How Websites are like Children

Category: Web Development Author: Gary R. Hess

In the second article of the series Santa’s SEM I stated:

Websites, along with products, are like babies. They don’t just pop out and suddenly drive a car, go to college and get a good job. They must be nursed, have their diapers changed and then potty trained all before going to elementary school.

A child’s life:

Baby is born.
Baby is nursed.
Baby needs diaper changes.
Toddler needs potty trained.
Child attends school.
Teen becomes rebellious.
Teen grows out of rebellion, or at least more-so than before.
They are finally grown and ready to leave home.

A website’s life (or products):

Website is created.
Website tweaked according to feedback received from visitors.
Website overhauled to accommodate for new pages.
Website tweaked again according to new feedback of site.
Website begins growing, slowly.
Website becomes one of its own, something unexpected happens.
Website adopts more to the new visitors.
The website is finally mature enough to decide whether or not to start over again.

Not all steps are essential or even chronological; anyhow, it is a basic sense of how business functions. We create, test, create again, test again, then something happens unexpected, then we look over what we have. If the product fails, we start over, sell or continue innovating.