It’s probably the most underrated part of a website. It’s not flashy like the design. It doesn’t have cool colors and flashy logos. It’s not like the content which delivers important information to the client. Simply put, it’s the workhorse of every site FindLaw develops. It’s a multi-tasking giant, churning hundreds of lines of code into something people can see and recognize as a website.
It’s easy to see how a great design can add value to a site. It’s easy to tell someone how FindLaw optimizing their site for search engines will add value to their business. It’s not so easy to tell someone how the standards we code our sites to will benefit them. Below are just a few examples of how using standards set down by the W3C (which stands for World Wide Web Consortium and is the main standards organization for the internet.) adds value to every site we develop.
Cross Browser Compatibility Speeds Development
Once upon a time, developers had to develop a different site for each browser since each browser treated the code differently. Thankfully, standards have brought these browsers into alignment. Adhering to these standards requires us to make sure a website works in all major browsers. This is in turn, has reduced the time needed for FindLaw developers to fix errors between browsers, and allows FindLaw to deliver a consistent product to our clients.
Separation of Content and Design Simplifies Maintenance
With the advent of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), it is possible now for a developer to separate the design styles (font size, font color, link colors,) from the content. Can you imagine having an 80 page site and having to change the font color on EVERY page? With CSS, you can change one line of code and it makes the changes throughout the entire site. This makes maintaining a site incredibly simple and allows FindLaw to have as little as 5 people handling over 2000 requests every month from clients to update or change the information currently on their site.
Clean Code is Fast Code Which Improves User Experience
By using code standards and our own best practices, FindLaw developers can do away with bloated code, which bogs down servers that would otherwise have to render hundreds of lines of useless code and decrease how fast a page loads. You might not think there are attorneys who are still using a dial up modem, but how many of their clients still use a dial up modem to access the internet? It’s something FindLaw developers have to consider when developing a site. This means we try to make sure every user’s experience is the best it can be under any circumstances, in any browser, and at any time of the day. To the attorneys we server, a better user experience means potential clients stay longer on the site, which leads to a higher conversion rate.
In the end, FindLaw’s development team uses multiple strategies to add value to the sites we create. By doing so, we make our sites easier to maintain, create a better user experience, and enhances FindLaw’s reputation for sticking to industry standards in all of our sites. So the next time you’re amazed at how fast a site loads on your laptop while sitting in front of a client, or how a blind person mentions how easy our site was to access, don’t thank us – thank the code.
Nathan Hein
Web Development
It’s easy to see how a great design can add value to a site. It’s easy to tell someone how FindLaw optimizing their site for search engines will add value to their business. It’s not so easy to tell someone how the standards we code our sites to will benefit them. Below are just a few examples of how using standards set down by the W3C (which stands for World Wide Web Consortium and is the main standards organization for the internet.) adds value to every site we develop.
Cross Browser Compatibility Speeds Development
Once upon a time, developers had to develop a different site for each browser since each browser treated the code differently. Thankfully, standards have brought these browsers into alignment. Adhering to these standards requires us to make sure a website works in all major browsers. This is in turn, has reduced the time needed for FindLaw developers to fix errors between browsers, and allows FindLaw to deliver a consistent product to our clients.
Separation of Content and Design Simplifies Maintenance
With the advent of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), it is possible now for a developer to separate the design styles (font size, font color, link colors,) from the content. Can you imagine having an 80 page site and having to change the font color on EVERY page? With CSS, you can change one line of code and it makes the changes throughout the entire site. This makes maintaining a site incredibly simple and allows FindLaw to have as little as 5 people handling over 2000 requests every month from clients to update or change the information currently on their site.
Clean Code is Fast Code Which Improves User Experience
By using code standards and our own best practices, FindLaw developers can do away with bloated code, which bogs down servers that would otherwise have to render hundreds of lines of useless code and decrease how fast a page loads. You might not think there are attorneys who are still using a dial up modem, but how many of their clients still use a dial up modem to access the internet? It’s something FindLaw developers have to consider when developing a site. This means we try to make sure every user’s experience is the best it can be under any circumstances, in any browser, and at any time of the day. To the attorneys we server, a better user experience means potential clients stay longer on the site, which leads to a higher conversion rate.
In the end, FindLaw’s development team uses multiple strategies to add value to the sites we create. By doing so, we make our sites easier to maintain, create a better user experience, and enhances FindLaw’s reputation for sticking to industry standards in all of our sites. So the next time you’re amazed at how fast a site loads on your laptop while sitting in front of a client, or how a blind person mentions how easy our site was to access, don’t thank us – thank the code.
Nathan Hein
Web Development
Powered by Compendium Blogware
Comments for How Developers Add Value to FindLaw Websites