Professional Web Design

iPhone is for Play and Bold is for Business.

August 31, 2008

iphone-3g

With the new (and hot) Apple iPhone on the market, web designers might be considering what they should do to accommodate the fast growing audience of iPhones users.

In a nutshell: probably not too much.

The iPhone web browser, is Apples’ Safari and it reads any web pages – even table-based websites! Gasp! Web standards zealots around the world are eating crow now.

Anyway …

It will come down to what kind of site you are running; I think that most websites will not be the target of iPhone users while on the go. My guess, is that it will be limited to:

August 4, 2008

I’m very busy with things (video games, movies etc …) so it is not uncommon for me to outsource some programming work these days.

Side note: I have to tell you, as an old-school web nerd who likes code, it was really hard at first to let go and let others do the work. Fortunately, it’s getting easier with every project!

😉

Anyway, I do have my assistants here at killersites.com, who by the way, are a tremendous help. Nonetheless, sometimes I get outside help for whatever reasons.

Crazy quotes from Java nerds

I decided recently that I wanted to contribute back to an open source project that I have used in the past … by throwing the people involved in that project, some work. I also agreed to release the additions/modifications back to the community.

Anyway …

The modifications I wanted were relatively simple – a couple of filters, some rearranging of the UI etc ..

So I get back the quote for this project. I want to mention that I could do it myself in say two days – and my Java skills are rusty! The point is, this was not a big project.

… And yet in the quote, we had a project manager budgeted in and crazy time devoted to testing. For example:

For a button that took the user to a screen/view that already existed … just a button: 8 hrs of testing!

Now we all know that Java guys love to over engineer, but this is crazy! When will Java nerds learn that you don’t need an aircraft carrier to move a rocking chair.

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

July 2, 2008

Hi,

I just released a 10 minute video blog talking about the three critical aspects of a web site.

So what are the three critical aspects of a web site?

Content
Ease of use
Design aesthetics

I go over what each mean and I also give you a few hints and examples that you can use in your own web design work.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com

May 8, 2008

One of the Web’s most popular places to get an idea of a web site’s traffic is Alexa.com.

There is one major problem though: Alexa is not accurate at all.

Alexa gets a lot of it’s traffic data from its’ Alexa toolbar and other nebulous source they don’t identify. So that leads me to think that they still get most of their data from the toolbar.

alexa-rankings-chart

Sounds OK, except for one glaring problem – who uses the Alexa toolbar?

January 14, 2008

A common question I get from people, is whether it makes sense to go to college to learn web design?

I’ve talked about the web design profession in other articles. Yet, as you will see in the following email I recently got, I haven’t dealt with all the issues regarding web design and education:

Hi Stefan,

Anyway, I am interested in web design. I am in the middle of trying to figure out whether I should go to my local community colleges for courses in HTML, photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc … or an actual art school for graphic art/ web design. Of course cost is a factor.

I am a mother of two, and my work schedule needs to be flexible. I am very creative and have a great eye for design.

My question is, which course of action you recommend? How much education is necessary? Is a degree necessary, if so, what type? associate, bachelors, certificate?

What are the salary potentials in web design working for yourself and for outside companies (I have research outside company positions advertising 40k – 50k, is that realistic?)

I’m not young, (a youthful 44) and I really need to do something in the form of a career for myself, other than taking care of everyone else.

Thank you so much for your time-

Sandy

October 31, 2007

Recently someone asked me a bunch of questions related to getting their first web design job as an independent contractor – and so I figured an article was a good idea.

Tim asked:

Stefan,

With me being a newbie in the web design business, I have some questions. Long story short, I was talking with my friends wife one day and mentioned to her that I had thought about doing some web design on the side to make some extra money.

I live in a small town, with a lot of small businesses and I figure these businesses would have a use for a simple web site to help promote their business.

… So I’m thinking this would be something I could start within the next year or so, … two days ago I receive a call from my friends wife and she asks if I’m interested in doing a web site for her brother, who is a dentist in our town.

So, I say sure and she tells me that he will probably contact me soon to set up a meeting to discuss.

Now, this is great but I haven’t got a clue where to start. Hers’s my thought:

1. Meet with the client to discuss the site. How many pages, the content, etc. Maybe show some of my work.
2. Take the info from the meeting and come up with a quote.
3. Present my idea’s and the quote.
4. If he agree’s and accepts the quote, draw up a contract for him to sign.

August 21, 2007

Hi,

As some of you may know, I’ve been slowly working on a new set of video tutorials that teachs you how to start and run a small web design business.

You can find the videos posted here:

Business of Web Design video tutorial

I have had a few request for more details, so I decided to release a PDF document that outlines the videos. This is still a work in progress … any comments would be appreciated.

PDF: business-of-web-design-project-plan.pdf

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

June 3, 2007

Hi,

I just released my second video for the Business of Web Design course:

Business of Web Design: Hardware and Software

It is about 14 minutes and it covers the basics on what hardware and software you need to start a web design business. Along the way, I discus a few basic business concepts that are crucial to any small business.

–

I am also archiving the videos at www.studioweb.com

Thanks,

Stefan

December 22, 2006

Though Frontpage is dated (the last release was in 2003) it is still a widely used piece of software.

It has enough attention in fact, that many new web designers ask:

‘Is Frontpage still a program that you should to learn?’

The short answer: no

WHY NOT LEARN FRONTPAGE

The major reasons are:

Frontpage generates dated code that is not considered acceptable these days by most web designers.
Frontpage has just been replaced by Microsoft’s new web design software: Expression. As such, Frontpage will not be updated and Frontpage users will be left in the dust.
Most professional web designers use Dreamweaver – that means most web design companies use Dreameweaver.

Of the above reasons, I think the fact that Frontpage has essentially been discontinued, is reason enough to not get into it.

WHAT SHOULD A STUDENT OF WEB DESIGN LEARN THEN?

This really depends on where you see yourself going: if you plan on working for a web design firm, then you probably need to learn Dreamweaver.

If on the other hand, you are more or less working for yourself, then any web design software will probably do – or even none at all!

That brings me to my last point: learn to build web sites by hand.

BTW: there was a little chatter about MS Expression on the forum recently.

CIAO,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com

December 13, 2006

I’ve been asked this many times:

‘What are the steps to becoming a professional web designer?’

To make a long story short, you need web design skills (listed below) and lots of practice to develop your skills.

A NERD’S ROAD-MAP TO (BECOMING A) PROFESSIONAL WEB DESIGNER

Learn HTML
Learn CSS
Learn basic design skills – how to make a page look good: color combinations, white space etc.
Learn how to produce images for use on the web. Photoshop or something similar will have to learned.
Build a portfolio of websites.

After you’ve mastered the techniques and technologies of web design, you will need to show your skills – that’s where the good portfolio comes in.

That means it is time to build websites for yourself, friends and strangers.

Practice makes perfect … with each new site that you build, and with each new ‘client’ that you work with, the better you will become.

ABOUT WORKING WITH PEOPLE/CLIENTS

You may have not considered it, but being able to work well with people, is just about as important as having good coding skills!

… You need to learn how to communicate well, because it is crucial if you want to get the job done.

I will get more into that in another article.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

KillerSites Blog