Working with chickens
It may just be me, but I’ve never seen anyone have chickens in the city.
I was approached recently by Chickens in the Hood – a local business, promoting self sufficient food sources in urban environments. Now, I’ve always been a bit picky about whom I work with, but I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to brand such a unique concept.
They wanted the works; website, logo, Facebook page, t-shirts, business cards, vinyl banners, coffee mugs and even a promotional video.
A hefty load on my already full plate.
But, with a couple weeks of hard work the web site was finished.
I’m big about consistency.
All the work followed the same color scheme and design style. It resulted in a cheerful look, but kept to my roots of simplistic design and functional frameworks. I believe this evident that you can achieve a lot without use of heavy imagery.
What do you think?
By the way, if you get a chance, like them on Facebook. Great group of folks!
Why 99designs sucks
Everyone knows my feelings about crowd-sourcing services like 99designs (founder Mark Harbottle). They promote a system that ruins the client impression with an idea that it is simply a matter of spending an hour tossing pixels at a digital canvas without any thought.
5 red flags that can signify a bad client
Many of us have experienced bad clients while working as designers or developers; deadbeat clients that won’t pay up, clients that seem to vanish completely, and clients that are just flat out rude.
I’ve written a list of 5 red flags to keep an eye out for before taking on potential clients. Any of these red flags could signify a bad client, which could lead to the project being a complete nightmare, and you may not even ever get paid for it. I’m also going to describe some measures you can take to help prevent that from happening.
Payment in equity
This kind of offer has been made to me so many times. A company comes along needing a website, and offers you equity instead of a standard payment. Your first thought might be that it’s a pretty cool idea because that can mean a lot of income for you, right? Well, no. It’s obvious that this offer is made only by clients with no money. If they’re unable to raise capital for their own company, they’re not making the necessary investments for success, which means you may never make a penny from them. So unless a potential client provides proof that they’re making real money (which is pretty rare), you should forget about these offers.
The vanishing act
When you’re discussing things with a potential client about their needs, be sure to keep an eye on their communication. Are they fast to respond emails? Do they answer their phones regularly? Are they willing to meet face to face? Are they handing over their full contact details? If the answer is more often no than yes, then taking on such a client can be risky. Sometimes, clients can vanish all together. If their communication is bad in the first place, it can be because they’re in talk with other designers/developers, or because they’re simply not sure about the project yet. When a client does a vanishing act, it can be a huge waste of your time.
Insane deadlines
Many potential clients will have unrealistic explanations of deadlines. I happen to write content as well as design websites, and there was a time where someone wanted me to write a hundred articles for them in just a few days. It was beyond unrealistic. Some people don’t stop to think about how long certain jobs really take. When a client comes to you with an unrealistic deadline, tell them how long the job will realistically take to complete, and don’t be afraid to inform them that you have current work to finish if that’s the case. You shouldn’t have to put other projects aside just because someone is rushing you. If a potential client won’t compromise, you should highly consider rejecting them.
Unclear needs
You’d be surprised how many potential clients simply aren’t sure about what they even want. Sometimes it’s as if they’re leaving their own business decisions in your hands, despite the fact you’re just there to build them a website for their business. Basically, if someone is not entirely sure about what their own needs are, you should not take them on as a client. The high amount of changes they are likely to request as the project goes on will mean constant revision of what they owe, and deadline extensions, yet the client may still expect only the original price and original deadline. Inform such potential clients that they should first have concrete knowledge of what their needs are.
Designing for services
It’s not uncommon for a business to offer their services as a form of payment. But how valuable is their service, and more importantly, is it something you even need? In most cases, I’m betting not. Personally I don’t feel I need to spend time creating a website for a business that is just going to give me a 12 month subscription for their online accounting software, or a set of free eBooks on how I can apparently double my business profits. Such businesses are trying to get something for nothing. When I was a teenager, I made simple websites in return for things like web hosting with domains. But when you grow up and have rent to pay, making money is way cooler.
As a means of your own security…
Keep an eye open for any of the above red flags when you’re in the process of taking on new clients. You could end up saving yourself a lot of hassle. Anyhow, there are some measures you can and should take in order to prevent clients from pretty much screwing you over.
