When a Generalist Can Save You Time and Money
North Carolina Arboretum
Regardless of the field in which you work, you have probably come across colleagues who are incredibly knowledgeable in one particular area. These specialists are impressive in terms of dedication and accumulated expertise. They often spend most of their career understanding and mastering one specific aspect of something greater.
A website is only as good as your worst photo.
The design of a website requires the input of many experts: photographer, logo designer, illustrator, web designer, programmer, copywriter, as well as experts for social media, search engine optimization, server provisioning, cybersecurity, payment gateways, and the list goes on. In any of these fields, you can hire specialists who can do exceptional work for you. As there are only a few who play at that level, they charge accordingly. Specialists are not cheap.
However, a website is only as good as your worst photo. Why?
Consistency Matters
Let's assume that you have spent thousands of dollars on your new logo, and have tasked the best web developer with programming the online store of your dreams. Unless you are prepared to keep spending big on photography, copy, and all the other areas, you may be tempted, for example, to add a stock photo on your site here and there to save some money. As stock photos look great and are inexpensive, you may think that nobody will notice.
Ask yourself: what do you remember from the websites you recently visited? Perhaps you recall that the site looked cluttered, or the pictures seem too dark. See, what stuck in your mind wasn't the great logo or the well-polished text. What you probably remember were the things that were a little out of balance compared to the rest of the site.
From my experience, visitors to a website will unintentionally pick up on any inconsistency no matter what. Sometimes, the web designer can solve them without much effort, such as a too-small font-size. They can also pose a challenge when the product photos of a high-end store show glare.
Like everything in life, a good website also needs to be in balance. When all elements play their assigned roles, the site looks consistent throughout. Achieving consistency is not a matter of how much you spend on photos, logos, or copy, for example. Consistency is foremost the result of how well the web designer has orchestrated the work of all specialists. However, the constant back and forth between these parties to align their inputs to the same quality can quickly become very time consuming, which translates into a higher price.
Saving You Time and Money
An alternative, less costly way could be to use a generalist as your web designer instead.
Generalists have extensive knowledge of a wide range of related topics. By leveraging their expertise, they can help direct your investment dollars to the areas which yield the best results.
As generalists are also often proficient in several fields, they can perform many of the tasks expensive specialists would undertake.
There is also a hidden benefit: since they do not have to spend time coordinating all contributors, the web designer can now focus on taking photos, writing copy, or designing your logo. This approach not only ensures consistency throughout your entire website but also leads to significant time and cost savings.
