What advice do you give a non-techie acquaintance/relative about web development?

Question

I just got off the phone with my cousin, who hired a web developer and left her a lousy site with broken code.

I'm sure it's happened to most of us. A relative calls, asking for advice about a web site for her business/engagement/ego. Either they need one, or they've hired the kid next door to build one and it's going horribly wrong.

Where do you start with the non-techie? Would you consider pointing them at a basic book? (If so, what books?) Do you point them at packages like Drupal? Do you take it on yourself? Have you ever been burned by offering to help?

Answer 1

Tell her to do the same thing she would do if she took her car to the repair shop and it didn't work when she got it back. Hold the contractor responsible for his work, in court if need be.

Don't get involved in trying to fix. These things rarely turn out well and you will be expected to maintain the site forever (for free).

Answer 2

Set up a CMS (like joomla or drupal) and let her explore on her own. If she´s intrested enough, she can handle that.

Answer 3

If the person has expressed interest in DIY, then I would point them at a few books, like HTML for Dummies, CSS For Dummies.

Outside of that, I would explain how to properly setup payment for hiring a web developer, such that it's fair to both parties.

In the end, I would chaulk this up as lesson learned.

Answer 4

My personal advice would be to set them up on some building tool, e.g. Google Sites, or if they're more capable of learning, Wordpress.

I would not reccomend Drupal to a non-techie as it is still quite complicated to use without prior experience or installing extra modules. (AFAIK the out of the box install doesn't even come with a WYSIWYG editor).

Answer 5

Would it hurt to ask the developer questions, sometimes they don't know if that something is broken and may be willing to make a fix.

Otherwise as for her getting in and doing some code it really depends on how complex it is and what language, post that info if you have it.

Answer 6

Tell them not to throw the money i.e. avoid hiring cheapest work that will cost you more at the end.

Regarding getting involved, the best you can do is offer advice based on what its really appropriate for what they want to achieve. It might be something simple. If you are unsure which route to take, be clear about it and get out of it.

Answer 7

It depends on how involved you want to get, and how technical the person is.

For some people it's enough to point at a website, or program, and off they go, with minimal help from you. (Even if they're non technical.).

For others, you need to be more involved.
In these cases, it might be wise to suggest that you 'consult' on the project, as you know more about it then they do.
If you follow this approach you must be sure that you have enough time to spend on it, otherwise you might end up trying to support a project you're unable to.

I would never suggest reading a book. This is quite off-putting unless the person is already experienced and involved in a particular technology.

I would only suggest taking on a project completely as a last resort, or if you wish to be actively involved, as typically these projects can take alot of time. (Although they can be quite beneficial in numerous ways too.)

Answer 8

I recently spent a lot of time looking at tools for beginners for a friend. I can't say that I think joomla or drupal is a wise choice for a non-techie. There's just so many things to know. It's too much work to build a web site from scratch. I advised the friend to go with Yahoo a "SiteSolution" choice. You get a template to tweak, the potential for lots of technologies, and the person is engaged in content right away. If they need help with that, then they can pay for the help and still have a lot of bang for their buck.

Answer 9

Coming up with something to tell someone in this situation will not be an easy task. I doubt that there is any book that could teach this, because I have seen very experienced professionals end up with unusable project results.

There is a very important non-technical component to a business relationship, and that is finding someone who you can work with, and who will take the time to explain things to you.

Overall, she will have to learn to:

1. Be conscientious, and watch for the more well-known scams, if she is using the internet to find developers.

2. Learn to look at code samples and web design portfolios. Good code has comments and consistent style, which are two things that she can look for without the need to fully understand what the code is doing.

3. If she is literally using a kid next door, then unpredictable results should be expected. She is going to have to pay to get acceptable results (unfortunately, high price doesn't' guarantee good results)

Answer 10

• Always use a contract.
• Ask for previous clients and talk to them.
• Look at the developer's website before hiring.
• Look at the developer's portfolio before hiring.
• Perform a quick search online to see if there are happy or dissatisfied former customers.
• Don't bother paying for search engine or directory submission - it's a waste of time and money.
• Make sure you get all details about hosting and registration so that you can easily switch companies if you need to do so at a later date.
• Cheaper is not always better. Your website is your calling card to the world. Invest appropriately.

Answer 11

With the non-techie, I'd start at the setting expectations and how far down the rabbit hole do you want to go here line of questions. This isn't about understanding the code or even knowing where a copy of it exists but rather setting the environment up.

I wouldn't consider pointing them at a book until I knew that this wouldn't come back to bite me in the butt. Don't forget that you don't know how bad it is until you are in it, so be careful what you promise before getting too involved.

I think sometimes I have been burned in offering help because I couldn't resolve the problem and the person was ticked off enough that they believed the company who made the product should take it back even though she had been using it for many months and I don't think many companies will accept someone returning hardware that is 6-9 months old. Then there are the cases where you think it is one simple thing but you discover that the person didn't know what they were saying initially.