Ok not to be able to programme....?

S

snourse

Junior Member
Yet another question from the newbie snourse... People have been asking me recently if I can do web design. The answer, in theory, is yes, I can design how it will look. But I have absolutely NO idea of what you'd do next in terms of getting onto the web. Nor do I really wish too.... but is this ok? Not knowing? Is it ok to tell clients that you can't do the programming bit but you can provide the psd/jpg files for someone else to do with it what they need to?

Thanks guys! :D sorry if my questions seem totally naive ;)
 
You just contract one programmer (1000€) + 500€ from psd file... and there it goes, you can say your client that you can had the web site up in 7 to 15 days :D for 1500€ ;D and you dont need to program anything...

ofc it ill depend what client wants what functionality... that needs some meetings and lots of conversation!
 
snourse, yes, however its all about the delivery of this important bit of information to your client, that is, your client has building confidence in your ability to do the graphics, however they may not have confidence in an unknown developer, its at this stage you need to be confident that your developer can deliver, and reassure your client / potential client you are in control and can be trusted to manage the project.

If you get that part right, your client should/will appreciate the honesty and transparency in their dealings with you.

Just make sure you can rely upon your developer!!
 
You can outsource the development (though not in the typical Indian outsourcing sense—that's never a good idea) to someone who can code a page up into a working site. Then as mentioned you might need a programmer to make any database interaction stuff (logins, content management etc).
 
As a web designer you should really have an idea of how websites are built. Especially how HTML/CSS works and importantly - how your design is going to be interpreted into these principles. There is nothing that makes a developer more angry than a designer who tosses over a PSD as says "I dunno how but just build that" !

If the client has no idea how a website works (which is quite common) you should make sure they understand the need for domain names, hosting, development etc. There is nothing wrong with outsourcing the development and managing that process for them, but as others have said above, make sure they know the deal from the start.
 
Hey Snourse,

I definitely agree with all the comments above. As a company we lean more towards the technical side than the design side so we have clients who are design firms but like you don't touch the technical side at all.

The two important things here are -
1 Finding a developer you can trust
2 Finding a developer you can build a good relationship / work well with
3 Your approach to the client

One and two are pretty straight forward (i.e. need no further explanation, not that they are easy to find), with regards to how you approach the client the design firms we deal with work in one of a few ways.

1 Designer deals with client and we have no contact with client what so ever
- This requires you have some technical knowledge as your client will be asking you some questions you need to have an idea of what can be done

2 Designer deals with client and says that they have a developer
- Similar to number one but they can always say, I'll need to check that with my developer, depending on your knowledge of what can be done / best practice this can make you look unprofessional if you always have to refer back to your developer to answer even the simplest of questions.

3 Designer tells client they have a developer
- Does it really make any difference if your developer is employed by you full time of if you just hire someone on a ad hoc basis, I believe not so long as you have a good working relationship and they deliver as expected when expected.

4 Designer tells client they have technical partners and developer quotes and invoices separately for work but they deliver a joint project.

We had success in delivering projects with and for clients using all of the methods above, I hope you fin this helpful, if you have any questions feel free to drop me PM / email.
 
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