Websites vs Systems

I throw this analogy in front of clients from time to time:

Are we building a website or are we building a system?

When I ask this questions, I already know the answer. It’s more a springboard to help shape the initial prototype. It’s a clarification that helps the client come back to earth and remember why we’re working together in the first place.

What’s the difference?

There is a difference, the difference however, isn’t in the definitions of the two words themselves. It’s just a difference between two types of experiences. Choose the two words that you think fit best.

A website…

A website is for consumers. It’s simple. It designed to help, support and push the lowest common denominator through its primary purpose. Websites are pretty. People usually land of websites with very little knowledge of the website itself. They need to won over. You need to do everything you can to not only keep the user on your site, but get them to visit again.

A system…

A system helps you. It’s functional, it’s utilitarian. You need the system. You want a system to complete all its tasks as quickly as possible. It doesn’t have to be pretty. More to the point, its lack of prettiness helps task completion, it doesn’t hamper it. It doesn’t need anything that isn’t 100% necessary to the process of carrying out its tasks.

Why make the definition?

It’s easy to want your website to look jaw-droppingly amazing. The kind of website that causes eyes to melt due to excess creativity. If you’re building a website, this is fine. This is the objective. If you’re building a system, this will only get in the way.

Agreeing on which path we walk down at the very start of the process allows us to help you make sure we build the right product for your users.