Explaining Web Design
I don’t often post links to other people’s blogs as it feels a bit lazy to me, I do like to try my best to create new content for this blog, but I thought this particular blog was so useful I just have to.
So many times I find myself explaining to potential customers the different components that make up a web design project, from the actual design, to the build and to completion and onwards and I found today a blog by Simon Jones of Zako Media Web Design that sums it all up perfectly and even offers some solid advice to boot…
Simon neatly sums up in his blog that there are five components to a website build and those are;
Stage 1. The Design:- the actual look and feel of the site (as a graphic designer this is what I offer as a service)
Stage 2. The HTML:- the coding which works behind the design but allows (or disallows) search engines, readability etc. (stage 2 is point that I refer clients onto a high quality developer to build the site in .html as described in Stage 2 and also continue forward with the following steps below.)
Stage 3. The Serverside Coding:- This adds the main functionality to the site, email forms, database, forums etc. (contact page forms, and in many cases clients may also require from the web developer functions such as an online shop/payment and more)
Stage 4. The Marketing:- This helps your site be seen. (Some web development firms offer this after the build, or you may at this point need to move onto a third company who specialise in search engine marketing)
Stage 5. The Support:- Who do you call when things go wrong? (Often this is the web developer who built the .html (stage 2)and serverside coding (stage 3), but not always necessarily so…always find out about support from your developer before they start work.)
Read the full blog now …. ‘Great Explanations’ by Simon Jones of Zako Media
March 4th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Sorry nothing to do with the blog post, just noticed your new website design - very nice indeed! :O)
March 4th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Phew, thanks!
It’s a radical change and you’re the third person to contact me specifically and say they like it, so the response so far has been favourable. Though saying that I can’t imagine anyone going out of their way to contact me to say “Your new site design is vile” :-/
March 4th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Eh, I just visited your domain, I’ve never seen that site before - COOL WORK!
Shame that you say on your site that at in your role at 10Yetis (http://www.10yetis.co.uk/) you have to convince clients to take on illustration work. Don’t you just design for them and include something illustrative in the design if you feel it suits the project?
I’m commissioned to design for clients… and I charge a set price for design concepts which they are advised of before I start, and often I include illustration within any concepts provided if I think appropriate for the project at hand.
I don’t ask before I start if they want illustration, and persuasion never needs to come into it, I just show them the design concept and they can decide for themselves. I’ve never had anyone say “Hey, strip that illustration out”
Then the more illustrative samples you have in your portfolio, the more potential clients can see how effective this is, and then many of them start specifically asking for illustration to be included in their project.
March 5th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Hi Amanda,
Thanks! And yes I do do this already, it’s just a bit of a joke, not meant to sound quite so serious that I actually spend time wearing clients down in order to do more illustration work :O)