designing websites for dummies

July 9, 2010 11:32 AM

How do you design websites for other people? Not the web design part, but the 'for other people' part. How does that work?

I would like to design small websites for people (individuals or tiny businesses, not huge companies). I know how to do websites and I know how to find clients, but...what next? What is the general process like? How do you incorporate their vision/feedback? How do you... get access to their hosting account? Just ask for their password? How do you know what a reasonable rate would be? What if they won't pay? What if they hate your work? What if they want comic sans???

Um. Yeah. I obviously have no idea what I'm doing. How do I learn about the practical, businessy, processy side to all this?

posted by logic vs love to computers & internet (11 answers total)

Buy the book Communicating Design, as a start.

I work at a digital agency, where we design websites for other people. Generally, you don't need to access their hosting account during the design process, because you're not tweaking their site, you're designing it fresh. Once its time to go live, then you or them or whoever is doing that part is going to need all the passwords and whatnot.

You might want to try working with an agency first (potentially as a freelancer), so that you can get more of a handle on the process. Designers are a dime a dozen, if you don't understand the process of managing the project or the client you'll struggle.
posted by Kololo at 11:40 AM on July 9, 2010

First, Good Luck!

Second, I will agree with Kololo about trying to freelance with an agency.

Third: This is a funny webcomic , It is also sad. I am not trying to discourage, but every web designer I have ever known has had a few stories to share after reading this, laughing, and nodding a lot.
posted by PlutoniumX at 11:54 AM on July 9, 2010

Mrs. Spyder and I were looking to have some web design work. We sat down for a designer for an hour and a half, and he asked questions about our business, what kind of ideas surrounded it, what we wanted to communicate to customers, how we wanted to be perceived, how we wanted people to feel when they were visiting our site, what were some things that were unique about us as a business, etc. Then he sat and looked through a mess of samples that we had torn out of magazines, paper samples from craft stores with designs on them, fabrics, and all sorts of bits and pieces that we had put together to give him ideas and inspire him to greatness. When he left we were really excited about the direction we were going.

The sad news is, when he came back, his designs were totally wrong for what we wanted, and not at ALL what we had discussed.

But, that first part? Do that. Seriously. That part was awesome. Just make sure you LISTEN.
posted by Spyder's Game at 11:54 AM on July 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

So there's too much here list in a single post but top level.

Get a lawyer and get some boilerplate contracts in place. You'll need a Contractor Services Agreement and Statement Of Work at the very least.

General process should be discovery (What Spyder Said) In order to prevent some of the issues they ran into I'd ask the client to collect some sites they like, run through these and find out what they like about them and what they wouldn't like. This is a great place to get inspiration from. After discover should be some sort of initial design review. Generally you give somewhere from 1-3 design directions. They pick one and you go from there with subsequent reviews. Number of directions and reviews depend on budget, but call these out in the statement of work.

Generally you price out each phase of work Discovery, Design, Development. This way you have milestones for getting payment and a way for you guys to part ways easily.

Have more but have to get lunch I'll be back later. Until then Freelance Switch
posted by bitdamaged at 12:07 PM on July 9, 2010

In any kind of design or consultancy business managing the client is really, really important.

Some things that starters underestimate:

1. Communication, communication, communication
Explain to your clients just about everything that you're going to do, and why. Treat your clients like blank pages, with no knowledge of any kind about anything you do. Do this in writing, or at least in some kind of presentation.

For your clients, pretty pictures are everything. For you, wireframes, SEO, metatags, CSS etc. They don't know anything about this, they just want Pretty Pictures. If they don't understand what you're doing, they will balk at some of the aspects of the project ("why does it take so long? I simply wanted..." "I told you I wanted to do this and that and yet you do it like this") and the relationship will sour very quickly.

2. Project management
Have a project map, and stick to it. The project timings, milestones & deadlines need to be in writing as much as possible. This means enforcing it at the client as well.

3. Revision rounds & number of proposals
Tell your clients that you don't do "3 proposals" that they can choose from (or 5 or whatever). They will see this as an invitation to pick and choose a design element here, there, and keep having you redesign stuff until everybody hates everybody's face. Your project should start with a primer for them on SEO and websites.

Then they should tell you what the strategic goal is, what sort of content they want to put online, and the design should be the logical culmination of the strategy and content. Therefore, there is only one possible outcome. You may think this is craziness, but doing it any other way will result in frustration (for you) and ultimately unhappy clients. Never forget: when projects go sour or take too long - even if clients are unreasonable, miss deadlines, give contradictory feedback, etc. - you will be blamed.

4. Aim high
When working with small businesses, talk to the boss and only the boss. Anyone else will twist and turn your words and (see point 3) blame you if things go wrong. The boss will take sides with his employee. Your reputation will suffer.

One project manager on your side (you), one project manager on the clients side (the boss). No one else messes with the project. Enforce this with a vengeance.

