Design News & Articles

Unless you’re a gifted photographer as well as a kick-ass coder, there will be times when you turn to other people’s photos to add emotion and depth to your designs. But how do you navigate the maze of clichéd stock? Designer and author, Jason Beaird, discusses how to choose the right stock picture for your site.

This week we take a step back from the web development rock-face to look at a more business-oriented topic. User-centered design is all very well, but how do you join the dots when it comes to managing your customer relationships long term? Entrepreneur Tej Kohli discusses the benefits to your business of investing in some Customer Relationship Mojo.

If you’re anything like me, your hard drive is probably littered with unfinished redesigns of your personal portfolio site. As professional designers, we can often be our own worst client—which is why I’m very pleased to welcome FreelanceSwitch’s Collis Ta’eed to set out some sensible ground rules to consider when approaching that portfolio project.

It’s the sticky moment in any negotiation with a potential new client—no matter how great your proposal, you’re still going to have to deliver The Quote. But how do you arrive at that magic figure, taking into account the unpredictability of developing for the next generation of the web? Andy Budd, no stranger to client work, takes a look at a new way to cost out your projects.

Products. Services. Chances are, your business website is shilling at least one of them. In Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites, Kevin Potts reveals some important ways to connect what you’re selling with the people who want to buy it. Check out this exclusive excerpt from his chapter on products and services.

Freelancers and hot-shot web agencies are only one side of the web development party. Behind the scenes of every company website, you’re likely to find a frustrated in-house developer or two, wondering why exactly they bought all those shiny books when web standards seems to be a bad word in the weekly marketing meeting. If this sounds very much like your daily grind, new author Scott Gledhill has some advice on how to approach introducing standards in a corporate world.

Thinking of breaking the chains that keep you bound to the company desk? Imagining a beautiful life of freedom and riches? New Digital Web author, bon vivant, podcaster—and, possibly, sociopath—Matthew Jordan describes the agonies and ecstasies of his escape from captivity and journey toward world domination.

Spend any time in the business sections of web design forums and you’ll hear countless freelancers complaining about client trouble. “He won’t pay up.” “They changed the requirements after we started work.” “Who owns the copyright on my code?” All are legitimate business concerns, but enough to make your head hurt if all you want to do is design websites. In his column ‘The Business End,’ Nick Gould tells you how to address these problems and enjoy a more professional relationship with your clients—and it all comes down to why you need to bother with web design contracts.

Simon Collison, aka Colly, is a web designer, author, Brit Pack member, music lover, and web-standards advocate. He talks about his design process, former life as an artist, latest venture, favorite song sung by animals, and much more, in an interview with Digital Web’s Carolyn Wood.

Two prolific and experienced women of the web join forces for this week’s issue. Shirley Kaiser, author of the new book Deliver First Class Web Sites: 101 Essential Checklists, created websitetips.com in 1996, and she’s learned a lot about web design and development in the years since then. Shirley talks about charging clients, tackling redesigns, testing sites, and other practical matters, as she’s interviewed by Meryl K. Evans, well-known content maven and frequent contributor to Digital Web.

In part three of the four-part building a start-up company series, Dirk Knemeyer dives into setting up your base and hiring the right folks. Focus on needs, not wants or coolness.

Time for the fun stuff! OK, not quite yet. This week, Dirk Knemeyer covers the side of business creative folks tend to find the least exciting—legal, financial and human resources. It’s the second part in his four-part in-depth look at starting your own technology, software or Web design business.

Want to break those corporate-world shackles? Do you dream of enjoying your job? Start with five essential planning steps, and learn how to get from here to there in part one of a three-parter on building your own start-up tech company.

With all the documentation we’ve accumulated on the benefits of creating sites the disabled can use, why is it still so hard to sell accessibility to clients? Find out what clients don’t want to hear, and ensure accessibility is planned for early in the game.

Want to make the most out of every request for proposal (RFP)? Avoid sticky situations like budget confusion, cloudy expectations and doing spec work for all the wrong reasons. If you can’t hash it out over lunch, at least answer the RFP right. Nick Gould walks us through four areas of "engagement tension."

Andy Budd explores the many risks involved in Web development and offers some excellent techniques to identify and manage risk for the benefit of Web designers and their clients.