A common question asked to most design agencies is "Who much does a website cost?".
A question which is far too vague to answer without a brief or consultation with a client, or a requirements analysis, however a question which has never yielded the answer... "umm.. about £100,000,000 should cover it"... i think most of our clients would of slapped us!!
However with the Conservatives in spending cuts over drive, and an open announcement that the government would be cutting budgets on government websites, i'm sure that most people were thinking, how much could they save? as a websites can cost a little, but not millions for sure!
Government Website Metrics PDF Download
Well, Spin Box has found that the government does spend an amazing amount of money on website development, and surely an overspend to agencies who get given blank cheques to build poorly designed and low functional websites which we are now forced to use. The COI have issued a report detailing the breakdown of central government websites, their costs and statistics
A breakdown on conformance testing and accessibility has been provided also, however looking at the websites listed in the report, we think that the government need new testing tools, as very few government websites conform to WCAG from W3C in our opinion.
Spin Box web design company have always believed that a website should yield at least a 200% ROI in the first year at a minimum, which is based on simple brochure websites. However with complicated database systems, this should reduce business costs dramatically and increase productivity, and in the case of the government websites, fully automated systems which have been popping up, should see a reduction in staffing costs, reduction in user support & education and reduction in time and processing errors.
Have a look at the report and see how the government has managed to spend about £130,000,000 on websites which you probably use 4 times a year!
Government Website Metrics PDF Download