5. Money down
When proposing a project, ask for 30 or 40 % up front. This will tell you whether clients really want that website. Don't move a pencil before the money is in your bank account. Clients who don't pay up are not worth the trouble.

6. Try to have fun
posted by NekulturnY at 12:15 PM on July 9, 2010 [4 favorites]

Read clients from hell and try to remember that the majority of those entries are not jokes, fabrications, or otherwise made up. You will run across those customers if you decide to design for others.

Past that I'd like to second everything that NekulturnY said.
posted by komara at 12:28 PM on July 9, 2010

When your client uses a design term, make sure that you and they have the same definition. I'm the web designer/webmaster at my job, and one of the things that drives me up the wall is how everyone throws the phrase "clean design" at me - it took me weeks to figure out that they mean something completely different than I do (they mean "technical term, meaning specifically 'minimalist'," I mean "fuzzy term encompassing all sorts of well-organized sites based on lines with judicious use of white space").

If you say "What do you mean by [term]?" they'll tell you something that has nothing to do with what they mean. A better way is to ask "Can you show me some sites you think are great examples of [term]?"

And keep in mind that no matter how much you define terms at them, they will continue using their own personal vocabulary. A few months back I had this conversation with a coworker:

Them: I need a version of our logo that's 120 by 60 horizontally to upload to this database.
Me: (fairly sure what he means, but I've learned to ALWAYS check) Is that 120 pixels horizontally or 60 pixels horizontally?
Them: I don't know how many pixels. It should be 120 by 60 horizontally.
Me: The numbers refer to pixels. Is the longer side the horizontal one or the vertical one?
Them: It's shaped like this: *sketches landscape-oriented rectangle in air* I think of that as horizontally.
Me: OK, you need a logo that's 120 pixels horizontally and 60 pixels vertically.
Them: Yes, 120 by 60 horizontally. Whatever pixels that is.

I've learned from experience not to introduce him to the concept of "landscape" vs. "portrait" orientations because he won't bother to use them and will insist on saying "120 by 60 horizontally" to me. He's quite a smart guy, just doesn't bother to learn vocabulary out of his immediate job, so I need to double-check every design term he uses to ensure it's what I think it means.
posted by telophase at 12:52 PM on July 9, 2010

Think of your first few clients as learning experiences and make sure to document the process and take notes about the good and the bad so you can refine your process.

Whatever your process will be, it is good to lay it out for the client so they know what to expect. Make sure they know the scope of the project and your abilities (eg. if you do not do e-commerce, tell them) and make sure they know when are the appropriate times to ask for changes.

Here is my process:

- Gather site specifications from the client. Do they need a blog? Photo galleries? To sell merchandise? How do they see their site expanding in the future? And the obvious - their audience. Their logo, if they have one. Ask them for at least three sites for inspiration, and tell them to describe what they like and dislike about each, and how they imagine theirs would differ. This is a lot easier than creating specifications out of thin air for many people.

- Create a sitemap and wireframes. Present them to the client, make changes based on feedback until they sign off.

- Come up with a color theme and study similar sites to get an idea of 'standards' and make sure you are not leaving anything out. Create a design based on the design inspiration and present to client. I always let a client know how many design revisions a project will include - usually it is two - and beyond that I charge hourly. Have them sign off on the last revision. Let them know what will be easy to change (eg bumping up font size a half point - easy enough with CSS) and what won't.

- While you are designing, collect content from the client. Give them a due date! I can't tell you how many sites are held up simply by the client not having content. Which seems like not such a big deal, unless you are waiting to get paid and they just don't feel like writing text!

- Put it all together. Specify how many revisions are available for in-scope changes.

Hosting accounts: I usually have them buy their own if they don't have one. Occasionally I host but I don't like to. If they have one already, I usually have them change the password just for me, and advise them to change it back after I am done. Or, I have them set up a FTP password just for me. I usually host prototypes on my own webspace until they are ready to go live.

Comic sans: This kind of thing happens a lot. I usually push back once or twice, and then give up and realize, no, this won't be a portfolio piece.
posted by beyond_pink at 1:11 PM on July 9, 2010

I would suggest starting out by working, either on staff or as a freelancer, for a small established agency. You'll be able to watch and learn what they do, and this will be very valuable experience.
posted by spilon at 1:39 PM on July 9, 2010

Make things crystal clear in every single respect.
Being plagued with "well could you move it a little left? No, right ... the background, could we make that lighter? Can you get ...." will make you scream.

And find out what computer / OS / browser / resolution / screen size they are using.
posted by markx2 at 2:08 PM on July 9, 2010

The money - after being ripped off I hosted all work in a subdomain. They could see, add content and upload images but they had no way to get the modified files. That took payment to be completed and that included me installing it on their site. That was blogs though, not what you are talking about but the principle is the same.
posted by markx2 at 2:10 PM on July 9, 2010