First of all, a legal contract should be put in place if possible. This does involve talking to a lawyer and it can be costly, and I understand that it might not be suitable for lower budget projects.
In any case, especially if there is no contract in place, take some form of upfront payment from your client, otherwise they can vanish half way through or even take your work and not pay. Taking 30-50% upfront is often acceptable.
Also, make sure you have your client’s full contact details, including e-mail, contact numbers, and address. With such details, in the worst-case scenario, you’ll be able to go banging on your client’s door.
7 methods of inspiration to fuel your creativity
As someone who writes a lot, I suffer from writer’s block from time to time, and we all know what that means. It’s when you’re lost for creative words. Or at least, that is one form of writer’s block. But for those of you that design a lot, I’m sure at some point you have suffered the design equivalent to writer’s block.
Whether you suffer from designer’s block often or just sometimes, you could probably do with more inspiration to fuel your creativity. We all have creativity within us. Creativity is like a fire, and to be inspired is like throwing wood into that fire. The flames get bigger, and it stops them from dying out.
So, what is inspiration exactly?
1.
to fill with an animating, quickening, or exalting influence: His courage inspired his followers.
There is actually a vast amount of definition behind inspiration, it’s almost hard to put into words. Inspiration stimulates your mind and body, in a way where it motivates you to be creative. To be a creative designer, you will need inspiration in your life. A lot of us are actually being inspired every day without even knowing it. But if you’re stuck in the office working a tedious amount of hours all week, it can be tricky.
Let’s look at some different things that can inspire you to help you achieve your creative goals in design.
Design galleries
The most obvious and perhaps most effective form of inspiration is online design galleries. There are endless galleries containing screenshots of some of the most awesome quality designs out there, many of them artistically beautiful, making them fantastic sources of inspiration. You can pick up on new interface ideas, color combinations, and overall styles. You often need to see how things are done before you can go and do them yourself.
Designing something based on inspiration from other design is not about copying. But getting ideas from ten designs and putting them into one is a good example of creating a design based on inspiration from design galleries. Take a look at these:
http://www.thecssawards.com
http://www.csselite.com
http://www.bestcssgallery.com
http://www.divinecss.com
Art galleries
Why not go and check out some local art exhibitions or museums? They are filled with inspirational art of all types. You’d be surprised how many web designers out there have been heavily inspired by painters and illustrators. Various effective web design techniques can be comparable to that you find on canvas work, such as paintings.
There’s an incredibly wide array of artistic styles out there. If you get inspired by the more unique stuff, you could well become a very unique designer, allowing you to seriously stand out from the crowd in terms of design style.
Music
Music can have an enormous effect on your mind, especially if you happen to be a particularly musical type of person. But either way, music can clear your mind and really get you in the zone. It can also help you get in touch with your emotions, which can lead to it being a way of truly inspiring you. Some designers don’t actually work without music to assist them. I don’t listen to music much when writing, but I do when designing.
Stuck on what to listen to? I always find new stuff on www.last.fm. You can listen to music for free on there.
Travel & culture
Travel broadens the mind. It is absolutely true, and it certainly can unlock a lot of creativity within you. Travelling and experiencing other cultures surrounds you with many forms of inspiration; different kinds of people, different languages and unique architecture, to name a few.
You don’t necessarily even need to travel far to find such inspiration. When I moved to a city less than 20 miles away from my original home, I was suddenly surrounded by old Georgian buildings, different accents, and new people. This no doubt broadened my mind because it was all new experiences.
Nature
There is nothing quite like nature. Taking a walk through fields, beaches or mountains can seriously sooth your mind and inspire you. Nature is incredibly colorful, which can give you good design ideas. For me, looking out over large waters is very peaceful and relaxing, and clears my mind of all of the interruptions that a lot of us have to deal with on a daily basis. I love oceans and waterfalls – others may prefer things like flowers, wildlife, forests or scenery.
Take some time to go and experience the beauty of nature, and you might be amazed at how you work when you return to your screen.
Books
Books can contain great creative inspiration. But they can also inspire you to be successful. Most great design books are written and compiled by great designers that have come a long way and become highly successful. You can see their work and learn from their text, as well as read their biographies. If you learn from design authors, be sure to look up more information about them and see what you can find out about their success stories, as it could well help you to build yours.
