The Reality Gap

The Reality Gap

As web professionals we often get asked for the weird and the wonderful.  I'll give you a recent example of a customer conversation.


Them: 'We'd like a post code based database that can work out mileage between any location in the UK, then give a quote for the milage for our van and delivery service which can then take payment online.'

Us: 'Ok we should meet to discuss your exact requirements, from which we can work out a quotation for you and give you an estimate of how long the work will take.'

Them: 'Ok will you come to us or should we come to you?'

Us: 'We can do both, we've got an office in Llanelli...'

Them: 'Does that make you expensive?'



This conversation says a lot about the enquiries we're getting in this day and age.  To be truthful, it's not the caller's fault it turns out that their budget was a couple of hundred quid whereas for a sophisticated system like that it should really be a couple of thousand at least.  The reason behind this is that post code databases are expensive to buy from the post office/ Royal Mail and the custom coding takes time to put in place.  The bulk of that time is of course taken up in testing.  We have to make sites as hacker proof as possible and that is not an easy thing to do.  Sorry we're not cheap.

Because people have seen cheap software on the web that's been developed professionally for and mass sold for low prices they are increasingly expecting us to provide them anything they want for miniscule amounts.  They dont see that the mass produced software has been developed by a large company that may have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds/dollars to do so and is only profitable at low amounts becuase hundreds of thousands of people buy it, hence the reality gap.

As web designers the onus is on us to explain what is reasonable and what is feasible, sadly by then we've already lost the business, because it wasn't really there in the first place.

www.cptsolutions.biz  and www.nice-site.org