Why are websites so hard to make?
Wow, I’ll tell you honestly that one of the questions I tend to get asked a lot (and drives people to my website) is Why is a website so hard to make? Actually, that question (or a version of it) accounts for a few unique visits every day so to help answer the question, I’ve explain a few of the reasons that websites are so hard (or expensive) to build.
First, the Web is inconsistent.
This is possibly the worse news for people just starting out, but it’s the horrible and sad truth. Web sites are nothing more than code, it’s not terribly complicated once you understand the basics of it but it’s still just a bunch of gobbly gook until it’s read by something else … and there’s the problem. Each ’something else’ is different. Web code is read by popular web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome and FireFox but that’s only the tip of the iceberg because Internet Explorer has several versions in common operation today (versions 5,6,7 and now 8) which all display the web dramatically differently.
Once you get past the basic issue of browsers, you need to think about operating systems. How many computer operating systems can you name? Obviously there’s Windows and Mac right? Great … except … you also have Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 7 and Windows Lite to content with, Macintosh OS X Leopard and Macintosh OS X Pather. That’s got to be it right? Not so fast, what about Linux and Unix? There are hundreds of variations of computer based operating systems, each running one of a dozen web browsers for countless combinations but at least that’s all there is to worry about … except for handhelds (iPhones, BlackBerries, Windows Mobile Devices) and gaming consoles (Nintendo Wii, Microsoft XBox, XBox 360, Sony PSP, Sony Play Station 3) and TV based internet consoles … I hope that I’ve made my point, one of the reasons the Internet is complex to publish for is because there are too many “things” to publish for, instead we’re forced to practice failing gracefully.
The Web lacks a standard language.
Problem number two for somebody just starting out in the great big world of the web is that there is no standard programming language for the Internet. At it’s core, the World Wide Web is programmed in a language called HTML right? Everybody knows this, except it’s wrong.
The web is published in a language called xHTML which is based on HTML, but some people in the community didn’t agree with xHTML so they created other strains of HTML. As a result, we have HTML 1.x, HTML 2.x, HTML 3.x, HTML 4.x, DHTML, xHTML, xHTML 1.1 and xHTML 1.1 SE. Soon we’ll also have xHTML 2.0 as well as xHTML 5.0 … don’t ask.
Now, as we discussed above, there are at least a few dozen major operating systems and each of those has at least a handful of web browsers, plus a ton of mobile devices all designed to interpret some or more of the languages that the web is built on but it’s important to note that not all web browsers agreed on which standards are acceptable or for that matter which codes, structure, text or tags from any standard would be accepted. As a result, a web page developed to be viewed in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 may (or may not) be visible in other web browsers including other versions of IE.
Scripting on the Web
Now, once you get past the basic problem of coding for some browsers while ignoring others and you pick one of the standards to adhere to, you’ve got to take the time to start writing more than simple content and for that you need what’s called a scripting language of which … there are many.
Most scripting languages such as PHP, Python, ASP, ASP.net etc. execute on the web server (where the website is hosted) but some such as JavaScript execute on the web browser after being downloaded (not to be confused with Java which is not a scripting language but a programming language and completely different). These scripts are what power everything from a simple email form to complex social media giants such as FaceBook.
After you’ve picked the scripting language you wish to use and ensured that it’s compatible with your hosting account (where you store your website for others to access it) you’re all set and ready to start building your first website.
How to handle it all
I’m lucky, I’ve been building websites since 1996 which means that in my very (very) long career I’ve seen countless technologies come, go and die. So my advice to people getting started in the industry is a lot like Benjamin’s in Animal Farm, Web Masters much like Donkeys know that times change but stay the same, simply pick your standards and be the best developer in that selected field. You will be mocked, scorned, insulted and ignored by others in the industry for your choices but in just a few years … everything you know will be outdated and you’ll have to relearn new tools anyways so don’t worry so much.
“Only old Benjamin professed to remember every detail of his long life and to know that things never had been, nor ever could be much better or much worse – hunger, hardship and disappointment being, so he said, the unalterable law of life.”
- George Orwell, Animal Farm,
Being that I designed my own site and have been through the frustrations of it I can certainly agree with alot of this article. The bottom line is most people are lazy or don’t have the time to do it.
I agree, even customising Wordpress is challenging and Wordpress is supposed to be available for all.
I don’t think it is necessarily hard, I just think people inevitably have too much choice. When there are a million different ways you can approach something, you inevitably never like the choice you make. “ahh, i should of did that instead”.
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Ask me about this. It is a nightmare to get everything working together… with so many different standards, language etc. Why can’t we standardize the internet and the websites? It should not be too hard to do so? At least you are taking an initiative :)
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Im glad its not so fully standardized, gotta learn a little before you can do a little in a lot scenarios.
Then again standardization allows more content and more universal knowledge base
I think that is the question of time.Everything seems hard at the beginning.But the problems are solving.
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i think website should not heavy.When we open site,then it should not take more time.these are the tips to make good site.Thanks to sharing it.
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Over the last 10 years that I have been doing Web development I found it was getting easier with all the tools available and the improved software until we moved to c# and asp.net when I suddenly found that I had to start the learning process again.
@Scott, I completely feel your pain. I am currently teaching myself a subset of C programming used for iPhone development and I’m completely lost.
I don’t think it’s so much a matter of it being hard to build a website. Rather it’s tedious. It’s just a matter of being consistent, disciplined and putting in the time.
Make sure to always accept assistance from your subject matter expert on portals. If you know of a person with this expertise, you can take their advice when building your web site. That person can help you avoid the pitfalls and challenges they faced when designing their site.
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I think that it’s not that hard to build a website, it is hard to maintain a website
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i would rather pay some one for a nice website..
i am using joomla to create my website, it is quite easy…for more information you may refer to tutorial at http://www.joomla.org
Well, All of the above things might be true, but I have been building websites for a long time, and the basics are still the same and work on the most used browsers. All though new things arrive, the basics of html coding has not changed much
joomla, this cms is great, you can get support from http://www.joomla.org
What do you mean hard? Haven’t you heard of the one-click install of WordPress. Sure, it isn’t exactly a site, but it still can be considered one.
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Yikes! I guess this is why I’m a big fan of a WordPress blog. Tends to be pretty darn adaptive.
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Wordpress and other CMS systems has made it really easy for everyone to own an control a website which is great. Think Christopher means that since there are so many different programming languages it can be really hard to create a website that works well with all those different OS and browser there are available. As many of us have tried with compatibility issues with IE and Firefox.Problem is you really want it to wrok with both of these to major browsers..
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I don’t think html web site are difficult at all. You can download templates and just fill in the content
there are many tutorial, just google it.
there are plenty of places that offer free templates, so you can start with most of the hard work done. just google for some im sure youll find plenty on the first page of results, thats how i started my previous website
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