Posted on Sunday 13th of May 2007 at 07:34 in Web Development

Why Content Management Systems (CMS) are bad

It's quite a common thing; to give your clients a content-managed solution to alleviate some of the pain that is managing websites. Data entry can be a pain and offering a CMS can solve a lot of these problems; but it can create a whole lot more...

Content management systems are no longer for high-paying customers; open source solutions like Drupal and Joomla (amongst many others) mean that even freelancers can integrate web development projects without ramping up the costs.

It can be a headache slaving over hours of mindless data entry when doing web development work and offering the client a solution that allows them total control over their content seems to be ideal. Unfortunately you can write off ever putting that site on your portfolio because (as most developers and designers will agree) clients have the power to create hurrendous combinations.

You may have agreed to produce an AA accessible standard, XHTML validated site. However, content management systems entirely allow customers to break the standards you set and ruin your designs - so you wouldn't want that on your portfolio would you?

Non-specific examples
Unfortunately I can't give any specific examples at the cost of the users involved, but I can think of one particular project where the design included a cropped image of professionally photographed people in the header - perfectly blended into the website background. Unfortunately the CMS allowed for the users to change the header image. What they did was take a photo of some "friends" and replace it in all it's over-exposed, uncropped, unblended majesty.

CMS good points
+ Hands off approach to data entry (something clients don't always like paying for)
+ Easy handover
+ Nicely documented, working solutions that you didn't develop yourself

CMS bad points
- You could be charging for that data entry
- Your work is likely to be ruined
- You can't really put it on your portfolio incase it's been destroyed

So remember, it may be an attractive option when trying to avoid a hundred pages of data entry but you lose any creative input you have in the site once handover is complete. The site is then subject to the proverbial meat-cleaver that is a non-developer/designer's creativity. Just a thought for fellow web developers to consider.

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Comments

Showing most recent 3 of 3 comments

I agree with David... I would also add that this article is more for a Art designer, rather than a developer; who, imo, should be making a solution that is self sustaining. Sure the user can then go and "mess things up", but that is then their problem; or, where you make money fixing it.

by Anon on Sunday 9th of September 2007 at 09:33

I think this article fails on the point that the site is built for the client. its for them to do with as they please, its not your (the designers) site. I think we as desigers get too close to the work and let things like this stand in our way . if the cleint ’ruins’ the look then dont use it in the portfolio, or take a screenshot of the site right before they get to it, and add a line in the portfolio that explains why there is such a difference in the look and feel.

Heck use it as an example to steer a future client away from a CMS. but i think if the excuse for not using a cms is strictly based on clients fubaring the site, its a pretty weak argument.

by David Blanchet on Tuesday 15th of May 2007 at 13:13

danny wants a link to www.lussoluxury.com on this site.

by dan on Sunday 13th of May 2007 at 14:21