Looking Sharp
There’s an old saying: “Things aren’t always as they appear.” When it comes to your law firm’s Web site, that’s something to keep in mind.
Why bother to mention it? Because I keep running into law firms that think their Web site looks just fine — and to them, maybe it does — but to others, it looks like it needs some serious attention.
Consider the following snippet of copy from a site that’s well done:
The copy is very readable, don’t you agree?
Now, consider a snippet of copy from a site that’s half baked:
Not so readable, is it?
I’m not going to get into a bunch of technical details about cascading style sheets, measures of type size, line heights, and such. I’m not even going to bother to mention that the first snippet is set in Verdana — a very good choice for body copy displayed on-line — and the second is set in Helvetica — a terrible choice for body copy presented in any manner.
What I am going to point out is that the publisher of the second snippet, unlike the publisher of the first, didn’t bother to make sure that its copy was readable on most computers (e.g., most screen sizes and resolutions, most browsers, most operating systems, etc.)
Here’s the point: when you publish hard copy, you can be sure how it looks to everyone, everywhere. When you publish a Web site, you have to take precautions to make sure your copy is readable to all. It might look just fine on all the computers your firm owns, but it might not look that way on another computer, with another operating system, and another browser, etc. You have to do some testing to have any assurance that your site looks just fine to most.
Consider a firm that claims it really understands technology. It claims it’s fantastic when it comes to e-discovery. But failing to apply due diligence to its Web site can make those claims seem downright silly.
