Bad websites everywhere (in Greece)

Time in the era of information is relative. One year, 365 days is equal to decades under the field of technology. Ages are equal to ages. The Greek Web lives approximately in the era of big bang. This is not another commonplace, it is a fact.

I have no idea who are the people who develop websites for the state or for big corporations. However I do know that from the very first pixel of the actual work till the last line of code the final result is of bad taste, deprecated and smell awfully.

It is obvious that there are many designers or developers in Greece who haven’t heard the words: css, tableless layout, semantics, accessibility, information design etc. I would never expect to hear those words from clients, but I thought that they would care about their website.

So I decided to pass from validation tests some websites: the website of the Greek presidency, the Prime Minister’s website and the website of the Greek Parliament along the biggest Greek portal (in.gr) and the biggest e-shop (e-shop.gr). The results were disappointing as you can see in the pictures on the right but the html code behind those websites was even worse. It’s a chaos down here.

The reasons of the failure

If one wants to be fair he should take into account the fact that it is almost impossible to work with the Greek state. So it doesn’t have to do with the developers only. Above all the factor “customers” brings some unsurpassable troubles many times. Customers for example need their website yesterday but they won’t submit content (texts, images, logos etc) until the next year. The chapter “customers” needs actually special analysis which belongs to a different post (or blog?). I could never understand why some people don’t care about something which is going to make them known at least. Others use their website to sell products. Why these people don’t care? Anyway.

All these issues do not make people who make websites innocent. Designers and developers who refuse to learn and become better, companies which don’t evolve and don’t help their people evolve have no excuse. Bad results which happen once can be justified. Bad results which happen all the time are unacceptable. Do I forget something here? But of course! In Greece important are the ones who bring the work not the ones who develop services and a system which work under any circumstances.

Unfortunately, the moto is not “Create better services and you shall be rewarded”. Instead the moto is “Let’s bring the work and we ‘ll make it somehow, anyhow”. This sick approach is the reason which makes world go around.

Why should I strive for quality?

In other words: as long as there is something which seems to work, why should I care for validation tests and standards? The question returns back to the sender, in this case the customer.

I will answer with a few questions: Do you want your website to look and feel the same in all browsers? Do you want it to be fast? Secure? Do you want it to be easily editable? Do you want all the people no matter their physical condition to have access to it? Do you?

Dear customer. If you really want these features, ask for them. You website is your backyard, your home, your shop, your business. Ask questions, raise problems, don’t be easily satisfied and let the specialists do the dirty work. Oh, and prepare to pay the same way you would pay for a TV commercial.

All in all the question “why should I strive for quality” needs to be answered all the time again and again? Quality is quality and it is meaningful by default.