Web design in Cleveland, 2008
In 2007 I met some great people right here thanks to the Cleveland Web Standards Association, met some of my favorite internet personalities at SXSW and more and more at work I’m seeing our clients reap the benefits of using web standards.
So imagine my glee when I got an email from Mike DeAloia (ex Tech Czar) asking people to rally around a really cool Cleveland tech company
and vote for them on Ideablob. Especially since the company, Bizooki, is a web services company.
Call me a sad geek, but the first instinct I have is to delve into the source code and validate. I restrained myself this time, but the restraint didn’t last long.
I wasn’t blown away by the design, but beauty is in the eye etc., so I decided to check out the portfolio section. As the first example I clicked on loaded I noticed that “tell-tale images loading in a table” look. Oh yeah, they’re all here:
- tables for layout
- incomplete doctype
- 75 errors on validation
- no headings <h1>
- no alt text on images (all 83 of them)
Giving the benefit (site was copyrighted 2005) of the doubt I went back and looked at Bizooki’s home page:
- 186 errors on validation
- drop-down navigation doesn’t work without JavaScript
- a mixture of external and internal CSS, divitis, classitis, tables
- no alt text for main navigation images
Now I’ve never met Andy Tabar and I wish him and his company all the best but seeing as he’s based out of Nashville (according to Ideablob) and one of his goals, if he wins the $10,000, is to Hire my established team in India to dedicate 4 months to executing these tasks
I can’t say he’s getting my vote.
C’mon guys. Building with web standards is easy, really! It doesn’t matter if your in Westlake or Bangalore. Let’s really get behind this in 2008 and promote great, standards-based web development, putting Cleveland developers up there with the best of them.
Blogged with Flock
Tags: cleveland, web-standards, bizooki, 2008
January 4th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Good article, David. I’m in agreement with you on this. There is no way I would vote for this company.
I’m all about promoting Northeast Ohio and its tech community, but in my point of view, this company is part of the problem.
January 4th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Actually I think that site fits the Cleveland web scene perfectly! It:
1) Uses more marketspeak than an undergraduate BA student writing his/her first proposal (”Empowers businesses with results-oriented web sites” - Really? A web site focused on results? Groundbreaking!)
2) Is not based in Cleveland
3) Outsources cheap labor in other countries (hey, that makes us “global!”) instead of re-investing it in the community (This way we can undercut real designers!)
4) Has Flash for no other reason than to have Flash
5) IS NOT BASED IN CLEVELAND
Is this seriously the best we have to offer? What other city, sitting on the resources we have running under Euclid Ave, that could fail so spectacularly at creating a tech industry?
January 5th, 2008 at 6:25 am
Wow Bazooki’s site was a painful experience for me. I have a high speed internet connection and yet their pages loaded very slowly or got hung up (I couldn’t tell which). I kept getting that spinning icon with the head or whatever and it stayed that way until I moved my mouse, which was usually 30 seconds later when I thought I would just move on to something else.
Additionally, I’m with Brendan on the not based in Cleveland thing. Having a branch office in Cleveland doesn’t make Bizooki a “Cleveland tech company.” They are a Nashville tech company that has an office in Cleveland.
January 8th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Thanks for the feedback on some of our web sites. I’m going to take this as constructive criticism and we are already working to correct the specific issues that you identified. But let’s be clear about the purpose of the IdeaBlob competition — it’s to provide funding and feedback to help us grow our business. The focus of our proposal on IdeaBlob is on our new tools and services, and the next phase of Bizooki.
I am active in Cleveland, while a college student in Nashville, TN. Please feel free to contact me directly: andy@bizooki.com
January 8th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Hi Andy,
As I said in my post I wish you & Bizooki all the best. I’m glad you are taking my comments as constructive and I’m happy to hear that you are taking steps to look at the things I mentioned.
My frustration is with web firms not looking at standards from the get go, especially ones based in Cleveland (hence the blog).
I’d be more than happy to chat more about this offline if you feel like it.
January 9th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Andy,
I should probably clarify my position if you are reading this, as i tend to jam my foot into my mouth as quickly as possible when I see things I disagree with
I hope you’re working to adapt web standards because, really, there is no excuse to not be if you call yourself a web professional.
My problem (here) is not exactly with your company as it probably looks like from my cynical off-the-cuff comment, but with you being promoted by a prominent figure in Cleveland.
Yes you’re active in Cleveland, but not based in Cleveland. I think it’s great and applaud that you have a presence here, we need it.
But there are plenty of web companies that are based here in Cleveland and I would much rather see them get the support and promotion of our industry leaders, especially those that are using modern web development practices (an area in which we sorely need promotion!).
If Cleveland is ever going to be the Tech Hub we all see it could be, we need to either be evangalizing the people we do have, or get you to move shop up here.
Then maybe you’ll have my support.