Zeldman: Web design news

Most clients are good clients, and some clients are great clients. But some jobs are just never going to work out well. Herewith, a few indicators that a project may be headed to the toilet. Guarantee: All incidents taken from life.

1. Client asks who designed your website.
2. Client shows you around the factory, introducing you to all his employees. Then, behind closed doors, tells you: “If you do a bad job with this website, I’m going to have to let these people go.”
3. Client takes six months to respond to your proposal, but doesn’t change his due date.
4. At beginning of get-acquainted meeting, client informs you that someone has just bought his company.
5. Client, who manufactures Russian nesting dolls, demands to know how many Russian nesting doll sites you have designed.
6. At meeting to which you have traveled at your own expense, client informs you that he doesn’t have a budget per se, but is open to “trading services.”
7. Client can’t articulate a single desired user goal. He also can’t articulate a business strategy, an online strategy, a reason for the site’s existence, or a goal or metric for improving the website. In spite of all that, client has designed his own heavily detailed wireframes.
8. As get-acquainted meeting is about to wrap, the guy at the end of the table, who has been quiet for an hour and 55 minutes, suddenly opens his mouth.
9. Leaning forward intensely, client tells you he knows his current site “sucks” and admits quite frankly that he doesn’t know what to do about it. He asks how you would approach such a problem. As you begin to speak, he starts flipping through messages on his Blackberry.
10. Client announces that he is a “vision guy,” and will not be involved in the “minutia” of designing the website. He announces that his employee, the client contact, will be “fully empowered” to approve each deliverable.
11. On the eve of delivery, the previously uninvolved “vision guy” sends drawings of his idea of what the web layout should look like. These drawings have nothing to do with the user research you conducted, nor with the approved recommendations, nor with the approved wireframes, nor with the approved final design, nor with the approved final additional page layouts, nor with the approved HTML templates that you are now integrating into the CMS.
12. Your favorite client, for whom you have done fine work in the past, gets a new boss.
13. The client wants web 2.0 features but cannot articulate a business strategy or user goal.
14. Shortly before you ship, the company fires your client. An overwhelmed assistant takes the delivery. The new site never launches. Two years later, a new person in your old client’s job emails you to invite you to redesign the site.
15. Client sends a 40-page RFP, including committee-approved flow diagrams created in Microsoft Art.
16. Client tells you he has conducted a usability study with his wife.
17. Client begins first meeting by making a big show of telling you that you are the expert. You are in charge, he says: he will defer to you in all things, because you understand the web and he does not. (Trust your uncle Jeffrey: this man will micromanage every hair on the project’s head.)
18. As approved, stripped-down “social networking web application” site is about to ship, a previously uninvolved marketing guy starts telling you, your client, and your client’s boss that the minimalist look “doesn’t knock me out.” A discussion of what the site’s 18-year-old users want, backed by research, does not dent the determination of the 52-year-old marketing guy to demand a rethink of the approved design to be more appealing to his aesthetic sensibility.
19. While back-end work is finishing, client rethinks the architecture.
20. Client wants the best. Once you tell him what the best costs, he asks if you can scale back. You craft a scaled-back proposal, but, without disclosing a budget or even hinting at what might be viable for him, the client asks if you can scale it down further. After you’ve put 40 hours into back-and-forth negotiation, client asks if you can’t design just the home page in Photoshop.

Tags: client services, client management, clients, agency, agencies, freelance, work, working, design, designing, designing life

Filed under: Career, Design, Working, business, client services, development, work

This post has earned 124 responses so far.

The State of the Web 2008 | Web Directions Surveys

Web Directions and Westciv are surveying web designers to find out such things as what browsers and operating systems developers use and test for; and which design and development practices and technologies they favor, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript and back end languages. Take the survey!

Cultivating Conversations | Jason Santa Maria

A proposal for improving comments.

The Grid System

The Grid System is a resource for all designers to learn about the benefits of using grid systems, golden ratios and baseline grids. Fabulous. Via Coudal.

This Is The Vanderbilt Republic.

Short (2.5 minute) video of photographer George Del Barrio’s shoot of Neo-Soul musician Rahsaan Salandy, for his upcoming album.

Why Twitter Turned Down Facebook

Mr. Williams emphasized many times that, despite its buzz, Twitter is still a tiny, two-year-old company with just 25 employees. “It’s good that the expectations are high, but give us a minute,” he joked.

Headset Hotties

Imagine loneliness so intense that you begin to notice the attractiveness of headset wearers in stock photos. Imagine time so heavy on your hands that you create a website dedicated to your sad little obsession. Imagine no more. Discover Headset Hotties. (From those wonderful people who brought us Instant Rimshot.)

Tags: links, twitter, grids, gridsystem, comments, conversations, stateoftheweb, survey, westciv, headset, hotties, coudal, filmmaking, photography, George Del Barrio, Rahsaan Salandy, Jason Santa Maria, WebDirections, Twitter, NYTimes, Facebook

Filed under: links

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Issue No. 273 of A List Apart, for people who make websites, looks at web design from both sides now:

Flexible Fuel: Educating the Client on IA

by KEITH LAFERRIERE

IA is about selling ideas effectively, designing with accuracy, and working with complex interactivity to guide different types of customers through website experiences. The more your client knows about IA’s processes and deliverables, the likelier the project is to succeed.

Getting Real About Agile Design

by CENNYDD BOWLES

Agile development was made for tough economic times, but does not fit comfortably into the research-heavy, iteration-focused process designers trust to deliver user- and brand-based sites. How can we update our thinking and methods to take advantage of what agile offers?

