Comments on: Cleaner code is better than faster code http://www.killersites.com/blog/2008/cleaner-code-is-better-than-faster-code/ Real world talk about web design, programming and the business of web design. Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:25:16 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.3 hourly 1 By: lekan http://www.killersites.com/blog/2008/cleaner-code-is-better-than-faster-code/comment-page-1/#comment-157112 lekan Mon, 19 May 2008 15:23:13 +0000 http://www.killersites.com/blog/2008/cleaner-code-is-better-than-faster-code/#comment-157112 I can't but agree more. I used to develop websites without much thought about maintenance until I ran into trouble when a site i had designed was brought the back to me for maintenance. You could not believe the stress i had to go thru! Maybe because i did not have a programming background (am still teaching myself web design)contributed to this but really a lot of designers are guilty of this and this has to stop. The more we think about our clients, the better it would be for business I can’t but agree more. I used to develop websites without much thought about maintenance until I ran into trouble when a site i had designed was brought the back to me for maintenance. You could not believe the stress i had to go thru!

Maybe because i did not have a programming background (am still teaching myself web design)contributed to this but really a lot of designers are guilty of this and this has to stop.

The more we think about our clients, the better it would be for business

]]> By: Graham Strong http://www.killersites.com/blog/2008/cleaner-code-is-better-than-faster-code/comment-page-1/#comment-155338 Graham Strong Mon, 12 May 2008 18:48:27 +0000 http://www.killersites.com/blog/2008/cleaner-code-is-better-than-faster-code/#comment-155338 This is a great point. I would like to throw a little wrench into the mix, and that is with regards to SEO. I think that designers would do well to keep it neat and clean AND keep it as short as possible (without becoming illegible). Google spiders likely measure the number of lines to the first Title tag, H1 tag, etc., so it is a good idea not to take *too* much time getting there. So, to use your example, you can tighten it up from 7 lines to perhaps two lines. This way, spiders will reach those key tags faster, but it will still be easily read when it comes time to do some website maintenance. In short, a good balance is in order here if you are also concerned about SEO. ~Graham This is a great point. I would like to throw a little wrench into the mix, and that is with regards to SEO. I think that designers would do well to keep it neat and clean AND keep it as short as possible (without becoming illegible). Google spiders likely measure the number of lines to the first Title tag, H1 tag, etc., so it is a good idea not to take *too* much time getting there.

So, to use your example, you can tighten it up from 7 lines to perhaps two lines. This way, spiders will reach those key tags faster, but it will still be easily read when it comes time to do some website maintenance.

In short, a good balance is in order here if you are also concerned about SEO.

~Graham

]]> By: Jill http://www.killersites.com/blog/2008/cleaner-code-is-better-than-faster-code/comment-page-1/#comment-155053 Jill Sun, 11 May 2008 18:44:14 +0000 http://www.killersites.com/blog/2008/cleaner-code-is-better-than-faster-code/#comment-155053 I received a degree in Computer Science before I started my web design company, and couldn't agree more. I expected that web designers would follow "best practices" and make their code clean and easy to read, but apparently this is not the case. I think that perhaps one of the reasons for this, is that there are many web designers who have no intention of maintaining their code - unlike "real" software developers. Over and over again I have people contacting me who need website maintenance done - and alas- their original web designers are "unavailable" for some mysterious reason. Honestly this annoys me. Because I also have an engineering degree, and building something that's hard to maintain is considered bad design. On a similar vein, I am also annoyed by web designers who make their websites in 100% flash. I get call after call from small business owners asking me why their websites don't show up in search engines. (I wrote this article in response recently http://aldebaranwebdesign.com/blog/artists-vs-engineers-best-website/). And guess what, when these small business owners need updates to their websites, for some reason, they aren't contacting the original designer either. As a former engineer with a computer science degree who is now in the website design business, I wonder how ethical it is to take someone's money and give them a website that is not easy to maintain and hard for search engines to crawl...and then, simply abandon the small business owners. I see it every day. Can't we be more ethical and create websites that are easy to maintain and perform over the long run? I received a degree in Computer Science before I started my web design company, and couldn’t agree more. I expected that web designers would follow “best practices” and make their code clean and easy to read, but apparently this is not the case. I think that perhaps one of the reasons for this, is that there are many web designers who have no intention of maintaining their code – unlike “real” software developers. Over and over again I have people contacting me who need website maintenance done – and alas- their original web designers are “unavailable” for some mysterious reason. Honestly this annoys me. Because I also have an engineering degree, and building something that’s hard to maintain is considered bad design.

On a similar vein, I am also annoyed by web designers who make their websites in 100% flash. I get call after call from small business owners asking me why their websites don’t show up in search engines. (I wrote this article in response recently http://aldebaranwebdesign.com/blog/artists-vs-engineers-best-website/).

And guess what, when these small business owners need updates to their websites, for some reason, they aren’t contacting the original designer either.

As a former engineer with a computer science degree who is now in the website design business, I wonder how ethical it is to take someone’s money and give them a website that is not easy to maintain and hard for search engines to crawl…and then, simply abandon the small business owners. I see it every day.

Can’t we be more ethical and create websites that are easy to maintain and perform over the long run?

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