Sample Websites Update

Two of the four sample websites required by my instructors have solidified into viable ideas…

raincity cavies

Course: Writing for the Web

Focus: Written and image content

raincity cavies is the one-stop online guide for people who own or care for guinea pigs and want the best information about services and products local to the Greater Vancouver Region.

Review and news articles are written from a guinea pig’s point of view.

Safeway 123 Cashier Guide

Course: Information Architecture

Focus: Code and organization optimization

Supporting service excellence through training guidelines and resources for cashiers at Canada Safeway store #123 in Vancouver, Canada.

The topic for the third one was assigned by the instructor. Working with assigned topics instead of picking and choosing among potential clients might be a valuable skill if I take outsourced work in the future. So that is an added bonus.

Instructor-chosen: “KidZone Art Museum”

Course: Communication Design

Focus: Layout and visual experience

A non-profit organization dedicated to youth sharing and learning about art.

The fourth project remains an enigma. The instructor has not given us the brief for it; I have no idea about the requirements. I can only assume that since the focus of the class is on XHTML and CSS that will also be the focus of the final project.

???

Course: Web Technologies

Focus: XHTML and CSS

That’s more like it…

I pinned down my prospective client and her “idea” friends. Aha! They never put anything in writing! So now I feel much more comfortable with their so-called business plan. I was a little scared about how many people would try to take an active role in the process; how many bosses I might have to try to make happy. But it turns out there are only two people who need to reach a consensus on decisions.

“What is the goal of your business? What is the goal of your website?” Are things I have always asked, like the actor who wants to know what their motivation is. Goals really change everything about a website design!

I got some answers to these questions and sent my newest client on her merry way with homework! Yes, I want her to do some of this work because I want her to know her own competition and market. *sigh* You’d think it’s one of those things that people sort out before sending for the web developer… but no.

So another tip for people who want a professionally designed website but want to be cost-effective: don’t start randomly accumulating information to dump on a designer—but do develop a business plan on your own instead of calling the designer first.

It really doesn’t make sense to pay for a plumber to cook dinner. He is probably reasonably competent at it, but that doesn’t make him an expert. It is just not cost-effective to pay professional prices for someone to work at something that is not their specialty. That said, I’m more than happy to get paid my web developer rate for help with their business plan.

A tough sell

Here’s a word of advice for anyone hoping to get a website for their fabulous business idea: Do market research first. I know it sounds basic. Why invest in a website before knowing if your business idea is viable?

I have to mention this because my work on the sample website for Communication Design has been hindered by marketing decisions that alienate their target audience. Pre-teens and teenagers do not want to be associated with a place with words like “Kids” and “Museum” in the name. It’s just the marketing side of things.

So people: DO MARKET RESEARCH. Please. I beg of you.

Snagged!

Have you ever seen a kitten or puppy get itself hopelessly tangled in wires or ribbon? Yours truly feels a little that way right now. I have hit a snag… Today’s source of puzzlement is: What does a web designer do when a client has a lot of ideas and merely wants to use the designer to pop out a product, like a little machine?

Because it’s just a law of nature that when the design does not work, the designer will get blamed. Maybe your client is always happy with the product. Good, right? But how about prospective clients asking for references and being horrified of what you have produced in the past? *sigh*

I met a prospective client today. She has an idea: she wants to market herself as an office assistant. So far so good. She has a good idea of what services and options she can offer. Sounds good. She has taken 6 years of fine arts so she knows what the visuals of the site should look like. Oh, this sounds like trouble. Fine arts is not web-based graphics… *cringe* Let’s keep talking. She has a friend with lots of “creative” ideas so she doesn’t need a designer for creativity. *shudder* She likes html coding, but is rusty with css. She’s totally expecting to learn css along with helping the designer though. *headdesk* I am not taking that project.

I don’t mind working in a group if everyone involved is trained in the role they are trying to fulfill, or if it is understood the primary goal of the team is to improve everyone’s skills. That’s okay. It’s just so exhausting for me to herd along people with a great deal of enthusiasm and way too few realistic expectations of the effort involved in creating a polished product.

Does that make me a perfectionist? An elitist? Only time will tell. I suppose with sufficient humility, patience, tact, and charity for fellow humans I might come to see my role as a designer as partly that of a guide and facilitator rather than just a hired skilled professional who knows what they’re doing and you should leave them to it. After all, that’s what I do when I hire a plumber. That’s what I’d expect to do if I hired a landscaper or an image consultant: I give them a goal and a budget. I expect them to achieve the result. Do I put too much trust in my hired professionals?

I learned today how important it can be to:

• Always sort out the hierarchy of a work group for a project first.
• Get everything in writing!!! Like: “Who will be involved? What will be their role?”
• Be flexible right up until something is put in writing and signed. Seriously, be flexible.
• Choose your battles wisely. What are the absolute minimum standards that the designer is NOT willing to sink below? Anything above that might hurt, but for the sake of flexibility it can be choked down.
• Schedule in lots of time to educate the client and impart the wisdom of your design choices. A pleasant compromise might be reached once both parties are considering the same variables even if it is from different points of view.

They breed in the dark…

Here is your Sample Website update, oh devoted fans:
There will be at least four of them.

I kid you not. Seemingly overnight each instructor wants a website exclusively to showcase the skills taught in their class. Some will focus on the planning stages of a website, others on the content. The categories are:

• Writing for the Web – content
• Information Architecture – planning
• Communication Design – layout and graphical content
• Web Technologies – coding

I will endeavour to apply all the skills taught in these courses to all the sites. “Oh goody!” You say. “It’s better than stereo; it’s surround sound!” You say. I demonstrate my best poker face in your general direction.

I should mention that I do better at Blackjack than Poker.

Introductions

Some introductions are in order:
My name is Jazmin and I will be your hostess at this blog.

All good things ultimately have a good reason for their existence; that is true of this blog as well. I own a fabulous web-development/web-hosting service and I am looking for ways to make it even more fabulous. To that end I am attending an intensive year-long program at a local Technical Institution of world-wide renown (BCIT). The aim of this blog is to keep my clients updated about the astonishing new skills I am learning, and how these skills can be applied to their sites.

I will be using my techniques and software expertise to develop a new, unique website… Stay tuned for more details.

Thanks for dropping by!

Jazmin
Alpha of Winterden