The Musical Les Misérables is the epic battle of Jean Valjean with himself and police officer Javert. Is he the man who he thinks he is or is het number 24601 as labelled by police for stealing a bread? As the musical goes on, ofcourse, Jean will find himself. But it didn’t come easy.

So what has our friend Jean got to do with websites you may think. Everything. A lot of companies and people working there get in trouble when being asked the same question: Who am I? Usually this question pops up when their corporate website has been built and content is needed.

Most people know from marketing how to present themselves as the person or company they want to pretend to be. But people visiting the website aren’t interested to be told about something anymore, they want to experience themselves what the company and people working there are about. Welcome to the age of social media.

Now this is something quite new to web designers and web developers. Content Management Systems (CMS) flourish as the client can put in his own texts. Everybody has a voice now on Twitter as well, so being Web 2.0 you include this as well. But more important, the bottom line of presenting a website has changed. Visitors want to experience themselves. Uncensored.

Building our new Arlanet 2010 online presence we are facing the same challenge. Sure, we can build websites and oh yeah, they look pretty, but I would trade it all away for some good user experience. Being professionals, ofcourse we want to include all three into one website, as this would be our masterpiece if we can achieve this.

We want our new website to give each visitor their own experience. Some will like it, some will dislike it, but I believe being true to who you really are will also attract the (potential) clients that will fit with your company better. We want our online presence to reflect the company and people working there. Now that’s an epic challenge if you ask me.