How to work as a web designer
I read rek’s discussion on Reddit.
In short, after months of working as a web designer for a customer, he got fed up of not getting paid and removed his work from the customer’s web host.
I can relate to the frustration, and I’d be able to pay off the US debt if I had a penny for every time a customer screwed over the web designer. 
In principle, web design seems a fairly straightforward deal. On one side, the customer has an idea about a web site, is able to articulate it in a very specific way, and has some constraints for implementing it — budget, time, perhaps quality or responsiveness, visual guidelines for corporate stuff, and such. But the customer doesn’t have the technical abilities and skills to implement the idea, so he hires the web designer to implement the request.
The problem with web design is miscommunication of expectations and roles constraints. Most of the time, the customer has no clue what he wants, is very vague in requests, changes his mind a few times per day, keeps making changes to the initial request. Most important of all, the customer thinks he is in charge of the design, and the project is completed (and should be paid for) when he is perfectly satisfied with the outcome.
That’s wrong.
Firstly, the success criteria for the project must be written down before the first line of code is created. Most of the time, the customer is not in the intended audience for the web project, so his personal satisfaction with the outcome should not be taken into account. Supposed you are asked to design a websites for kids for a toy factory; should you ask the factory management if they like the site, or a bunch of 3 year olds?
Secondly, the project is completed when the web designer delivers all points agreed in the document signed at the beginning of the project. Being extremely specific is the key here: you must be able to prove that the work you have completed is exactly what the customer requested and works exactly the way the customer requested. You also have to be careful that the customer writes down all his assumptions. Make it clear that “if it’s not written down, it doesn’t exist and will not be delivered” so that you don’t end up with complaints like, “but I assumed that the data entry form can be used like an Excel worksheet, so I can insert multiple rows and copy/paste data on screen!” Don’t assume it won’t happen; it has, and it will!
Thirdly, any change request to what was agreed in the original document must be treated as an addition to the initial costs and timeframe estimates. The designer must reevaluate the scope of the design, the new cost and delivery date, and obtain the written consent from the customer for the change from the initial agreement (contract). If you are dealing with a difficult customer who keeps changing his mind, you can limit that by agreeing on an additional fixed fee for each change in the specifications. This will make the customer think twice if they have to pay $200 every time he wants to change (again) the site’s background color.
Fourthly, the web designer is the designer. He is the specialist who knows how to build on the technical aspects to best implement the customer’s vague idea. The customer should only communicate his needs and constraints, and let the designer propose a solution. The designer needs to be very, very clear on who has the designer role and what are the limitations of the customer in this relationship.
There are at least two approaches to establishing the designer role.
On one hand, the web designer can work on order, simply implementing the very specific requests from the customer. In this scenario, the customer is also the designer, and fully responsible for the outcome of the project; the web designer is simply the “robot” who executes each request blindly. This kind of arrangement should be clarified from the beginning and paid by the hour, with the web designer keeping close track of the time spent on implementing the requests. Project can go on for as long as the customer continues to request changes and is willing to pay for it. This keeps the customer happy, but usually leads to poor design results, bad choices on long and even short term, huge costs and demotivated web designers.
On the other hand, the web designer can really be the designer, and supplement his technical abilities with consultancy services and encapsulating his work in a service delivered to the customer. This way, the web designer can fully use his knowledge to propose the best solution for the customer’s scenario, optimizing cost and minimizing the time for delivery. This is the kind of project a web designer will be proud of and will put his heart into. But, it is often a problem with incomplete specifications and assumptions from the customer and managing the customer’s on-going dissatisfaction with lack of control and the “I’m paying for it so you should be doing as I tell you to” kind of attitude.
Last but not least, financial tracking is part of the web design project. The developer must keep track of every hour spent working, and to make sure he is getting paid for it. For long projects, an agreement for incremental payments is recommended, and at least monthly payments for working “on order.” The developer can request a non-refundable percentage of the initial estimate to be paid before any work is done. He should implement restrictions for viewing even the partial work before it is fully paid, so that the customer can’t steal it. (Strong word, but unfortunately very spot-on.) Allowing the customer to view the work on a test server is nice, but sometimes the developer shouldn’t give the customer more than screenshots. Make sure that both parties agree on the intellectual property ownership transfer from the developer to the customer, only on the delivery day and after full payment.
Is there more to add to this quick guide on a healthy web designer job? Sure is — please send in your comments!
September 10th, 2008 at 6:12 am
Great tips for web designers looking for ideas on how to run a small business. For financial tracking, check out Intervals, an online tool that tracks every hour you spend working and gives you reports so you know how much to charge your clients. It was built by a web design firm with nine years of experience, so the workflow is more familiar to web designers.