We all have heard the saying that You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and just as much as in our personal relationships, the brutal force of this statement shows itself true in the web world as well. I cannot count the number of times I have visited a website to glean information about a particular topic only to be immediately bombarded with any number of issues: from broken links to JavaScript errors, layout issues due to lack of attention given to cross browser compatibility, and even, in some cases, the dreaded 404 error right from the home page. Now, none of these issues is a deal breaker to me; I mean, come on, we’re all human, right?

Well, what if that website happens to be for a company or product that is in a technology industry to some varying degree? Does that make a difference? Based on some feelers I’ve put out over the years both with clients and customers for many of the projects of which I have been part, this can indeed make all the difference in the world. Whether or not your organization or product is web related, the average user hints at the fact that, if your content is perceived to be technology based in any form, these small faux pas mentioned above take on an impact of much greater magnitude.

Is this really all that surprising really? We all go to a website with the intent of gaining access to the information or items for which we are seeking. I’ll admit, though, even though I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, I find myself guilty of this very thing. For instance, if I visit a website looking for balloon art or photography, I don’t get agitated when I run across a web blunder; on the other hand, I often will write a contact form submission to the owner or webmaster simply reporting the brokenness and, in some cases, even offering some basic pointers or resources to help them resolve the problem.

However, if I am looking for technical specifications on a new motherboard or minimum system requirements for a piece of software, I find it much harder to overlook the blunders that seem so rampant at times and continue shopping or browsing on that particular web site. Once I run across one (or two, depending on how glaring) of these issues on a technically minded site, one of my first instincts as a developer is to simply validate their code base. In my opinion, someone who takes the time to simply choose an adequate doctype and validate their markup and CSS has done something worthy of allowing them a second chance.

Sadly, though, the awarding of second chances comes less and less frequently as I find site after site Ᾱ yes, strictly speaking of the technology realm now — with hundreds of validation errors and warnings on a single page. This is definitely not the way to win the confidence of those guests who are more technically savvy — which seems like the target market of a technically based site.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I completely understand that every site that can be possibly grouped into the technology realm cannot be held to the same standard as a web development firm, but it is important for those other companies and organizations to at least recognize the danger for damage they are causing themselves by ignoring the issue entirely.

The one thing that probably gets me more than anything else is the lack of attention to cross browser compatibility. Especially in the technical realm, we would expect our user base to have a more varied browser base than anywhere else, so why does this major issue seem to go unnoticed (or at least unaddressed) in so many different places? With the introduction of Firefox 3 and IE8 beta released, it becomes even more important that companies recognize the danger in which they place themselves by not catering to the widest variety of browsers possible.

No, it’s not always easy, and in some cases, the entire underlying structure of the organization’s web enterprise should probably be examined — especially when that infrastructure supports multiple, interdependent web sites. Easy? No. Costly? Probably. Worth it? Definitely. We expect more attention to detail from organizations with a larger budget (or apparently larger budget), but from enterprise level to private, 3 person companies and in every realm of technology from microprocessors to video game development, the first impression one has when viewing a product of your web prowess is often the impression they take away of your company as a whole.

First impressions often help or hinder our overall effectiveness, and while a handful of users are going to be willing to give you that second chance, your website is quite literally, the only face of your company or organization some people will ever see. Shouldn’t we then strive to make every web product we produce the epitome of best practice and technology?