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Flash-Bang!To Top

"We will put in full animated graphics and all the bells and whistles you can have on a website. We will make a website for you that will dance! We will give you superior graphics. We can add movies and sounds. We can make stars go off on your opening page to grab your viewers attention."

DDSi clients have heard this, and similar pitches time and again. It seems there is new breed of web developer emerging. We at DDSi refer to them as "Flash-Bang" web developers. ("Look Before you Web", chapter 6, Reference or Hype.) In an attempt to set themselves apart, they are relying on their technical skills to build websites with "Power" as they call it. Well, we give our clients the same response every time we hear this pitch repeated. "If you are selling bells and whistles, movies, sound effects, or exploding stars, then by all means, go for it! But if you are like most other real world, small to medium sized businesses, you don't sell these products, so why would you want a website built around them?

DDSi's target clients.To Top

If your company is a small to medium sized company, with a more traditional market, then what you really need is a website that can deliver your message, cleanly, directly, quickly, friendly, easily accessible, with a minimum of visitor fuss! Consideration is given to the target visitor, their likely browser and computer configuration, their purpose for visiting your site, and what the client hopes to impart to the visitor. Functionality and purpose are always maintained at the top of the importance list. Because DDSi primarily concentrates on small to medium sized businesses, the special requirements of these types of companies can be specifically addressed. DDSi does not develop websites that require large development programming teams. Experience has told us that these larger programming teams tend to get lost in the technical end of a project, with little connection to the website purpose or the reasoning behind the design. Not having a large staff and high overhead allows DDSi to be more competitive that our larger contemporaries. This allows us to target our pricing towards these smaller companies.

DDSi's approach. To Top

DDSi is going back to basics, back to building websites with a real purpose, a real message, and attention to delivering that message to your website visitors. As mentioned in the opening above, "Flash-Bang" seems the emphasis of many website developers today. What these "Flash-Bang" developers neglected to mention is the price for all this flashy stuff. We are not just talking about the website development costs (and yes, this type of development can be pricey), we are also including the visitor frustration cost. Many of these "Flash-Bang" sites require visitors to spend significant time downloading special support programs, and if your site does not deliver something that a new visitor agrees was worth the effort, you just angered your new visitor. The cost to update and make changes also tend to be higher, the general functionally tends to be lower, and the bug fix times tend to be longer.

There is another major cost factor we tend to see in these "Flash-Bang" websites. While the graphics of these websites tend to be very attractive and can make your company logo look great, many of these sites simply fail to get your message across to a visitor! The end result can be a waste of development funds, marketing failure, and loss of website generated business. Needless to say, the cost of a flashy, poorly targeted site can be very high. Many of these "Flash-Bang" sites simply fizzle out. As with any ad or brochure, an eye catching, attractive appearance is always a good way to get visitor attention. DDSi recognizes this, and attempts to balance eye catching graphics and animation with acceptable download times, required support, and browser compatibility. As can be seen in this website, appropriate graphics and animation can make a page standout, while still reaching an acceptable download time, coupled with browser compatibility. This website is compatible with standard 4.0 or newer browsers, and does not require any special plug-ins or modules.

DDSi takes a completely different approach to website development. Unlike many of our competitors, DDSi does not consider your website to be a separate part of your company. While maintenance of your site may fall with your MIS department, development should be intimately tied to your marketing department. In other words, don't worry about the technical stuff first, spend your energy coordinating the target of your web site to fit with the marketing efforts of the rest of your company. If many of our competitors built houses the same way they built websites, they would build them in this order: 1. purchase the best lumber they could, 2. design the house, then 3. think about how big it should be and how many rooms it should have.

Regardless of whether you already have a website and are looking to improve it, or you are planning a new one, DDSi will help you consider how your website is going to fit in with your current marketing or planned marketing efforts. ("Look Before you Web" for the complete outline) We will help you figure out how your visitors will use the site and how to make it appealing TO THEM! One of the most common mistakes we see companies make is to design a site that "looks good to themselves". Unless you are your own biggest customer, then your site has to be designed for the visitors that come to it, NOT YOU! ("Look Before you Web", chapter 8, Who should I make my website for?) We realize that this may bruise some egos, but egos heal faster than checkbooks.

Free Help.To Top

DDSi has produced an extensive outline of "Do's and Don'ts" covering the common aspects of website development we call "LOOK BEFORE YOU WEB". You are invited to read this document online or download it and read it at your own leisure from this site. There is no charge or obligation for this information (we do not even ask for your name, phone number or email address. Of course, your are welcome to leave an e-mail and let us know you are looking at it.). You are invited to read through the outline and we welcome all comments (even if you disagree with it) to discuss its' contents and how it might pertain to you or your company website.

DDSi - Mission Statement.To Top

Mission Statement: To work closely with our clients to obtain a clear understanding of their marketing goals and efforts in order to coordinate development of an easy to navigate, informative, friendly, business oriented, maintainable, updateable, and targeted website at an affordable price.

