Tips for Working with a Web Designer

Get exactly what you want for your business’s website–on time and on budget.

A lot of businesses start with less than ideal websites. A friend of a friend knows a guy who knows a girl who made a site for her brother’s band, and, well, you know the rest. We call them Drive-by programmers. They get your website up and running but if you ever need it changed in the future good luck in getting them to even return your calls let alone update your website.

Every business reaches a point where it needs a professional online appearance. Unfortunately, commissioning a website isn’t as simple as ordering office supplies. Web professionals and businesspeople don’t always speak the same language, and the learning curve for an already beleaguered entrepreneur can be steep. Here, we will explain how to select and collaborate with a designer to create an attractive and effective site that actually meets your needs–on time and on budget.

1. Do your homework
The first step in finding a designer you like is finding designs you like. We recommend that small-business owners start by looking at the sites of their competitors and similar businesses. The key is to find sites that match your own taste.

Ask around when you’re shopping for a designer, and look at their work and their programming platform to make sure that you will get final control over your content so you website stays current. “Don’t just go to Google and pick the first one.

But taste is only one consideration, many designers specialize in creating a particular kind of site, he says. A designer whose previous work includes only small, brochure-style sites might be a poor fit for a large online store, so it’s important to consider the scope of your project as well.

2. Know the basics
Even for web professionals, keeping up with technology is difficult. Fortunately, as a small-business owner, you don’t need to know the ins and outs of the latest trends to commission a website, but it does help to understand a few fundamentals.

It’s good to know the difference between a domain name, a web host, and a website.

A domain name is a site’s web address–yoursite.com, for instance. These addresses are rented on a yearly basis from online registrars. A web host, on the other hand, provides server space–the virtual home where the site will live. Finally, there is the website itself–the collection of files that contain the actual design, text and media.

If all of that is unfamiliar, don’t worry; we are happy to recommend reliable domain registrars and hosting companies when we work with clients.

3. Be prepared to collaborate
Once you’re ready to approach a designer, your input is key. Many people don’t realize how much direction they’ll need to provide in order to give their designer a successful starting point.

The fantasy people have a lot of times is that they’re just simply going to be able to call a web designer and say, “Make me a website and show it to me in two weeks when it’s all done.’”

The reality is that the process is a collaboration–from start to finish. In the beginning, designers typically ask for detailed descriptions of what prospective clients needs from their websites, as well as for links to other sites that the client admires. If a designer provides an online questionnaire, potential clients should answer it as thoroughly as possible.

4. Get comfortable
Because collaboration is so important, a shared aesthetic isn’t enough–personalities matter, too. Once prospective clients have contacted us we recommend a brief meeting to determine whether we are a good fit.

It builds a rapport, and it lets us listen to the client and really hear what they want. That first 30-minute meeting right at the beginning is really important to set the tone for your project.

Clients should also take care that a designer doesn’t seem too eager or hurried. Reputable designers tend to be selective in whom they work with, because they understand how important a good match is to a project’s success. We also recommend contacting a designer’s previous clients to ask about their experiences.

5. Know what you’re paying for
Once the match is made, a contract is the next step. And here clients can’t be too careful. Everything that’s meant to be included in the project–from the payment schedule to the number of revisions that a client is allowed to request–should be spelled out. While some designers are flexible about small changes, clients shouldn’t count on it.

Read it thoroughly, because anything that is not in that document is going to cost you extra.

Clients should also be prepared to put down a deposit before any work begins.

6. Be honest, but don’t nitpick
Generally, designers provide clients with a mockup of a proposed design before transforming it into a working site, and this can be the most delicate part of the collaboration. We adamant that clients should be honest if they want to see a different design, but they were equally adamant that wholesale revisions are usually better than a lot of small changes.

If you feel like the design is way off the mark and it doesn’t feel right for your business, speak up. At the same time, understand that requests like ‘put more space on the left and right, and add these 10 things to the sidebar’ may leave you with a design that resembles Frankenstein.

7. Hold up your end
While the designer provides a site’s visual and technical framework, the client is usually responsible for providing the site’s content–most commonly the text. Failing to do so on time can delay completion of the project, sometimes drastically.

If the text isn’t already prepared, we recommend that clients consider hiring a professional copywriter. Aside from taking the burden off the business owner, a copywriter can provide text that’s customized for search engines, which will help potential customers find the site when it’s finished.

8. Be decisive
Content aside, the most common cause of delays or extra costs after the contract is signed are sudden changes or additions.  Many people don’t understand how long certain changes will take to implement, so they’re quick to call and ask for what we call the “just-add.” such misunderstandings are another example of the importance of establishing a good relationship between designer and client.

“A good relationship established before contracts are signed often helps ensure these issues are handled professionally and calmly on both ends.

Do the necessary preparation when making your decisions–and then to stick by those decisions until the project is complete.

 

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Social Networking is for Old People?

I recently found the following article in Time. It is a funny story about how old people are taking over social networking. It says Facebook was designed for college kids. But it took people thier parents age to fulfill its ultimate destiny…

Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009

Why Facebook Is for Old Fogies

By Lev Grossman

 

Facebook is five. Maybe you didn’t get it in your news feed, but it was in February 2004 that Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg, along with some classmates, launched the social network that ate the world. Did he realize back then in his dorm that he was witnessing merely the larval stage of his creation? For what began with college students has found its fullest, richest expression with us, the middle-aged. Here are 10 reasons Facebook is for old fogies:

1. Facebook is about finding people you’ve lost track of. And, son, we’ve lost track of more people than you’ve ever met. Remember who you went to prom with junior year? See, we don’t. We’ve gone through multiple schools, jobs and marriages. Each one of those came with a complete cast of characters, most of whom we have forgotten existed. But Facebook never forgets. (See the best social-networking applications.)

