As I was researching for work this week, I came across some websites that looked worse than what I used to create in middle school.  It shocked me that businesses like that could exist and somehow make money when their homepage ran for miles with plain text in glaring colors detailing a lot of superfluous information.  It really resembled an infomercial: “Are you desperate for help?  Do you know what kind you want?  Do you know where to get it?  Are you looking for a great solution?  Well guess what?  Helpline is here!  For only nine installments of $19.99, you too can join the thousands who have found the help they need! …”  Catch my drift?

So plain, so bare!

I really don’t understand how people can take a company seriously when they don’t even bother to get a website designed to reflect their brand.  It is their front, their face, and they chose to represent it as such?  I wouldn’t trust my business with these people!  Who does?!  I see this kind of like a company that gets an empty warehouse to work from and all they get are desks and chairs.  They don’t carpet the place, add curtains, put decorations on the walls, or anything to personalize.  The whole place is dusty and smells strangely too and an unshaven man with food particles all over his beard throws open the door and rushes off when you knock.  You walk in to find minimalistic decorations and no sitting area for guests.  You’re then handed plain sheets of printed outlines of what services they offer. Would you want to engage this organization?  I wouldn’t!

Now there’s definitely a difference between looks to enhance an image and looks to just appear professional.  I’m not saying that these people should suddenly decorate like crazy, but there are certain protocols.  In the work force, people often have uniforms depending on their organization and if you wear something else, it can really change the impression that you give.  Much like dress codes, there are guidelines to follow to be taken seriously for business.  I think there’s a huge difference between just being casual (which plenty of companies have chosen to adopt) and being sloppy (which no company should ever adopt).

photo credit: inmagine.com

Women are most often judged for their appearances, so let me draw an analogy of a woman going to work.  If she shows up with tangles in her hair, some eyeliner gone wrong, and hiding herself in baggy sweats, I don’t think anyone would want to do business with her, especially when they get a whiff of her… odor.  Now if she were to show up to work with neatly combed hair, a fresh clean face, and a simple non-offensive t-shirt and jeans, she can be casual without looking like someone who can take care of her business.  Now of course, the way we’ve been conditioned, she is probably more likely to be taken seriously if she wears even dressier clothes, like a business suit.  But that’s a whole other story.

To me, a website like the one shown is basically not performing “proper hygiene” for itself.  When I come across something like that, I’ve got no better choice but to hold my breath and rush on by.  And so I did, quickly moving on to sites that had more thought and effort put into them.  Am I being too harsh here?  Do websites need the kind of grooming I’d like to see from them all or are they fine like this as long as they have all the information?  I can’t help but feel like this is unreliable and unprofessional.  And who wants to business with an unreliable and unprofessional organization, right?