The should have made it orange — the orange tic tacs are the best.
Kinda like Brainfuel.tv? 😉
Don’t get me wrong though, I don’t have a problem with the green. Just pointing it out is all… 😉
a real rookie at the development wheel for the tic tac site:
– CSS should be external
– JavaScript should be external
– language tags should be type
– no meta tags
– tables when CSS would have done the job
– no Flash detection scripts
– not search engine optimized
someone should pitch them a new site…
Hey Mark, you have a number of points that would resonate well with the CSS, code-perfectionist crowd.
However, from the company’s standpoint, they are all moot points and would make for a difficult sale.
“CSS should be external” Client says, “why do we care? It looks good to us and displays just fine on all of our computers.”
“JavaScript should be external” Client says, “why do we care? It looks good to us and displays just fine on all of our computers.”
“language tags should be type” Client says, “why do we care? It looks good to us and displays just fine on all of our computers.”
“no meta tags” Client says, “search engines don’t hardly even care about meta tags anymore”
“tables when CSS would have done the job” Client says, “why do we care? It looks good to us and displays just fine on all of our computers.”
“no Flash detection scripts” Client says, “hmm… wait. Why do we care? 98% of our target market has flash anyway.”
“not search engine optimized” Client says, “have you searched for tic tac lately? We’re number 1 on the results.”
“CSS should be external”
Client says, “why do we care?”
because it will load faster and because search engines place a great emphases on the top of a page- which is a bunch of CSS in this case. Also, there is a good chance that this code is repeated on many other pages in the site. Making modifications at a later date more work than need be.
“JavaScript should be external”
Client says, “why do we care? “
Just easier to manage and the page size is smaller.
“language tags should be type”
Client says, “why do we care? “
Yeah, just a standards thing here.
“no meta tags”
Client says, “search engines don’t hardly even care about meta tags anymore”
And yet they still do matter some. And in the search engine world things change.
“tables when CSS would have done the job”
Client says, “why do we care? It looks good to us and displays just fine on all of our computers.”
Because you can make it smaller, load faster, and make it easier to modify later should you need to.
“no Flash detection scripts”
Client says, “hmm… wait. Why do we care? 98% of our target market has flash anyway.”
And yet that 2% in the business world is still market share. That and it’s easy to do.
“not search engine optimized”
Client says, “have you searched for tic tac lately? We’re number 1 on the results.”
If you are only optimized for 1 keyword then you are limiting your viewers.
oh, and they have no DOCTYPE declaration
—
Also, you know, as a developer that has been doing things awhile, you just do things the right way. Not because people ask you to or because you can get away with doing things wrong. But, because you are conditioned to do things the right way.
If you were a musician with a developed ear – you would just hear the mistakes by amateurs. I guess the same thing happens when I look at code…
I understand and agree with your points, from a development standpoint.
However, I still hold my viewpoint that clients rarely care about these little details enough to have their entire site re-designed…
Thomas: While working for the Just For Laughs Festival I learned a very important lesson. You can’t sell Standards to non-technical artist types. But you can sell cost.
“CSS should be external”
“why do we care?”
Because downloading the same CSS every time a page loads costs you in bandwidth usage. You’re bleeding money.
Because editing all of your documents to make one change will cost you in person hours (unless the pages are dynamic).
“JavaScript should be external”
Client says, “why do we care? “
See CSS question
“language tags should be type”
Client says, “why do we care? “
It doesn’t hurt to get in the habit of using standards. After all you don’t want to get sued like Target.com now do you? That costs a lot of money.
“no meta tags”
Client says, “search engines don’t hardly even care about meta tags anymore”
Meta tags will help you rank better. See search engine answer below.
“tables when CSS would have done the job”
Client says, “why do we care?”
Well, let’s see, maintaining your site will cost you more money because it will take your web guys longer.
Your pages will weigh more, that’ll cost you more in bandwidth usage. You’ll be bleeding money.
“no Flash detection scripts”
“hmm… wait. Why do we care? 98% of our target market has flash anyway.”
Having a site that’s unable to deliver it’s flash content because the visitor doesn’t have the right version of flash looks very, very unprofessional. If you project an unprofessional image you lose consumer confidence and that turns into a loss of sales. Don’t be cheap, spend the extra few minutes and do the job right!
“not search engine optimized”
Client says, “have you searched for tic tac lately? We’re number 1 on the results.”
That’s nice, and I rank #1 for my full name. But how do you rank for “breath mints”, or “bad breath”, or “candy” even? How about your competitor’s brand name? Ever think of that? You don’t just want to cater to your existing client base, you want to go get more clientele.
BTW, the arrogant tone I took in the previous comment is directed at the CEO type who says he doesn’t care about doing things right, not Tom.
And of course, common sense dictates that one should always be diplomatic with one’s clients if one wants to keep said client. 😉
9 responses to “Tic Tac”
The should have made it orange — the orange tic tacs are the best.
