A better Web?

“For a better Web”… Using powerful words for a slogan is nice, but what does a “better Web” actually mean?

It’s quite simple: let’s build a Web that works. That works well. For everyone. That serves your users and doesn’t work against them. And that suits you.

Okay but… we obviously all make websites that work, don’t we?

Well, nowadays… not necessarily. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. You use plenty of sites that almost work.

A web that works

A “working” Web is built on the fundamental thing about the Internet: browsing. There’s a reason why Chrome and Firefox are called browsers: we spend most of our time on the Internet browsing between pages.

Effective browsing is the basis of a website that people won’t be grumbling about. And as simple as it may sound, it might not always be that easy to implement. Or rather it’s often easy to set up a browsing experience that doesn’t work properly.

A reliable back button

On Vinted, for example, the back button doesn’t work perfectly on the browser. When I go back to my list of favorites after looking at the details of a clothing item:

• Context is lost: I have to remember the vertical position I had scrolled to.
• Data is loaded again. But there is no need to, I was on this page just a few seconds ago! Plus, the user has to wait, and the process consumes server resources unnecessarily.

Links that users can control

If you visit the But website, you will notice that it is difficult to open several different sections at the same time in different tabs: right-clicking or middle mouse-clicking an item is impossible in the main menu.

Keyboard support

On the SFR website, keyboard navigation is impossible via the tab key to browse from link to link: there’s no visual change when you focus on an interactive element.

Why have we come to this?

I’m sure that these examples made you think of similar issues on websites that you visit on a regular basis. And as you’ve probably noticed, my examples are popular websites which are visited by millions of people every month. These fundamental points of web browsing are often poorly or not respected! How come?

Well, let’s face it, it’s kind of our fault as web workers and as an industry. Developers, designers, product managers… little by little, we lose our focus, and sometimes we end up with mixed results.

This is probably mainly due to the hasty use of our beloved JavaScript frameworks like React, Angular, Next.js, Vue and others. In theory, these tools allow us to create high-quality user experiences, which we might not be able to achieve with server-side frameworks like Symfony or Django. But in practice, we forget that choosing these JavaScript tools comes with increased technical difficulty, and requires developers to work harder and pay more attention to crucial aspects of how the Web works.

No need to panic. We can still build websites that are fast, accessible to all and that respect users, even with modern tools.

But it requires attention and expertise.

A Web that suits you

Beyond a Web that works for your users, it’s also important to build something that works for you.

That suits your business. Let’s take a moment to think about what your users expect from you, rather than from Amazon or Airbnb. Let’s build appropriate interfaces and user experiences, rather than copied ones.

That suits your budget. If you’re on a tight budget, let’s keep things reasonable and create the most important things step by step. No need to dive into complex developments only to realize 3 months later that they won’t fit in with the budget.

That suits your team. How many digital projects are completely abandoned right after launch, because they are unusable without constant support from the service provider that implemented it? Very important point here: I work with you to create tools that fit your team, not the other way round.

Conclusion

Want to work together?