Here are some great book lists:
http://garmahis.com/reviews/best-web-design-books
http://speckyboy.com/2010/03/19/12-must-have-free-downloadable-web-design-books
http://www.smashingshare.com/2010/02/22/useful-web-design-development-books
Photography
Seeing a bit of nature is easy enough, and experiencing some different culture is usually no difficult task either. But the world is full of incredible beauty that a lot of us don’t have the time or money to go and experience. Photography is the next best thing. Photos can look pretty amazing, not only capturing nature and aspects of different cultures, but also very particular and unique moments in time. For example, you cannot go and see a solar eclipse every day, but you can look at a photo of it as much as you like.
Photos can be incredibly colorful and inspiring. There are all kinds of awesome photographs on http://browse.deviantart.com/photography.
I’d love to see some comments on what other things have inspired you designers out there.
Spring cleaning the blogosphere
It’s spring. That means that the flowers are blooming and your house is overstuffed with neat gadgets and other trinkets you picked up over the past year. After you have managed to tackle the clutter inside your home then you must tackle the clutter on your blog.
Defining the clutter
Clutter can come in many forms. I would identify it as any elements on your blog that are unnecessary for basic functionality or widely unused elements by users. For example, if your audience doesn’t make use of social media then it wouldn’t be wise to waste the space on promoting your Twitter account.
Keeping a clean blog is important
Clean interfaces will improve user experiences. It allows your readers to navigate and read content without the confusion caused by unnecessary elements on the page. Clean interfaces will reduce bandwidth usage and decrease load times.
Google has recently shown the love for simplistic design by now factoring load times into search results. Google wants to deliver content quickly and effectively. This change makes it even more important that you remove the clutter and let your content take center stage.
1. Removing unnecessary plugins – Plugins can add functionality to your blog, but with the vast amount available they can quickly become a way to increase load times and clutter your blog. Take your blog back to the basics by delete some plugins.
2. Reducing the space between the top and content area – Studies have shown that users spend 80% of their time within the fold. By reducing the space between the top of the page and content area it improves the chances readers will view more content.
3. Cutting out useless imagery – Imagery can help users quickly identify with content but don’t overdo it. Cut out all imagery that isn’t necessary. It helps reduce load times, bandwidth usage, and articles could appear higher on search results.
4. Revamping or deleting old content – Make sure to revisit old content because search engines drive traffic to even older pages. You should start by making content relevant and updated to current standards.
A clutter free blog is a happy blog. It promotes users to read content and reduces confusion. Google and other search engines realize that people are inpatient. They want content quickly. When managing your blog don’t get caught in the latest trends.
Keep your blog simple and clean.
Principles of good blog design
You will find more blogs on the Internet than traditional websites today. Blogs are all about pulling attention toward content and providing hubs for all kinds of information. As you browse through the seemingly endless amount of blogs you will find ones you love and others you hate. To promote better designed blogs here are a few things to keep in mind.
Start with the traditional layout structure
When blogs were created they adapted a layout structure different from the traditional one at the time. This new layout bought content to the main focus of all web pages and ensured readers would not be detracted by other elements on the page.
Don’t reinvent the wheel.
Your readers will be familiar with the traditional blog structure. If you’re looking to make your blog unique don’t change the structure but change the imagery within that structure.
Content is always the focus
It doesn’t matter if you create the most appealing website in the world. If you don’t write unique, information-filled content within your niche, readers won’t be coming back. Your design should reflect that ideal by removing any unnecessary elements and bringing the attention toward your content area by effectively using headings and other hooks.
Good readability
Your blog must have a high quality of readability.
Start by using the basic color scheme rules, dark on light or light on dark. Secondly, make sure that you choose a reasonable size font with good line-spacing. Always make use of headings, bold, and other elements to break blocks of content up.
Keep advertisements few and simple
Many blogs are powered by the income generated through advertisements.
However, even with that being the case it’s important to place advertisements effectively by not allowing them to take over your content. Try marketing less ad spaces for higher prices, which keeps the focus on content without having to sale out your entire blog.
Lay content high on page
Recent studies have shown today’s Internet users spend 80% of the time above the fold and while they are scrolling, they tend focus attention only on 20% below the fold.
