Port to MVC or Die

In case you haven’t noticed, it’s common to switch up your site’s design a maximum of every two years now, and much more often if you’re hip and happening. There doesn’t need to be anything wrong with it, usability-wise. Facebook, for instance, had good usability in my opinion, and no need for a massive redesign. But they threw up a new design anyway.

It’s like fashion and grooming. Even if you don’t need a haircut or a fashionable accessory, you need one, you know? So it seems with a fresh design, to keep your site from looking dead.

What this means, in essence, is that a model-view-controller architecture is no longer optional. And if your site is not yet using an MVC framework (e.g. CakePHP, Ruby on Rails, JavaServer Faces) it’s time to invest money into porting. If your app logic and view code is smushed together, you will need a backend person to help reintegrate it for your next redesign. If the view code is separate, your HTML person just needs to drop in some new layouts.

Backend guy to rebuild entire site just for new design vs. some HTML layouts… tally the costs. If you aren’t on MVC you just won’t be able to keep up with the increasing demand for frequent redesigns, and if increasingly picky users think your site is dated, you’re out of the running.