Skip to main content Screen Reader Website Version
Request A Quote

Why are most government websites so terrible?

The recent debacle with the Affordable Care Act has made headlines but those of us in the development world are just seeing more of the same old thing. Government websites stink! Why is that? I can assure you that their cost structure is very similar to the outrageous cost of healthcare.gov. We have seen bids for local government sites in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. While they are complex, they aren’t that complex. Once major challenge is hooking up to all the old legacy systems local (aw heck, all) governments rely on. This presents challenges but the bids are still overblown – it’s kind of just “the thing to do” with government, huh?

But then, why do they still stink? If they cost so much, so be it, but at least be good, right?

They almost unanimously seem to lumber along, contain sparse information, disconnect and are chock full of broken links. Other websites are just as complex, take Amazon or Ebay for example and you’ll rarely see the kind of issues you find throughout government web projects. Maybe those are extreme examples but you would think that government web developers would at least be working with the latest in industry standards. There is nothing preventing a government site from being responsive or at least mobile friendly. Why do I see so many <font> tags? Is this 1998?

For all the trouble and money you would think the product would be just cutting edge. Nope. We relive  and suffer through the same old clunkers and just kind of shrug… it’s just the way it is.

More Web Design Blog Content

CSS Evolution

Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS revolutionized the way the web was/is written. The next evolution has been the roll out of CSS3. With all kinds of new tricks, CSS3 promises to take web programming to the next level … and beyond. We generally hand code all of our

What You Should be Asking

When hiring a developer, many people don’t know what questions they should be asking – if they knew, then they’d probably be doing the work themselves, right? First and foremost – ask for examples of previous projects. The surefire way to weed out the novices is to look

web design north carolina

B2B Social Marketing

Social media marketing is usually not as important for business-to-business (B2B) businesses because most of their customers find them through word-of-mouth or a lot of online searching. Many B2Bs are also in ‘dry’ or serious businesses that don’t work well with pictures. But a social media marketing plan

Database Projects

We are database junkies. Simply put, you can’t beet the flexibility and scalability that databases offer us in the web design world. We prefer using MySQL which is the most common database for web projects. It integrates with PHP perfectly and together there is simply nothing more powerful.

Moving Day

Moving day, er, week, here at Livewire. New offices located at 2606 NW 6th Street are being filled in with all of our useful junk. Very exciting to be in a premium location with large signage and great new neighbors. Livewire has teamed up with Gnosys Networks to

Content Marketing Mistakes That Derail Your SEO

Don’t fall into the trap of content which won’t rank on search engines to go along with your sites top-flight graphics. All the effort and money poured into your website is for nothing if you don’t rank on a search engine. These are some common mistakes that can

  • EMAIL: web@livewiregeeks.com
Facebook Linkedin Google-plus