When designing your blog this information is very useful for making your design more effective in having readers actually read content. Keep elements above the content area minimal. This will place your content closer to the top of the web page and more within the fold; making users more likely to read the post.
Keep load times low
Visitors are impatient. You must have your web pages load quickly to avoid readers leaving. Blogs can are often weighed down by plugins and heavy imagery that really drives up load times and bandwidth.
Keeping your blog clean of unnecessary elements you will improve user experience and reduce the bounce rate.
Layout elements depending on importance
Effectively draw attention to important elements on your blog by placing them within the fold, such as popular post, and subscription information. You want to keep your web pages short and on point. Stay away from adding unnecessary widgets and other items in the sidebar. Display only what’s important.
Consistent formatting for post
Try to keep everything uniformed throughout your blog and most importantly within your post. You must spend time on designing your headings and the structure for how you will display content. Focus on typography, imagery, headings, lists, and other elements that will be included inside post. Keep everything very consistent.
Remember that your readers will tend to scan content rather than reading it word-by-word. To keep readers focused try breaking up content by using headings, lists, bolding on important statements (don’t overuse) and most importantly be brief.
Founder Mark Harbottle of 99designs issues an image takedown notice
It was not long after @designerdepot tweeted my article that Mark Harbottle responded.
Instead of defending the actions of your company, you attack me, by accusing me of theft. If we all adopted the mindset that we are stealing by simply using an image as a reference point then all bloggers would be guilty.
It doesn’t take long to see that with your mindset, SitePoint (your baby) is guilty of theft as well by using company logos to refer to the companies themselves.
Your idea of theft is childish.
Furthermore, when I’m refering to theft, I am not accusing your company of directly stealing imagery for your own website. I’m writing about the theft that is accruing within contest. Unlike many of your users I am not claiming stolen imagery as my own and directly profit from it.
Image take down notice and threats of
possible legal action
Not long after posting this response. I received an email from the legal department at 99designs requesting that I remove the image of the team.
We request that remove our image from your web site. I’m referring to the image on this page of our team with the speech bubbles:
http://netjelly.com/99designs-is-ruining-the-design-industry/
You DO NOT have permission to edit or use that image on your site. It’s offensive to our team members, and it breaches our copyright.
I’ll check back in 24 hours and seek alternative action if not removed.
Best Regards,
Mark
I want to show good faith and continue a constructive discussion about the topic, so I have removed the image. I intended to use the image to lighten to mood of the overall article. If I would have known it was going to completely direct all focus from the post itself, I would have never used it to begin with.
The problem with 99designs is it being based off spec work. Secondly, massive amounts of concept and imagery theft are taking place. I understand that is difficult to combat this and they have taken the step to add a blind contest feature to cut down on such theft.
It became important to write the article after they released the ready-made logo store. They continue to ruin relations and completely destroy the idea of unique company branding.
To be honest, I am surprise with the attention I received with all of this, good and bad.
99designs is effectively ruining client, designer relations
It works off a term known in the industry known as spec work. Spec work means any work done on a speculative basis. In other words, requested work that has not had a reasonable fee agreed on before the work begins.
Spec work has the chance to result in non-payment and often theft.
Multiple campaigns have been launched to attempt to bring the industry together with an understanding of not working on projects without an agreement of a fair price with the client beforehand. The result being designers are paid appropriately for anytime they spend working on a project since they had a legal agreement ahead of time.
Asking a designer, who normally charges per project or hourly, to give away design work to compete in the chance to win a project is similar to asking a mechanic to fix your car with the hopes of getting paid if you liked it or not changing your mind after the job is done.
Do you expect to work an 8 hour shift with the hopes that your employer will be pleased enough to pay you? I doubt it.
They cheapen the process by remove the professionalism
They support the perception that graphic design is easy, and all that is required is the right software, a brief company description, and one hour of time to do it correctly.
It is about building an brand.
They promote a system that ruins the client impression with an idea that it is simply a matter of tossing some pixels at a digital canvas, then allowing the clients to decide which one to pay for destroys the credibility and attitude toward our industry.
If you as a designer would take the proper amount of time to understand the client needs, research the company and competitors, brainstorm the brand, come up with an original concept, and sketch the design before opening any kind of software, you would be better off flipping burgers then to dare take the chance with one of these competitions.