2. We’re no longer bitter about high school. You’re probably still hung up on any number of petty slights, but when that person who used to call us that thing we’re not going to mention here, because it really stuck, asks us to be friends on Facebook, we happily friend that person. Because we’re all grown up now. We’re bigger than that. Or some of us are, anyway. We’re in therapy, and it’s going really well. These are just broad generalizations. Next reason.

3. We never get drunk at parties and get photographed holding beer bottles in suggestive positions. We wish we still did that. But we don’t. (See pictures of Beer Country in Denver.)

4. Facebook isn’t just a social network; it’s a business network. And unlike, say, college students, we actually have jobs. What’s the point of networking with people who can’t hire you? Not that we’d want to work with anyone your age anyway. Given the recession — and the amount of time we spend on Facebook — a bunch of hungry, motivated young guns is the last thing we need around here.

5. We’re lazy. We have jobs and children and houses and substance-abuse problems to deal with. At our age, we don’t want to do anything. What we want is to hear about other people doing things and then judge them for it. Which is what news feeds are for.

6. We’re old enough that pictures from grade school or summer camp look nothing like us. These days, the only way to identify us is with Facebook tags. (See pictures of a diverse group of American teens.)

7. We have children. There is very little that old people enjoy more than forcing others to pay attention to pictures of their children. Facebook is the most efficient engine ever devised for this.

8. We’re too old to remember e-mail addresses. You have to understand: we have spent decades drinking diet soda out of aluminum cans. That stuff catches up with you. We can’t remember friends’ e-mail addresses. We can barely remember their names.

9. We don’t understand Twitter. Literally. It makes no sense to us. (See the top 10 celebrity Twitter feeds.)

10. We’re not cool, and we don’t care. There was a time when it was cool to be on Facebook. That time has passed. Facebook now has 150 million members, and its fastest-growing demographic is 30 and up. At this point, it’s way cooler not to be on Facebook. We’ve ruined it for good, just like we ruined Twilight and skateboarding. So git! And while you’re at it, you damn kids better get off our lawn too.

IML help Louisville Science Center Use Social networking website to reach more students

IML developed a social networking website that combines Youtube and a science fair to reach students all around Kentucky. The following story is from the courier-journal. It tells how the science center is using new media developed by Interactive Media Lab.

In a song she wrote last week, Aria Watkins sings about installing a water-efficient shower head and other ways to conserve water.

“Don’t take a shower for an hour,” sang Aria, 14, an eighth-grader at Kammerer Middle School. “Don’t leave water rushing while you’re brushing.”

Her song is among dozens of submissions to the AT&T Virtual Science Challenge, which the Louisville Science Center is holding for the second time this year. The contest is designed to get fifth-through 10th-graders across the state involved in science by creating videos that focus on energy, water and exercise.

“It’s like science fair meets YouTube,” said Danielle Waller, communications manager for the Louisville Science Center.

Kammerer science teacher Dustin Johnstone got most of his eighth-grade students involved in the challenge after learning about it during a field trip to the science center.

He let his students vote on whether to take part in the project and only 12 of 140 opted out. Students could do individual projects or work in groups to develop their science challenge.

With only about two weeks for students to do their projects, “they had to be committed to it,” he said.

One group that completed its video early shared it with the class last week. It focused on muscles and exercise. Students laughed as video of four boys “sweating to the oldies” played on a large-screen projector.

Meanwhile, Grant Teague, 13, compiled a list of healthy foods along with the calorie counts for snacks such as popsicles and fruit smoothies and fast-food items from McDonald’s.

“We’re going to do a Food Network show about it,” he said.

Waller said creativity is a big factor in the contest, and she enjoyed seeing what the students came up with.

“This is not like the Intel Science Fair,” the world’s largest pre-college science competition. “We want them to use video and technology and make it fun,” she said.

Molly Carpenter, life-science coordinator at the Louisville Science Center, visited Johnstone’s class to see how the projects were progressing. She said the group is the first entire grade to participate, and she hopes other schools will follow its lead.

“Teachers can use this as part of their curriculum,” Carpenter said. “It has a lot of different components. We tie it in with the national standards. … This lets the kids apply science to their everyday life in a way that they enjoy.”

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Small Business Gets Social

According to the Discover Small Business Watch monthly report, 38 percent of entrepreneurs surveyed said they used Facebook, Linked-In, My Space or Twitter, up from 22 percent in October of 2007.

A little less than half of those people, however, said they used their social-networking accounts to promote their businesses.

“Of those who use the internet to network, more say they use it for purposes other than getting new business leads,” states Ryan Scully, director of Discover’s business credit card. “I think this speaks to the fact that there just aren’t as many leads out there – on the internet or elsewhere – and open-minded small business owners are trying more avenues to develop new prospects.”

Discover notes that 62 percent of entrepreneurs surveyed don’t have websites for their endeavors. If you are one of the 62% who need to get your business online and your message out to more prospects give us a call to discuss affordable self managed online solutions.

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