This was meant to be a portfolio post on rebranding Endis, the sister company of the web business I work for. As well as specific sales and support web sites, Endis wanted an umbrella site for their UK brand. Simple, direct branding, with links off to the other sites (if you get geo-coded off to the US site, that was nothing to do with me. Just talking UK here).
But when I visited the site to take a screenshot and remind myself of what the project involved, I found that it has been redesigned already. Mostly just tweaking, but it has affected some of the content that was originally there.
I don’t mind one bean if people want to change their sites after they’ve paid me for content work. They own the sites. My work is done.
Except it does give me one small problem: it ruins my portfolio.
In creative industries, especially ones that people haven’t heard much about (content strategy, anyone?), potential customers want to see the difference made for previous clients. But I’m reluctant to point them to web sites that I have worked on for fear of what they have become.
Even the smallest changes…
At this point let me say that the changes to the Endis web site were minor. My tagline is still there, as are the punchy copyshots for features and selling points. The testimonials from the questionnaire are still being used, and most of the copy on the site is still mine.
But even the smallest changes have a big impact, especially on the coherence of the content as a whole.
Who We Are or About Us?
A new strap has appeared, ‘The Home of Insight’, on every page except the home page, which is somewhat failed logic. More to the point, Endis being more than Insight (their leading product) was one of the key messages of the site to begin with.
A large new logo has been added in the left column which makes the page layout lopsided.
Then there are the headings. I love leading a menu bar item page with a statement instead of the menu heading again. For example, click on ‘Who We Are’ and the page heading read ‘We love giving ordinary people the tools to thrive on the web’ instead of saying ‘Who We Are’ again. On a small site like Endis, there’s no danger of getting lost in the navigation, and the preeminence given to headings mainlines the message straight into the reader’s mind. It also exhibits a confidence in cutting to the chase.
In the redesign, these headings have been relegated to large straps beneath more conventional page title headings. Not only does this start to get silly – a menu item followed by a heading under which there’s a big strap and then a large first paragraph before you get to normal text – but the new headings are not even the same as one the menu bar. Click on ‘Who We Are’ and the page heading is ‘About Us’. ‘Technologies’ is called ‘Everything you need’. ‘Contact Us’ goes to ‘Get in touch’.
Worst of all, the ‘Clients’ page is headed ‘Clients worldwide’ followed by the same strap (formerly heading) from the Who We Are page: ‘We love giving people the tools…’. It doesn’t look good, even if there’s still some snappy copy kicking about.
The problem with portfolios
And therein lies the problem. We do great work for clients and their sites look smart for all of a few days before they tweak a few things, or the user-generated content starts appearing, or they change something about the design, and suddenly we’re not so proud any more and the dog is relishing its dinner.
Even when nothing changes, sometimes our contribution sits in with other elements that don’t look so hot. I’ve worked on a few sites which, though pleased with my own contribution, I’ll never add to my portfolio because of the state of the rest of the web site.
Let me restate: the Endis site is good, and you can still see lots of my influence on the content. I just happened to pick on it to illustrate the problem with portfolios. I’d love to know what you do to overcome the difficulty. Here are five of my thoughts:
- Show an unlinked screenshot of when the site was looking good
- Explain what you did for each client rather than just pointing at the site
- Include a disclaimer for portfolio entries (like this post)
- Offer another way to experience your work – in my case, the free sample
- Do as much as possible to support good content after release (such as style guides and training)
What else would you do? How do you beat the problem of portfolios? How can you show off your work without other people getting their grubby little hands on it?
Reminds me of this cartoon: http://www.kopozky.net/the-life-and-death-of-design
I think the important part to supporting good design and content after release is to ensure that those responsible for maintaining the site know and appreciate the principles with which it was built. If you can tell them why rather than what then edits may be made more sympathetically.
Often the web isn’t about one time publishing – freezing things in a perfect state. Good sites will adapt, but have a strong enough DNA to retain the core goodness.
Below is a link to a great little script that lets you insert realtime thumbnails/screenshots into web pages;
http://www.websitethumbnail.de/
In reality this solution probably suits web designers more than copywriters. The design is less likely to change to an extent that it is no longer a good representation of your original work.