Would Regulation Help the Web Development Industry?

In this day and age do you feel that some web design and development agencies are taking advantage of a culture of ripping off the customers and giving a bad name to the honest ones?

This is a question I ask myself from time-to-time. I wonder if web developers and designers could benefit from a central body, setting a ‘code-of-standards’ to follow, devoted solely to the web development industry: An organisation, of people, that could bring a consistency to all web development companies and freelancers.

Would it be a good idea? Do the pros outweigh the cons? After all, to me, regulation (at least in principal) means one thing and one thing only:

“Fairness.”

“What’s so unfair about web development?” I hear you ask. I’m truly sorry if I touched a nerve there. I just remember an incident where someone, within a web design agency (not us, obviously), told me:

“I told her that if she didn’t buy the CMS, she’d have to learn binary!”

Forgive me if I’m wrong, but that’s unfair. The CMS had a four-figure price tag per annum attached to it. People shouldn’t lie during a sales-pitch. It’s morally and ethically wrong. They should be held accountable and that’s what regulation strives to do.

However, in this particular case, I don’t feel I have the right to judge. At the time, I saw nothing wrong with it and I probably (and regrettably) laughed. It was some time, years later, that I felt guilty and embarrassed that I saw this as acceptable.

Also, at the time, it was a struggling start-up company that needed money. That doesn’t make it right, but it makes it’s evermore excusable/understandable. Maybe even forgivable.

But could you imagine if that kind of ethic continued. Imagine if it was mimicked by others. We all try to impress our potential clients but to allow for blatant lies should be seen as unacceptable. As I’ve already stated, regulation would help.

I’ve been employed in a position that allowed me to see the effect of regulation almost on a daily basis. I’ve seen how the consumer is protected against being ripped off. I’ve seen how obvious it is for a customer to know exactly what they’re doing and what they’re paying for. And the fact that they are PAYING for it.

But I’ve seen the ridiculous side of it too. Where the regulations themselves are unfair upon the developer: I was once told a website of mine HAD to be 800 pixels wide, so as to fit into the smallest resolution of a desktop computer.

Could you imagine the impact a regulation such as this can do if it came into to force? It would send us years back and keep us there! This type of regulation could easily become revenue impacting, for very little reasoning behind it, therefore becoming unjust.

So you see where my thoughts leave me. Eradicate the threat of charlatans and have our designs dictated by a third party. Promote healthy ethics and serve out customers better while constantly have to haggle about pixels with yet another entity.

The title of the post is a question for a reason. Are there any benefits to this? Would it be a negative impact? And, above all else, would it help the industry? It probably isn’t feasible, practical, or even possible but I still wonder.

Please leave your thoughts below.

Tags: Design/Development/Regulation
Posted in Blog by John |