Website Design Companies in Ghana, why the theft?

This post seeks to point out a few of the unethical practices used by Website Design Companies in Ghana in an attempt to get website design and development jobs. This is happening right now in the web design industry in Ghana. We will highlight a major one of which our website design company has been a victim of in time past. Fortunately for us, it turned out to our advantage in the long run as you will soon realize.

Everyone who can “design” a website by either writing basic HTML and CSS or who can customize a template labels himself as a “Website Designer” or web professional. It has become very common to receive calls from prospects very dissatisfied about a contact with a so called “best website designer” who could not deliver what they promised. They either did not have the prowess to understand what the client wanted or did not have the skills to deliver. The following are some areas of concern to us.

But before we proceed, we need to understand why such practices exist.

1. Website design is relatively an easy discipline to enter.

   This statement is true depending on the viewpoint. Website design as we knew it years ago was relatively an easy industry to enter for new comers or for anyone wanting to start a website business. This is because it requires a few basic skills to enter. If one has access to a computer and can write HTML/CSS, then one can easily create an HTML page. This does not mean however that one is classified as a professional company or individual. And as such any individual looking for gains can learn the basics and label himself as a professional.

2. Money

   Money or the love of it has caused many of the problems of humanity and the problems in the website design industry is no exception. For the sake of getting money people would do anything for it, whether what they do is professional and ethical is another matter. In other words, people are in for the money and because they can do the basics, they will do whatever is necessary to get “business”. Their drive is not to help businesses solve their marketing challenges through their online presence but to make money whether it hurts the client or not. This I believe is a major problem in the world or other industries at large. Somethings these people just clone websites for other companies or businesses. Others use works or websites that are not done by them in their portfolio in order to win businesses. More on this later.

Professional or Modern website design is more than just HTML and CSS

Any serious website designer or developer who sees himself as a professional in the craftsmanship will testify that the technologies in the web design industry are changing and improving every day. It is not just HTML, CSS and JavaScript as the basics, it requires more than that.

For example, the modern workflow of a professional website designer or developer will include the following technologies CSS preprocessors such as sass or less, task runners or build systems such as Gulp, Nodejs, Webpack, CSS frameworks such as Bootstrap, Zurb foundation, etc. There’s so much to cover on this and it is worthy of a post on its own.

Apart from the technologies that are changing, website design and development has grown or matured to include more disciplines and as such Digital strategists, Information Architects, UI/UX Designers, Content Strategists, Web Designers, Website Developers, Front-end Engineers, SEO strategists, digital marketers are required for a heavy website project undertaking.

To develop any successful website you will need to have a working knowledge of good design, user behavior, user expectations, business objectives and a good understanding of digital marketing.

You can have a very beautiful website for your business or company and it will not do you good if you do not market it to drive traffic and potential customers unto your website. This is where a good understanding of search engines, social media platforms, and online advertising comes into play.

To deliver a truly professional website, one would have to blend the company’s brand, logo, colors into a good layout utilizing the various design rules and usability standards. A compelling copy, relevant graphics, intuitive navigation, clear service or products offering all come in handy coupled with the fact that the resulting website should be responsive to mobile devices and optimized for fast loading.

Heck, that is a lot of work and requires discipline, dedication, team work and good work culture or values to pull it through and not many would do this who are just after the gain. My advice is if you are a good website design company in Ghana and wants to be recognized as one of the best website design companies in Ghana, then you are going to be willing to go the extra mile and do that which sets you apart from other web design businesses.

Plagiarizing or copying of Website content, templates, etc.

This is taking someone’s ideas, work and presenting it as your own. This is one awful practice that has characterized the industry lately and it happens in all manner of ways; stealing themes, templates, website content, images, etc.

When such is the order of the day, there’s no creativity and no “real work” done and as such the industry is going to grow at a slower pace.

Web Design Portfolio Theft

This practice is where a company or individual takes the work or portfolio of a reputable company and uses it as its own in a sales pitch in order to get business. And you think that is farfetched? No, it is happening right now in the web industry in Ghana.

Kava has over the years strive to position herself as an industry leader through hard work, dedication, love for design and technology and exceptional customer experience and websites. This has paid off and we are even pushing the limit we find in our environment even harder.

People have seen our successes and in their attempt, they do not copy the work attitude, hard work, and the rest but they copy the success, the results of our hard work and present as their own.

This happens primarily in two ways either they impersonate our company in order that when work is done by them and payments are being made, it can be paid in cash or personal cheque. Other is where they copy our portfolio items or work as case studies in their sales pitch in order to win jobs. This is really appalling.

How we landed a Big Client

Let me tell a story about how we landed a contract. When we were just 2 years into the business in 2012, a startup company contacted us. They were working with the big names in the web industry and they were dissatisfied with the work and relationship. We were able to work with them and exceed their expectations and till date, it is still considered as one of our great works.

A big global company wanted a serious website design and development company in Ghana to handle its work. They invited for tenders and we did not hear about it. However, one of the companies that tendered for the contract happened to have use work from Kava's portfolio (the work I just made mentioned off) as part of their proposal.

Unknown to this company, the contractor conducted due search and quickly realized that the portfolio works are that of Kava. The “site by Kava” in the footer of our work lead the contractor company to think otherwise about this company. They followed the link to our website and they were quiet happy with the rest of our portfolio. They quickly sent us a chat to send in our proposal and that this is what has happened, someone decided to take credit for our work.

We sent our proposal in less than 24 hours and after a week we were invited for interview and God being a so good we were awarded the contract. This is indeed marvelous and we thank God for that.

So in conclusion, anybody would do anything to get a job or contract if they do not have integrity. It is your responsibility as a contractor to ensure you do not end up in the wrong hands.

As a business or an individual looking for website designer or a professional website company it is not enough to just call them and request for a quote. You will have to do your background checks. They all claim they have worked for so and so great company. They all claim they have clients and they have worked on the websites for a large number of companies. They will claim they are professional and great, best, top and coolest website company in Ghana. So obviously you cannot just limit your criteria to do things.

You can find our more in our post on finding the best website designer for your company.