400 Bad request

You don’t necessarily have to do it five times, the point is to keep asking questions until you get down to the root of the problem, and explore various ways to solve that problem. Don’t just accept the first statement or request.

Clients don’t know what they need, that’s why they hired you

As a web designer, you’re a problem solver, and it’s good practice to use this technique on your clients.

Here’s a basic example:

Client: We need a blog.

Designer: Why do you need a blog?

Client: Because our competitor has a blog.

Designer: Why does your competitor have a blog?

Client: So their users have a place to go to read about company announcements.

Designer: Why do users need a place to read about company announcements?

Client: Every so often they add features, like us, and they use the blog to announce those features. We plan to do the same.

Designer: Why do you need to announce new features?

Client: So users can use the new features.

Designer: Why would users want to use the new features?

Client: They’ll enjoy the product more, which should help customer retention.

Designer: Maybe you don’t need a blog. A blog will take quite a lot of effort and money to design, develop and maintain. How about in-app notifications for new features, call-outs that highlight new features, a monthly newsletter, using a Twitter account for announcements, or use a tool like Intercom? Or maybe you don’t need new features at all, and there’s a better way to keep your customers happy?

Client: Never thought of that. Which one can we have up and running by this afternoon?

Get to the root of the problem

Constantly asking why can sound annoying, but it should lead to healthy discussion about how to best solve the underlying issue.

In the end the you may come full circle and implement the initial suggestion, but make sure you understand the root of the problem and explore all possible solutions before time and effort is wasted.

In June I started contracting for Kareo and as of 1st October I’ve taken a position as their Interaction Designer in Irvine, CA.

Kareo, who are they?

Kareo develop healthcare software. Specifically they help small practices and doctors get paid with their medical billing software. Think of it as an invoice system for doctors, but 100 times more complicated than any other invoice system.

For the past few years they’ve been increasing their market share with a desktop application. Now, with their recent investment, Kareo look to take things to a new level focusing on user experience and developing new web, desktop and mobile products that help their customers.

Interaction Designer

As Interaction Designer I form part of the Product Team, working closely with the Director of Product and Engineering team.

The type of stuff I get to do on a daily basis includes:

• Customer visits and research
• Product ideas and discovery
• User flows and wireframes
• Designing prototypes
• User testing
• UI design for web and mobile
• Markup (HTML/CSS)

Goodbye freelancing

As much as I love the freedom of freelancing, I felt it was time to take that next step.

There are a number of benefits working full time with a product company, that you miss out on as a freelancer, or even doing client work:

• Spend more time getting to know the customer
• Extensive prototyping and user testing
• Measure project results, and continue to iterate based on ongoing feedback
• See a product evolve through the product development life cycle
• Work with a team of talented people with different skills and learn from that team
• Be part of and responsible for the success (or failure) of a product
• Focus on the quality of work I’m producing without having to worry about billable hours

Of course there are disadvantages, and I will miss choosing what projects to work on, less meetings, being my own boss and sleeping in, but I’m really looking forward to contributing to the success of Kareo.

Some recent Kareo work

Kareo has done a great job to get to where they are today, but coming from a UX designer’s point of view there’s definitely room for improvement.

Anything I’ve been working on so far isn’t public facing yet, but you can keep an eye on some of the stuff I’m working on via Dribbble.

It’s a new challenge that I’m really looking forward to.

This is the part of the project that I dislike the most. Presenting a new design then waiting for feedback, not knowing what is going to come back at you. Receiving feedback can be uncomfortable, but you know it’s part of the job. Getting useful feedback is the hard part.

Why designers hate feedback

Feedback during the design process is good. Early feedback is even better. It leads to iterations, which should lead to improvements and a better end result for your client and their customers.

The main reason designers hate feedback is because we don’t often get the right kind of feedback.

Why clients don’t give the right kind of feedback

It’s not your client’s fault. Remember, they’re not designers so they don’t know what type of feedback you’re looking for.

