You wake up one day and your vision is blurry. You Google “blurry vision,” eyes pressed nearly to your computer screen, and find a bunch of websites that advocate eating licorice root for eye health. So you have your significant other drive you to the health food store and get some licorice root extract and maybe some real licorice candy, and feel like you’ve done something about the problem. Except… the next day your eyes are no better. You Google “why doesn’t licorice help my eyes” and find a bunch of weird YouTube tutorials on makeup. You stumble into the kitchen to ask your significant other to see if you’ve mistyped anything in the search window.
At this point your significant other insists you go see an optometrist. But when you get there, the first thing you ask is “Why wouldn’t licorice root help my vision improve?” The doctor would then spend time answering that question, instead of inspecting your eyes and finding the root cause of your issue. Heck, you might be so frustrated over why your licorice candies didn’t help your vision you might forget to mention that you woke up with blurry vision two days prior.
The above scenario is called an XY problem. It’s a very common logical fallacy. People tend focus on troubleshooting an attempted solution, or “Y”, rather focusing on the “X,” the real problem.
As web developers, we here at Clockpunk Studios see this all the time. Clients come to us with questions like “can you put a giant photo on my homepage with links to this thing” or “can you make us a big scrolling slide show full of images.” Large homepage images and scrolling slideshows are good solutions sometimes—don’t get us wrong—but here’s the thing: over time we’ve learned that in both of the above cases, what the client really wants is for prospective customers to be enticed to click through their site and buy their product.
Whether it’s selling books or pet care packages, tempting new readers to explore your blog or expanding your client base, Clockpunk Studios can help you. We do this for a living, and that means over the years we’ve developed a highly specific toolkit to help small business owners like you cultivate a thriving online presence. That’s why it’s better to come to us with questions like “How do I sell more books?” or “How can I get more click-through traffic on my site?” or even “how do I expand my overall web presence?”
Those kinds of questions are conversation starters, not enders. When you ask “can I get a big picture on my home page,” the answer is a resounding “yes!” The only problem is, it doesn’t encourage a dialogue that will help us give you exactly what you want.
Come to us with questions. Clockpunk Studios has solutions! And we love working with clients at every step of the way. If you want a scrolling slide show, just remember to first ask us “how do I excite potential clients about my service or product?” We’ll then be able to discuss how to make your site the best it can be for that specific purpose, and your ideas will help forge that as much as our web-savvy expertise.
Interested in expanding your web presence with robust web design for small businesses of all types? Contact us today!