I have watched a ton of websites launch recently that have a semi-creative header, a colorful footer, and the center of the website has vast empty spaces for no rhyme or reason. This is the area that the website developer has left up to the client to manage. The problem is, the client has no idea how to fill that white space properly (if they can). This is a failure in my opinion. As a developer, I want my work to be somewhat controlled.

Let me explain further…

Look at this page from a local website development company who has a huge, expensive, proprietary, content management system that is extremely inefficient to develop and maintain. I don’t even want to talk about the client hand-holding and training that is involved with these propritary systems. These systems only benefit the developer, because the client can’t just take their website to another website development company like they can with an open source solution like WordPress or Drupal.

Do you see how disjointed this looks? This entire website looks like things were placed mechanically and arbitrarily because the content had to go somewhere, not because it was meant to be there. The developer attempted to build a photo application that was a solution for anyone who uses the system, not just a solution for this client. This is one reason why these patchwork content management systems are a waste of money. If I was this client, I would be extremely dissatisfied. Why is that scroll bar there? Why not put the thumbnails on the right? Where are the directional controls that guide me how to scroll through images? How about a slideshow view? There are so many things wrong with this page that it prompted me to write this article! I can go on about this picture, but I won’t.

Here is another page from the same website. Look at all the wasted space. Why not tile these? Where is the descriptive text? How does this site induce me to make a decision to buy or request more information?

My goal here is not to bash this website, or even this developer. My goal is to prove why proprietary content management systems that are built by small website development companies are hugely inefficient and a waste of time, money and resources that could be spent on more robust and commercially availible solutions. Wordress, Drupal, and Joomla all have page layout options that allow a customer to choose how a page is displayed and can help them avoid all of these common mistakes.

The biggest advantages over a proprietary CMS are security and support. The security teams that work for WordPress and Drupal are literally world class engineers and there are dozens of them. There are also video tutorials, tons of user communities and a vast array of written documentation available. I can find a solution to any problem I have with WordPress or Drupal with a simple Google search or two. Try that with a proprietary CMS.

I look forward to hearing your feedback!