You work for under minimal wage usually
Many who defend these actions claim the money they make is better than nothing. I cannot for a minute see the reasoning behind this defense.
Let’s figure the average payout is $150.00 and that you win at least 10% of the contest you enter (which is extremely rare), you spend at a minimal of 3 hours working, this means you make roughly $5 an hour, which doesn’t even cover minimal wage in the United States.
I am charitable in believing that you would be winning 10% of the contest. Also this does not factor the client backing out and the numerous revisions you could be asked for, which adds to more time spent on a single project.
They ruin the reason in hiring a designer
For sometime I planned to write this article. I did not feel it was necessary in till they released a new feature that allows designers to submit logos to a marketplace which can be bought for $90 or $300 if the client wants exclusive rights.
The logo marketplace is another example of them being more concerned with money then the welfare of the industry. Not only is there mass theft, they now are advocating for clients to pay for a logo that is already being branded possibility by multiple other businesses. This completely defeats the purpose of hiring a designer.
The marketplace, like contests, are being flooded with chip-art, stock imagery, and stolen logos. After the designer uploads the logo, it is placed in a marketplace with thousands of others which plan to be bought for cheap prices, which in a professional environment would be worth much more. But the worst thing about this whole process is that when a logo is sold, you as the designer only make 30% commission from your own designs.
They make more then the designer who spend the time creating the logo. I find this completely appalling and cannot believe a designer would sale themselves out this way. The truth is you will never make enough money for the hours you waste your time with this poor excuse for client, designer relations.
Founder of 99designs responds to this article
Not long after this article made it to the mainstream. Mark Harbottle responded with possible legal action against me.
I have decided to post all communication between us in another post. Read it here.
35 Web Design Mistakes You Should Avoid
This article is an ever-changing list of some common, controversial, and often forgotten mistakes that are made in web development. Most of them will apply to any website or blog, but please keep it mind that there will be cases where these would not apply and some you may dislike.
1. Presuming the phase “If you build it, they will come” – Even if you achieve the perfect website you still have to take steps to market that site. It becomes increasingly more necessary that you take the time to put the word out about your website online and offline. If you do not take the time to brag about your site, no one will.
2. Do not blend advertisements into content – It may increase your click through rate in the short term, but when a user thinks they are clicking on an internal link and then finds out you just tricked them – most will not be coming back.
3. Avoid splash pages (intro) to your website – These luckily are a dying fad, but at one time these were what a lot of websites prompted visitors with when they first gained access their website instead of the content they were attempting to reach.
4. Make unvisited links a different color from visited links – This is a basic usability tip. Users recognize the default link color easily, and are use to seeing visited links change color – it helps ensure they do not revisit pages unintentionally.
5. Ensure that your website is cross-browser compatible – Browsers are not created equal, and not all of them interpret code the same way. Like it or not, you need to make sure that your site appears correctly in popular browsers – browsershots.org is a great tool for doing this.
6. Music Players – Do not place a music player on your website; if I wanted to listen to music I would open my music player. It simply annoys visitors, and they have to hit the stop button every time they load another page. If you run a site related to music, then allow the user the option of starting the player when they are ready.
7. Do not overuse Flash if not necessary – Not only does Flash increase the load time of your website, it hurts your SEO, and excessive usage of Flash might also annoy some visitors. I suggest that you only use it when necessary.
8. Keep browser features intact – Do not break the back button, forward button, adjustments to focusing or any other browser functions – some people rely on them.
9. Do not open links in new windows – Allow the user to control his/her destiny, if they wish to come back to your site then they will by using the back button or other browser features.
10. Get your point across quickly – You need to make sure that the user can quickly identify the contents of the webpage; if they cannot figure out what the page is about then it’s pretty common they will just leave. Use your title tags, and headings to spell a clear message to the user.
11. Do not adjust the browser window size – Let the users control their own browser, resizing a browser can affect other tabs/windows they currently have opened.
12. Do not use hidden text – You should never attempt to trick search engines by using hidden text to fill your page with keywords or content to improve search engine ranking – this is simply an easy way to get ban from search results all together.
