The Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME) this week released a survey on SME e-Business

This identifies a number of problems perceived by SMEs when dealing with Web Designers & Developers:

• 76% admitted that their site needed improvement.
• 44% of businesses agreed that ‘commissioning a website was a confusing and/or frustrating experience’
• 41% agreed that ‘Web designers try to confuse us with jargon’
• 30% agreed that ‘it was hard to find a web designer that understood their business’
• 23% were unhappy with the quality of graphic design on their site.
• 40% were unhappy with the level of business generated by their website.
• 36% did not find it easy to update their website.

The results of this survey do not make great reading for those working in Web Design / Development. Before looking at the issues releated to poor experiences with web developers, there are a number of interesting points:

1. I find it interesting that “64% of businesses targeted specific key search terms”, while at the same time, 76% feel their site needs improvement. That companies are actively marketing websites which they admit are below a standard they are happy with is somewhat surprising.
2. I would be interested to know the sample size used. Because the survey was conducted electronically, it could be argued that the validity of the findings related to Broadband could be open to argument (for example, are people less likely to respond to an electronic survey if they are on a slow connection?) This is also true of the results related to Email Usage, where the validity of the findings must be questioned: as the survey was conducted via email, it is automatically biased against those without email, or with slow internet connections.

The poor perception of web developers is an important issue to understand. Further information from the survey would be useful in getting a clear picture of what has caused this, for example:

1. How long ago did the companies unhappy with their websites get them done, and have the spread of findings changed over recent years? In an article on ENN Ray Fielding, CEO of ISME says:
   

   …these businesses were misled in the past by web designers and that this had left a sour taste in their mouths. “There were too many fly-by-night cowboys out there in the late 1990s. I think many of those [that don't have a website] attempted a website in the past but lost the will to live…

2. What reasons are given by the 40% of companies that were unhappy with the level of business generated by their website? What expectations did the companies have prior to setting up their site, and what steps were taken to achieve these objectives?
3. In what ways did the respondents feel that the process of commissioning a website was frustrating, and how could their experiences have been improved?

That 41% of those surveyed agreed that “Web designers try to confuse us with jargon”, is an extremely surprising finding. The process of developing a website should be communicated in a way that the client, no matter how aware of the technology, should be able to understand. It should not be assumed that people not involved with Internet technologies on a day-to-day basis will understand the underlying technology.

Both this finding, and the 30% agreement that “it was hard to find a web designer that understood their business”, both signal poor communication skils on behalf of designers / developers. It is obviously a fundamental problem if a developer can neither understand their client, or make themselves understood.

What are your experiences?