Do your websites look like they were built with Legos?

– Brett Barron 6 October 2009

Blocky approximations of the real thing may be trendy in video games, but have no place in professional web development.

Legos are a wonderful tool of learning and expression for my five-year-old daughter. It’s fun to build with Legos. The assortment of sizes and shapes is extensive. They’re relatively inexpensive. They snap together and apart easily. Still, there’s no mistaking a house/car/boat that’s been assembled with Legos. That’s an element of the kitschy charm of the toy. Part of the pride of accomplishment in Legos construction is seeing just how close to recognizable your finished product can be.

I review quite a few websites in my line of work. So many of them are quite apparently built from the equivalent of Legos: the intended design is stilted by limitations of the underlying development platform. Such limitations may be acceptable for websites created by consumers using Microsoft Front Page, Apple iWeb or WordPress, but I’ve seen the same blockiness come out of professional development agencies as well. That’s a shame.

These are tough times, and professional web developers must work smarter than ever to compete. It’s smart to use tools that make development more efficient, keep costs down, and make possible a high value proposition for website owners. Developers take heart: at least one solution delivers such efficiency and power while never showing it’s skeleton through the skin of your design. Dialogs is just such a platform. Check it out, and leave the Legos to the kids.