Do You Need To Be Comped? (Part I)

The first in a series of articles on why web sites cost what they do and how to provide great value. There are a lot of reasons why big sites cost a lot. Frankly, I don’t think most small businesses realize how expensive a commercial site really is.

One basic reason sites are pricey is that they are always comprehensively pre-planned, or ‘comped’. A mock up is created, typically in Photoshop, of every page and all the key states on each page. For example, if you have a form with several popup warning messages, you create a mock up of each of those possibilities. That can quickly add up to dozens of comps. I think that right there is enough to explain a lot of the cost.

Not only are you paying the artist to do the design, but you’re then offering the client (and all stakeholders) a chance to give feedback and ‘tweak’ before coding even begins. Great, right? Sure. But each iteration takes time and money. Now if you’re Amazon, you definitely save money with this comprehensive process. But for most smaller organizations, this just doesn’t make sense.

In my experience, you can save as much as 50% of the cost on a custom web site by dispensing with full comps. That right there should make you want to consider alternatives. Next time I’ll give you some.