A systems approach to website design

Web application site design has come a long way since I made my first attempt in 1995. As with many new techniques or products, there was a certain amount of technical skill required, but anyone with basic programming experience could manage to create a simple interactive site. Plunging in at the deep end I quickly ended up playing around with ways of linking websites to databases.

With such an obvious application it was not long before the creation of complex websites with loads of interactivity became a major business. However, I personally think that the wind is changing again and I wonder how soon before a new wave of companies exploits the new opportunities.

In a systems approach to design, one generally starts from the top and then work down to details. Good principles are to use the biggest building blocks possible and then re-use them if you can.  This principle applies to websites too. It is now generally better to work with a content management system such as Joomla or Drupal, rather than work from first principles and write HTML.  On top of this we are now we are starting to see the building blocks get even bigger with on-line services such as Google, offering really sophisticated systems as starting points which you can then customise to meet your exact needs.

This is good news to website owners as complex requirements can now be more easily incorporated, but perhaps not so good news to businesses that would rather charge for building things from scratch.