it searches the internet backwards!”)
• Dangerous web ideas are confused (“it’s like combining YouTube with Twitter and Facebook, but with a ranking system based on your favourite sports team!”)
• Dangerous web ideas don’t consider the needs of most web users (“my 14 year old son loves Lady Gaga and thinks that if we combine her music into a search algorithm it will revolutionise the net!”)
• Dangerous web ideas are complex and convoluted (“it’s really easy, you just take a small sample of cells from an inside cheek swab, then send it to a lab to have the DNA processed – in 6 months or so you get the results back and import them into the site. Then you pass a 100 point ID check and hey presto!, you’ve got your own fully personalised search engine!”)

So before you sink yourself into any web project, make sure you give your idea the scrutiny it deserves.