We have designs on you

To CMS or NOT to CMS

OOOOOOO! Content Management Systems! How fantastic! Now I can control and update my own website without the need of a designer or professional! How wonderful. But what they forgot to tell you is that you are still going to need time to update your website and time costs you money.

Content Management Systems are simply programmes that run on a server (thereby taking up CPU bandwidth) and output data in HTML format to display a web page to the end user. They do not automatically design a website for you or provide you with design flair. Nor do they have unique or individualistic traits - they can only follow a set format defined by the computer geek and friends that install the CMS for you. This is why so many website's that employ CMS systems look the same. Boring! Boring! Boring! And not to mention the plethora of choices provided to the end user. In Systems Analysis, years ago, people established the maximum number of choices that an end-user can cope with that being seven. Yet you just look at the mess that are most websites on the web these days. That's why Google became so successful. Its clean and simple employing the KISS principle namely Keep it Straight and Simple. The problem is that the Internet is and will always be the domain of computer scientists who rarely have their left brains in synch. They simply cannot design for toffee. And in the rat race and the exploitation of the market, we have an endless keep-up-with-the-Jones' mind-set. Its this mind set that in my opinion Microsoft made full use of to keep everyone constantly upgrading with packages that maybe the average user will use 10% of the features! It is as Talking Heads said - We are on a road to nowhere.

But, this is a trend of our society - we have been steadily doing away with art and artists for centuries since the greed of the Industrial Revolution started. Computers and computer scientists have tried to eliminate artists by creating

programmes that automatically create artwork for you. But what has happened is in my opinion the theft and oppression of artists. Someone designed that logo for you sometime which the computer programme uses. Yet the artists get a pittance for it. A computer cannot think! Remember that. We see it in the motion / video business. We used to have great stories now we have nothing as Hollywood oppresses artists and writers - with the logic Anyone can do that (write or design a story!)!

Content management Systems will cost you. Someone still has to design the logos and all those nice graphics that are used in it. But it will be within the framework of the programme. So if you want something different it will cost you. To try and say that the design costs are minimal with CMS is a lie.

On this issue, when I design sites I do it so that the design will last a minimum of 2 years. Some of my clients have only needed to update their design in a decade! Much like a commercial on TV is meant to last. The principle is the same. They get unique artistic websites that allow true expression of their company's image and ethos. You cannot get that with a CMS system!

Next the updates. This makes me laugh. Do you as the owner / director of your business have time to sit and update your website anyway? I mean really...use your head. Are you a computer expert? Do you understand what PHP is or scripts? Do you understand security issues etc. Everyone I know including famous people that have CMS systems have to get someone to update their systems anyway! So it actually costs them more.  Then consider your website requirements - do you NEED to update your website? My clients that I have put onto CMS systems need to update their websites because they sell stuff...but that is only that part of the website...the rest is static and designed. So my argument is that CMS systems will not be a magic wand giving you more control. That is pure bull. Unless you are interacting directly with the web server you don't have control. CMS systems are

great for websites that are automatic...like shopping malls or news centres but all employ design elements anyway. Those pretty pictures have to be designed you know :)!

The perils of CMS systems are quite simply security flaws and issues...they are always a problem because there is always someone out there to hack your site. For example one well known CMS system was hacked by Chinese hackers here in SA and now they are rated as a security risk. A CMS system runs on the web server using up CPU (central processing unit) resources so you will need to acquire the services of a dedicated server company which costs moola deluxe. This can also be problematic...if your website is logged onto by a load of people your website can go down because the server will just not be able to handle the requests. There is a classic example of a website featuring our top sportsmen which regularly goes down because the server simply cannot cope with requests made to it - it becomes bottlenecked. This rarely happens with a static HTML site because ASCII text as found in a web page is outputted quickly and efficiently. In other words its easy peasy for a web server to deal with HTML and not so much with programmes as found in a CMS system. Our web hosting company regularly complains about inefficient scripts that run on their servers. You also run the risk of data corruption because of this as most CMS systems store the information in SQL databases which can become damaged in a server collapse or when a hacker gains access to your system

So yes CMS have their place - essentially for things like BLOGS or Shopping Carts but I really do think its oversell for a small to medium business.

Think twice.
George Anton Lasich BA (hons)
Dip Computer Programming