13. Do not try keyword stuffing – When adding the keyword tags to your pages ensure that the keywords you pick are relevant to the content on the page. The best thing to do is make sure each keyword is mentioned in the content multiple times. If you choose not to follow this rule it could result in a ban from Google.
14. Do not use visible visitor counters – Not only are these things unprofessional, they are completely pointless for visitors to even see. You should instead use an app like Google Analytics to quietly track all of that information for you.
15. Do not underline or change colors of normal text – Users have come to identify underline and different color text as links. Try to follow this simple rule so that users are not confused about what is a link and what is not one.
16. Format Content Correctly – Different standards apply when writing internet based content – you’re not writing a book. Make use of elements like bullet points, headers, sub headers, and list. Break content up.
17. Do not use tiny font sizes – Ensure that contents readable for all different kinds of visitors. The older the visitors are the more likely they will have a harder time reading the content, and most of these same people are unaware of browser resizing options.
18. Be consistent – Do not change the theme or link colors midway in the site. Ensure that your theme follows the same throughout the site.
19. Do not put text (content) into images – Put text in HTML when possible. Web designers will sometimes use images for their content or information because they mutilate fonts and sizes easily. But this is non-robot friendly (SEO), cannot be easily resized (like text can), doesn’t work for text reading software for the blind, and will increase load time.
20. Avoid bright harsh colors – Ensure that the font color is easy to read on your choice of background color. Also keep in mind just because you can read your bright pink font on your yellow background doesn’t mean everyone can. I have always found that black font on a white background to be the best choice.
21. Provide a basic search function – Search ability is one of the most important navigators in a website. You can now give your visitors the power of search by using Google’s Custom Search Engine.
22. Use ALT and TITLE attributes – Make sure you are making use of these attributes because it will not only help your SEO, but also help the blind with text readers.
23. Do not require a registration unless necessary – Do not force users to sign up when it’s not necessary. Period.
24. Make use of standard fonts – It would be wise to use standard web fonts when creating a website, because if a visitor doesn’t have the font you have selected then it will pick a different one to replace it.
25. Using Pop-ups – Making use of pop-ups for content based pages or even ad based pages has become a bad idea over the years with the increase in pop-up blockers.
26. Over-crowding – This is pretty common for web designers to add to many elements to pages. It gives off an unprofessional look and is difficult to navigate through all the information.
27. Lengthy Pages – People avoid reading lengthy pages. Being brief with your message will normally cause those pages will have a higher readership rate. If necessary setup a series of well navigated pages if you have a lot to say.
28. Slow loading pages – Believe it or not, people still have dial-up. Visitors will quickly move on to a different webpage if yours doesn’t load quickly enough. Attempt to trim your pages down so even the visitors with the worst internet connection can access information is always a good idea.
29. JavaScript based navigation – Not only does Google promote you to avoid the use of JavaScript based navigation, but also some users and companies run with scripts off while searching the internet making them not able to properly navigate your website.
30. Get a Sitemap – Sitemaps are simply a page with list of the most important or all of the pages on your website. Creating an XML Sitemap file for your site helps search engines discover the pages on your site easily.
31. Do not disable right clicking – Normally the webmasters doing this is attempting to stop the you from gaining access source code or image locations, but it’s highly annoying and users can still access those areas even after right click function is disabled by using the main menu.
32. Refrain from complex URLs – A keyword based URL structure will not make only improve your websites search engine rankings, but will also help visitors easily indentify content by URL name.
33. Do not use images for navigation links – When creating your websites navigation you should make use of text instead of images. Text based navigation is not only better on your load times but also you should never do something that you can easily be create with a style sheet.
34. Optimization of CSS & Images – Take the time to optimize your CSS and images – this will help lower load times and total weight of your website un-cached will be reduced. CleanCSS.com.
35. Common problems exist with Flash, Frames and AJAX – you can’t link to certain web pages. Try not to use Frames at all and use Flash and AJAX sparingly for better SEO results.
User Submitted
36. Do not have video start playing automatically – too many sites do this these days and I do not ever want a video to start playing every time I hit a particular website’s homepage.
37. Animations and flashing text effects is so 1999 – Cheesy Animations and those flashing text effects that can be done using CSS were widely popular in the earlier years of the internet but we have moved past that.