About the magazine

A List Apart explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices. Issue No. 273 was edited by Krista Stevens with Erin Kissane and Carolyn Wood; produced by Erin Lynch; art-directed by Jason Santa Maria; illustrated by Kevin Cornell; technical-edited by Aaron Gustafson, Ethan Marcotte, Daniel Mall, and Eric Meyer; and published by Happy Cog.

Tags: agiledevelopment, agiledesign, informationarchitecture, scope, scopecreep, managing, client, expectations, alistapart, forpeoplewhomakewebsites

Filed under: A List Apart, Advocacy, Applications, Career, Design, Information architecture, Standards, Tools, UX, Usability, User Experience, Working, architecture, business, client services, development, experience, work

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“Markover a site for a non-profit. Showcase your talent and gain industry recognition!” So advise the founders of Extreme Markover, an event that pits the talent and expertise of standards-based web designers against the challenges faced by underfunded nonprofits.

Sponsored by the World Organization of Webmasters in partnership with Web Design World 2008 Boston and Bizland, “the leader in web hosting,” Extreme Markover invites web professionals worldwide to demonstrate their talent and expertise while giving back.

For details, or to submit a prospective markover candidate, visit extrememarkover.org.

Tags: WOW, webdesign, webstandards, markover, competitions

Filed under: Community, Design, Standards, Web Design

This post has earned 7 responses so far.

Today is of course Blue Beanie Day. Thank you for supporting web standards.

Comments off.

Tags: bluebeanieday, designingwithwebstandards, DWWS, webstandards

Filed under: DWWS, Design, Standards

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1. More family time.
2. Candlelight is romantic.
3. “Fed look” replaces “bling” as status conferrer.
4. Millions empowered to leave dead-end jobs.
5. Americans lower their carbon footprint.
6. Sleeping under the stars.
7. Homeopathic medicines gain new respect.
8. Top musicians develop a more personal relationship with their listener.
9. No more buggy software updates.
10. Rivalry between Nick Denton and Jason Calacanis devolves to who owns bigger refrigerator box.

Filed under: glamorous

This post has earned 47 responses so far.

“Daddy, let’s play dinosaur. You can be the daddy dinosaur, mommy can be the mommy dinosaur, I can be the baby dinosaur, and doggy can be the doggy dinosaur.”

“Okay.”

“Daddy, let’s play leprechaun. You can be the daddy leprechaun, mommy can be the mommy leprechaun, I can be the baby leprechaun, and doggy can be the doggy leprechaun.”

“Okay.”

“Daddy, let’s play vampire. You can be the daddy vampire, mommy can be the mommy vampire, I can be the baby vampire, and doggy can be the doggy vampire.”

“Okay.”

Parenting a four-year-old is like living with Rain Man.

Tags: myglamorouslife

Filed under: family, glamorous, parenting

This post has earned 15 responses so far.

Announcing the second annual Blue Beanie Day. Please join us on Friday, November 28, 2008 to show your support for web standards and accessibility.

Participating’s easy: get your picture taken wearing a blue toque or beanie. On November 28, switch your profile picture in Facebook, Twitter, et al., and post your royal blueness to the Blue Beanie Day 2008 photo group at Flickr. That’s all there is to it!

Blue Beanie Day is the brainchild of Doug Vos, creator of the Designing With Web Standards group on Facebook. Since October 27, 2007, over 4,300 members have joined, representing over fifty countries.

Doug invented Blue Beanie Day in 2007 to promote awareness of web standards. Blue Beanie Day 2007 can be found on Facebook; photos from last year’s celebration are available for your viewing pleasure.

Tags: webstandards, bluebeanieday

Filed under: Blue Beanie Day, Browsers, Standards, Web Design, Websites

This post has earned 29 responses so far.

Two greatly gifted user experience professionals are contributing their time and talent to Happy Cog.

A veteran strategist and instructor, user experience director Kevin Hoffman creates compelling online experiences via patient research and sparkling creative insight. Prior to joining Happy Cog, he spent more than a decade building sites, developing strategies, and leading projects for colleges and universities in Baltimore. Kevin joins our Philadelphia office; we are thrilled to have him.

Co-inventor of a patented search tool for American Express, user experience consultant Whitney Hess has a bachelor’s in writing, a master’s in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon, and ten years’ experience making complex sites work beautifully. Her work for the New York office of Happy Cog will soon bear public fruit; we are delighted to have her on our team.

Welcome, Kevin and Whitney.

Tags: Whitney Hess, Kevin Hoffman, UX, userexperience, happycog, talent

Filed under: Happy Cog™, Information architecture, New York City, Philadelphia, UX, User Experience, Working, experience, people, work

This post has earned 8 responses so far.

In Issue No. 272 of A List Apart, for people who make websites:

This is How the Web Gets Regulated

by JOE CLARK

As in finance, so on the web: self-regulation has failed. Nearly ten years after specifications first required it, video captioning can barely be said to exist on the web. The big players, while swollen with self-congratulation, are technically incompetent, and nobody else is even trying. So what will it take to support the human and legal rights of hearing impaired web users? It just might take the law, says Joe Clark.

A More Useful 404

by DEAN FRICKEY

When broken links frustrate your site’s visitors, a typical 404 page explains what went wrong and provides links that may relate to the visitor’s quest. That’s good, but now you can do better. With Dean Frickey’s custom 404, when something’s amiss, pertinent information is sent not only to the visitor, but to the developer—so that, in many cases, the problem can be fixed! A better 404 means never having to say you’re sorry.

Tags: alistapart, closedcaptioning, captioning, captions, webvideo, video, accessible, accessibility, 404, error, reporting, usability, programming, design, webdesign, webdevelopment

Filed under: A List Apart, Accessibility, Code, Design, UX, User Experience, Web Design, architecture, development

This post has earned 9 responses so far.