Why Less is Sometimes More

When it comes to web development, oftentimes less is more – something that may seem counterintuitive in a culture where bigger is almost always considered better.

The smorgasbord of free modules that the better CMS’s have on offer can make the temptation to indulge immense. Our preferred CMS, Drupal, for example, has well-over 10,000 free modules available for download.

Dueling clichés aside, site bloat often leads to very real problems.

Fancy extras need constant maintenance, can make your site load slowly, or even crash your whole server.

It’s often tempting to pack in more and more functionality just because you can. See featureitis.

Look at it this way… you wouldn’t hang fuzzy dice from your rear view mirror would you? Why hang the equivalent of fuzzy dice on your website.

Among the best web developers, it’s a badge of honor to say one’s solution uses the least lines of code possible. As a project manager, I take pride in being able to build a website that meets the same objective with 40 modules when other developers had to use 80.

A bloated, maladroit website that goes well beyond its purpose leads to diminished focus, unhappy clients, and misspent resources. At worst, it can kill a website’s potential.

Green Crescent will never encourage clients to add all sorts of stuff they don’t need just to bill more hours. On the contrary, we take pride in our efficiency. We succeed only when our clients succeed.

Just something to keep in mind…