Airbag has a nice post on the misconceptions people have about website organization. We recommend reading it yourself, but the post basically talks about a client referring to sections of websites as “buckets.” Greg doesn’t make a specific judgment that “buckets” are bad terminology for sections, only that it’s probably representative of an underlying misunderstanding.

“From what I can tell this has happened as the result of more and more clients taking on the role of information architect. In the last two years almost half of our clients have come to us finished site map in hand and eager to drop the B-bomb. I don’t believe that’s the result of failure on the part of web designers and developers but the client believing that they know what works for them. A few months ago we pushed back on sitemap generated by a client. Before coming to us they formed an ad hoc group and met for six weeks to re-categorize their existing site into a new, mythical world of Bucketopia.”

This passage is what really caught our attention. It reminds us of our previous post about collaboration. It’s a strange world these days. People have access to information, and tools that only experts could use 10 years ago. Heck, 2 years ago… What this is leading to is not the mythical world of Bucketopia that Greg refers to, but rather a severely itchy case of expert-itis. Now it seems that anyone with a few dollars to buy Photoshop LE is a designer, and anyone with Office is a copy writer. People think because they have the tools they can do the work.

Like a carpenter with a hammer, or a mechanic with a wrench, -it’s not the tool, but what you do with it. In our industry, -web development, the problem can be manyfold. The bar for excellence is often so low online that people will let virtually anything pass for acceptable. Some people wouldn’t know a good website if it bit them in the butt.

We can lament this all we want, but eventually we have to consider human nature. When people hire developers to build websites, -they want input. Regardless of their expertise, or their knowledge, they simply want to be involved. So how can we embrace this rather than fight it?

We believe that we as developers can use human nature to our advantage…

A good manager has the ability to put people to work at the things they will contribute the most at. While we probably would be advised not to tell our clients this, -we’re their manager during the web development process. It’s our job to harness their natural abilities, and give them tasks they can actually be useful at.

We’d like to think Jumpchart is a means to that end. Clients might not be information architects, and they for sure aren’t designers, -but they know where the brochure from 3 years ago is. They can find the PDF that Sally from HR has better than you or I. They know what their co-workers job title and email address is better than we ever will. They know where the content is in the physical world…

So embrace your clients’ inherent need to get involved in the process. Give them something useful to concentrate on. You’ll be doing more than just giving them something to do… You’ll be educating them on the process of building websites. Rest assured, your clients are not stupid, they’re just uneducated in web development (Thank goodness, or we would be out of a job.) An educated consumer is a discerning consumer. The more they know about the process, the better they will respect your decisions later. The more involved in the process they are in the beginning, the more emotionally committed they will be at the finish line.