Content Management Systems are killing your Website’s content

Joomla.
Drupal.
Wordpress.

Designers’ preferences for different platforms vary from person to person. I am not here to argue that point. That could be an endless task that would have really no clear-cut winner. It’s like arguing whether your sports team is better than another. The people that you will be arguing with are very passionate about their team and will find rebuttals to any point you have that is uncomplimentary about their team. It is a futile argument. No won wins.

I think the above platforms serve a market that has an bona fide need for easy interface into their website content. They typically are small businesses that don’t have the budget to hire a dedicated web designer or a marketing firm to manage it. They add this responsibility to their growing list of tasks, which can be anything under the sun!

I think the most significant issue is that clients obviously do not have a design or web background. If the changes that need to be made are simple text updates, these platforms work very well. However, I have had many experiences where clients attempt to make changes that are beyond their ability which leads to poor layout, improper graphic formats and an overall inferior website.

I colleague of mine works in the same field as I do but at a large advertising firm in Florida. Over lunch one day, we were discussing the nuances of client management when this exact topic came up. His experience was similar to mine but also included the fact that many of his clients with WordPress or Joomla websites were coming back to his agency to have them handle all ongoing design and administration. This was because of the exact same reason I spoke of before. Clients attempt to manage their content but either discover they don’t have the time and knowledge OR their inexperience lead to an awful website. He informed me that over time, these clients’ invoices had a line item of website maintenance more often than not.

So is CMS’ killing good web design? I think so. Although I do see it improving. Clients are realizing they have to leave the work to the experts. You wouldn’t try to fill a cavity yourself would you? So why would you try to design a website with no training?