If you hand them a design and ask “What do you think?” they’re going to tell you what they think, which will more than likely focus on things like colours they do or don’t like, and whether their company logo stands out enough, instead of what really matters like users being able to find what they’re looking for.

We need to guide clients (and bosses and colleagues) towards giving feedback that will be useful to us as designers.

I’ve put together a few dos and don’ts below that will hopefully be useful to both sides of the party.

How to give feedback as a client

Don’t give subjective feedback

I’m not a big fan of orange!

Subjective feedback is opinionated feedback. There is no logic behind it, just your personal feelings.

Do say why you don’t think something works. If a colour doesn’t work, why not? Does it not stand out enough? Is it against your brand guidelines?

Don’t compare your design to other websites

That’s not how Groupon does it!

The designer should have done their research and gone through iterations of user flows, sitemaps and design guidelines. So at this stage they know your business and users better than any designer at any other company, therefore they should be able to come up with the best designsolutions for you.

Do mention at the start of the project what other sites you like and what you like about them so the designer can take this into account when designing your site. And remember that just because GroupOn, Twitter or Facebook does it that way, doesn’t it’s the best way for you to do it.

Don’t ask for multiple versions

Can we see one with navigation down the left and one along the top and we’ll pick the one we like best?

No, no, no. It’s not about designing multiple mockups and picking the one you like best.

Do let your designer design what they believe will work best for your project, then iterate on that design based on user feedback.

Don’t forget about the user

Can we have input fields for their age, address, email and phone number as well?

Don’t forget about your users, who they are and what their state of mind is when they use your website.

Do keep users in mind when you’re analysing the design and realise that they’re probably in a rush, don’t have time to do everything you want them to do and that they won’t be over analysing every graphic or pixel while doing so.

Don’t be stuck to what you have in your head

I was thinking that would be blue and over here.

If you’ve already designed something in your head then why did you hire a designer?

Do let your designer do their job and come up with the ideas using their own expertise and experience that you hired them for.

Don’t tell designers what your wife thought

My wife is a creative person and she thinks some sort of animation would make the page look really cool.

Your wife, or any other impartial viewer, may be creative at other things but unless they have experience designing websites then their feedback is probably not that useful.

Do keep feedback focused on what your users, your employees and you (the decision maker) think, and listen to what the designer has to say.

Don’t get hung up on what other people say

I showed it to our marketing department and they think everything should be above the fold!

Getting feedback from multiple people, or departments, is good but don’t think that every piece of feedback is gold dust.

Do keep a note of all feedback, highlight any that are important and pass that onto the designer to let them decide what to do with the feedback. Remember if you ask for peoples’ opinions you’ll get a lot of feedback for feedback’s sake. Most of it is probably negligible and you can never please everybody.

Don’t ask to make your logo bigger

Our logo is a bit small, can you make it bigger?

As much as you love your shiny glossy 3D logo, making it bigger isn’t going to help anyone.

Do tell your designer how great the site is looking. We like positive feedback.

How to ask and prepare for feedback as a designer

Ask for specific feedback

Don’t ask “What do you think?”. Ask specific questions. Do you think the call to action will be obvious to your users? Will users know what this input label means? Does the overall mood and tone match your business and branding?

Do as much research into your client, their business and their competitors as possible

Right at the start of the project investigate what matters to your client, what matters to their customers (users) and what they think of competitor sites. Create mood boards of screenshots from different websites to see what they like and don’t like. You’ll be better prepared for feedback if you can relate back to this research.

Do user tests early on

The best way to prove your design decisions is to base them on scientific feedback. Develop prototypes for user testing, upload your screen designs to sites like Five Second Test and Usabilla to see what other people think and use this to justify your decisions.

Ask “Why?” 5 times

For each piece of feedback continuously ask why to get to the real issue. “Why do you want to change it? Why don’t you like it? Why do you not like red? Why do you not think your customers won’t like red? Why do they think red is evil?”. Once you find the real issue you’ll be able to come up with the best solution.

