There is really not much call for the traditional “website” anymore.
Even though that’s the term often used to refer to the various bits of on-screen information, media, and tools you might find at a given address, there’s really very few pages that don’t function more like a program than like a printed page.
Sites are expected to have interactivity, be responsive to various types of devices which might access them, and give dynamic feedback based on user input, needs, wants, location, and more.
Increasingly, what we’re really building is applications. Software that runs in the web browser which does actual functions. The flight school which needs a scheduling and reservations app, the blog that needs interested advertisers to not only give-up their email address but also be automatically responded to with rates and purchase links, or the speaker who wants to sell books and consulting services on her website. Function is key.
Looking forward (not very far forward) this means that all businesses in every sector of the economy will be expected to have websites that “do something”, not just pages that give information (yesterday’s standard) or even massive sites that educate, engage, and teach site visitors (today’s standard). Tomorrow’s standard will be active applications that perform useful functions.
Think…
- Scheduling
- Estimating
- Contracts
- Change Orders
- Billing
- eCommerce (online selling aka “shop”)
- Long Term Relationship Management
- Support Requests (beyond just tech businesses)
- Service Requests (I need my A/C fixed today at noon)
- Stats and Progress monitoring
- Live work monitoring
- Options, Selections
This list could go on for miles. The much shorter list is probably “what part of your business won’t your website be involved in?”
So, when we say website, we mean “Web Application”. Is yours ready for a revamp?
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