DDSi has a unique background.To Top

DDSi's background gives us some additional unique insight over our competition. DDSi has been providing contract engineering and technical services to small and medium sized companies for over 20 years. Starting from a technically skilled engineering level gives us the opportunity to uniquely understand your technical company and also other companies offering related products and services. This insight gives us a better understanding of what a typical visitor to your website needs, what that visitor is looking for, and how to provide it to them. Our areas of specialty include companies in these and related fields:

Electronics design and fabrication
Semiconductor usage and fabrication
Machine tools and machining
High tech electrical systems
Electronic instrumentation
Computer technology
Magnetic applications
Mechanical assemblies and fabrication

DDSi can provide your company with insight into these and other fields. We provide this with a reference from a "visitor's point of view". This allows us to help you design your website to meet the needs of your visitors. A well targeted website is a more productive website. We have found from experience that most websites are built on a concept that seems good to company management or to the web programmers. Unfortunately, it is very difficult for anyone working in a company to step back and look at their products or services objectively from a visitor's point of view. It is even worse to have a website designer with no background in your industry make this determination.

Marketing Coordination.To Top

DDSi always starts with this aspect of design before we worry about any of the technical "bells and whistles". We will design your site to compliment and work WITH your current marketing efforts, not in spite of, or regardless of them. Producing a website to work with your current marketing efforts is more than just talk and buzz words. As part of our design effort, we will actually meet with your marketing personnel and coordinate with them. If your company does not have a marketing department, DDSi works very closely with a Marketing and Advertising firm who specializes in similar fields, Art Wroobel, Co., artadver@pacbell.com, (818) 704-5925 to bring this talent to your company on an as needed basis. Over 35 years experience in advertising and marketing for small to medium sized businesses in a variety of fields (specializing in electronics, high tech, and the food service industry) may bring additional support to your company you may not have realized was even available.

Is your current site the best that it can be?To Top

One service offered by DDSi is a free website evaluation. If you currently have a website, DDSi will review it for free and render an honest evaluation. Every comment we make, positive or negative, will be based on actual findings and items within your site. Specific details backing the comment up will also be provided. REVIEWS ARE NOT BASED ON ANY ATTEMPT TO GET YOUR BUSINESS BY TELLING YOU YOUR SITE HAS PROBLEMS! If it is our opinion that your site is built correctly for your business, then that is what we will report, regardless of whether it puts any money in our pocket or not! Once you get our evaluation, you are under NO ONBLIGATION to DDSi in any way.

How DDSI works.To Top

Whether we are modifying a current website or producing a new website, DDSi will develop a plan to deliver a website that meets the goals that we will determine WITH YOU. Once a consensus is reached covering specific requirements, DDSi will reduce everything to a written contract. You should NEVER go into a website development project with anyone without a written contract! A contract generally offers specific protection for you the client, that you absolutely need! (Look Before You Web, chapter 18, "Contracting for Website Design." and chapter 22. "Who owns what - are you a hostage".) As part of the written contract, DDSi will provide a development outline in a stage-by-stage format. This staging is used as development milestones. Unlike our competition, DDSi does not demand any up front deposits. All work is performed under contract and approved by you prior to billing. There is never any question as to ownership, or other details of anything produced by DDSi. Everything is clearly spelled out in writing prior to commencing any work.

DDSi website services & capabilities. To Top

DDSi offers a variety of website authoring services. Most of our services are geared towards production of websites for small to medium sized, technical business. We offer services cover total production of websites based on your designs, or original designs and concepts that we develop while working closely with you. In addition to total production services, we also offer "bug fixing" and modification services for your existing website.

The following is a list of general DDSi website services:
Website to product marketing integration.
Pre/post production visitor analysis.
Search engine Indexing services.
Website promotion services.
HTML and DHTML programming.
4GL programming (DreamWeaver & Frontpage)
JavaScript programming support.
CGI/Perl script support.
Image scanning, image cleanup, and color correction.
Special effects for added visibility. (While almost any effect can be utilized, typically,
DDSi attempts to utilize non "Flash", non Java effect (or others that require longer
downloads or plug-in support)
Shopping cart services.
Online credit card processing.
Website visitor tracking support.
Guest books and hit counters.
Specialized graphic production (in-house and art service)
Site access security controls.
Data/Information Forms.
Information database integration.
Mass e-mail generation.
PDF document creation.
Website host transfer.
Additional customized services.

What to expect from DDSi.To Top

When you have DDSi design and produce your website, you get our complete attention and focus. We will review your product or service and identify your visitors and what they are looking for. We will attempt to isolate your strong points to accentuate them in your website. We will design and outline your website, and put everything in writing. We will construct your website according to the written outline and allow you to approve each stage prior to starting the next. You always have full control over the entire project from start to finish. DDSi has been providing contract technical services for over 20 years. We are here today, and we will be around tomorrow to provide you with the support you need.

Please feel free to contact DDSi either by e-mail or phone to discuss your applications. There is never any charge or obligation to discuss your needs.

Barry Wroobel
President,
Discovery Data Systems, Inc.

© 2001 - Discovery Data Systems, inc.
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