Kinda like Brainfuel.tv? 😉
Don’t get me wrong though, I don’t have a problem with the green. Just pointing it out is all… 😉
a real rookie at the development wheel for the tic tac site:
– CSS should be external
– JavaScript should be external
– language tags should be type
– no meta tags
– tables when CSS would have done the job
– no Flash detection scripts
– not search engine optimized
someone should pitch them a new site…
Hey Mark, you have a number of points that would resonate well with the CSS, code-perfectionist crowd.
However, from the company’s standpoint, they are all moot points and would make for a difficult sale.
“CSS should be external”
Client says, “why do we care? It looks good to us and displays just fine on all of our computers.”
“JavaScript should be external”
Client says, “why do we care? It looks good to us and displays just fine on all of our computers.”
“language tags should be type”
Client says, “why do we care? It looks good to us and displays just fine on all of our computers.”
“no meta tags”
Client says, “search engines don’t hardly even care about meta tags anymore”
“tables when CSS would have done the job”
Client says, “why do we care? It looks good to us and displays just fine on all of our computers.”
“no Flash detection scripts”
Client says, “hmm… wait. Why do we care? 98% of our target market has flash anyway.”
“not search engine optimized”
Client says, “have you searched for tic tac lately? We’re number 1 on the results.”
“CSS should be external”
Client says, “why do we care?”
because it will load faster and because search engines place a great emphases on the top of a page- which is a bunch of CSS in this case. Also, there is a good chance that this code is repeated on many other pages in the site. Making modifications at a later date more work than need be.
“JavaScript should be external”
Client says, “why do we care? “
Just easier to manage and the page size is smaller.
“language tags should be type”
Client says, “why do we care? “
Yeah, just a standards thing here.
“no meta tags”
Client says, “search engines don’t hardly even care about meta tags anymore”
And yet they still do matter some. And in the search engine world things change.
“tables when CSS would have done the job”
Client says, “why do we care? It looks good to us and displays just fine on all of our computers.”
Because you can make it smaller, load faster, and make it easier to modify later should you need to.
“no Flash detection scripts”
Client says, “hmm… wait. Why do we care? 98% of our target market has flash anyway.”
And yet that 2% in the business world is still market share. That and it’s easy to do.
“not search engine optimized”
Client says, “have you searched for tic tac lately? We’re number 1 on the results.”
If you are only optimized for 1 keyword then you are limiting your viewers.
oh, and they have no DOCTYPE declaration
—
Also, you know, as a developer that has been doing things awhile, you just do things the right way. Not because people ask you to or because you can get away with doing things wrong. But, because you are conditioned to do things the right way.
If you were a musician with a developed ear – you would just hear the mistakes by amateurs. I guess the same thing happens when I look at code…
I understand and agree with your points, from a development standpoint.
However, I still hold my viewpoint that clients rarely care about these little details enough to have their entire site re-designed…
Thomas: While working for the Just For Laughs Festival I learned a very important lesson. You can’t sell Standards to non-technical artist types. But you can sell cost.
“CSS should be external”
“why do we care?”
Because downloading the same CSS every time a page loads costs you in bandwidth usage. You’re bleeding money.
Because editing all of your documents to make one change will cost you in person hours (unless the pages are dynamic).
“JavaScript should be external”
Client says, “why do we care? “
See CSS question
“language tags should be type”
Client says, “why do we care? “
It doesn’t hurt to get in the habit of using standards. After all you don’t want to get sued like Target.com now do you? That costs a lot of money.
“no meta tags”
Client says, “search engines don’t hardly even care about meta tags anymore”
Meta tags will help you rank better. See search engine answer below.
“tables when CSS would have done the job”
Client says, “why do we care?”
Well, let’s see, maintaining your site will cost you more money because it will take your web guys longer.
Your pages will weigh more, that’ll cost you more in bandwidth usage. You’ll be bleeding money.
“no Flash detection scripts”
“hmm… wait. Why do we care? 98% of our target market has flash anyway.”
Having a site that’s unable to deliver it’s flash content because the visitor doesn’t have the right version of flash looks very, very unprofessional. If you project an unprofessional image you lose consumer confidence and that turns into a loss of sales. Don’t be cheap, spend the extra few minutes and do the job right!
“not search engine optimized”
Client says, “have you searched for tic tac lately? We’re number 1 on the results.”
That’s nice, and I rank #1 for my full name. But how do you rank for “breath mints”, or “bad breath”, or “candy” even? How about your competitor’s brand name? Ever think of that? You don’t just want to cater to your existing client base, you want to go get more clientele.
BTW, the arrogant tone I took in the previous comment is directed at the CEO type who says he doesn’t care about doing things right, not Tom.
And of course, common sense dictates that one should always be diplomatic with one’s clients if one wants to keep said client. 😉