Have you ever been in the mood for a particular type of food? You wake up in the morning really craving a favorite dish. You go out to dinner that night with friends with a special craving for, let's say, salmon. You place your order without ever looking at the menu, excited for the salmon. As the dinner plates arrive, you look around at the great food on the table and realize you're a little envious of the other entrees. You're happy with the salmon, it's good, but if you had opened up your mind, and the menu, you would have ordered something else. Has this ever happened to you?

This happens to me all the time when it comes to technology. People come to me with a request, a craving, you could say. The potential customer or individual has identified a certain platform or application as the one choice for their project. When I ask why, they come back with one of the following:


The menu is closed and they have made a decision without ever discussing with me their needs or goals for the project and how the technology they have selected will fit in.

When ordering up a website, it's about your needs, the ingredients if you will. If I know what you're looking for, I can decide which pot to use, which protein is right for you, and which vegetables complement the flavors.

As the Technology Therapist, I take great pride in being open to how we build websites. We have committed to being an open source development firm; this means we use technologies that do not require us to pay a fee to use their applications. We have worked with many application platforms including but not limited to:

• Wordpress
• Flash
• Drupal
• CiviCRM
• Joomla
• CMS made simple
• osCommerce
• Zen Cart
• UberCart

Right now we are getting into:

• Ruby on Rails
• Elgg

We have also built applications from scratch for clients using MYSQL and PHP code.
I have my personal favorites, but when making decisions for clients, I evaluate their different needs before choosing which framework to use.

The point I am making is that it is important to know what's out there and discover which technology best fits your project. Sometimes you may have a craving to work with a certain application, but it is important to understand what's behind the application, the usability requirements and the growth capabilities of the firm - and determine if they suit the needs of your project.

It is your job to know what your business is about and how it operates. Understand your needs, your technology requirements, and how you plan to update your website. Ask your developer about the different tools they are familiar with, what do they prefer and why?

When talking to a web developer, take some time to find out their philosophy behind development projects. Do they always use the same tools because it's comfortable? Or do they choose the tools that fit your project?

Talk to other firms and learn their philosophy behind cooking up a website. You know mine: it's about finding the right tools. We want to get the recipe right, so you know if we have to go to the market and get something new, we will make sure we get the best partners to help us cook it up.

Labels: building a website, web design, web development, webmater