Include the client throughout the process

Always keep your client in the loop. Show them results of research, show each iteration, and ask for feedback at each stage. This will help avoid a “I don’t think it’s working” email just when you thought you were about to get paid at the end of the project.

Respect each other

Most importantly remember to have respect for one another. Clients know their business better than anyone. Designers know what works well for better experiences and results online. Both parties are experts in their own way so always listen to what one another has to say and try and see it from their point of view as well.

Have you any feedback advice?

This is advice based on my own experience. How do you ask or prepare for feedback? How do you give feedback? This article is designer focused but I’d love to hear any advice from developers also. Share your comments below.

Further reading

• Why design by committee should die
• Give your clients a wee nudge
• How a web design goes straight to hell
• Asking for feedback

As a freelancer I’ve come across these obstacles myself and would like to share with you how I operate, and maybe you can share your own experience in return.

Communication is key

Right from the start, communication with your client is key to making sure everything runs smoothly.

• Make sure you have a contract (signed by both parties) with a breakdown of how much and when each payment is to be made.
• Always be up-front with pricing. Let your client know how much something will cost before you actually do it, even maintenance work for existing clients.
• If contracting on hourly/daily basis, keep track of what you worked on that day. You never know when you might need it as back up.

Always get a deposit

You haven’t got a sale until money has exchanged hands. Once money is exchanged, both parties will take the project more seriously, and are now devoted.

Being self-employed you’ll struggle to wait until to end of a project to get paid, as in the mean time you have bills to pay and a life to live. Getting paid in stages and asking for an up-front deposit should be no problem to any genuine client.

I will usually ask for either a 50% or a 33% up-front deposit, depending on the size of the project. If 33% then there will be a second payment due mid-way through the project.

Payment on receipt of invoice

Generally in the world of business, you will usually have 30 days to pay an invoice. Some businesses might even allow 90 days, depending on how much money is involved. But again, being self-employed, 30 days is a long time to wait for the money you’ve been working so hard for.

I ask for payment on receipt of invoice i.e. right away. And in my mind I hope to receive the money within 2 weeks. Of course that’s not always the case.

Send reminders

Even good clients will forget; they have other things to do, other bills to pay and like everyone they will forget.

If after 2 weeks you have not heard from them or have not received payment, send a friendly reminder. And be sure to re-attach the invoice for convenience. If after 3 weeks you have received nothing, send another reminder and perhaps follow up with a phone call. If it gets to over 1 month with no payment, this is when you start to worry.

Method of payment

Again, be sure to include your preferred method of payment in your contract so there are no surprises.

PayPal

The beauty of PayPal is that it’s handy, and it’s instant (unless sending an eCheck). Also, a lot of online invoicing systems already integrate with PayPal, again upping the handiness factor.

The problem with PayPal is that they take a cut. A cut of between 3.5% and 4%. So if you’re getting paid £1,000, it’ll cost you roughly £40 getting paid with PayPal.

I tend to use PayPal for smaller amounts from remote clients.

Cheque

The good thing about a cheque is it won’t cost you anything (except maybe 20p for lodging into a business account).

However, if you’re getting paid internationally this can cause a problem as it can take forever to lodge your money (even up to 60 days as I once learned after receiving a cheque in U.S. Dollars). You also have to wait that little bit longer for it to arrive in the post, and you have to make the extra effort to go down to your local bank (all this time adds up).

I usually accept cheques from local clients.

Bank transfer

For me bank transfer is the best method of payment. I pass on my bank details to a client and they do a transfer. Usually takes 1 or 2 days, depending on local/international transfer. If your client has online banking it should be handy for them to make the payment also.

A bank transfer will usually cost for both sending and receiving. The cost varies from bank to bank, and depends on local or international payments, although I’ve found it pretty reasonable (e.g. it will cost me £6 to receive a transfer from an American bank).

Bank transfer is the typical method I use for larger amounts from remote clients.

Accounting

When I first started freelancing, I setup a business account separate from my personal account. I find this a very useful way for organising and keeping track of money, as I don’t really think of the business account as ‘my’ money.

Whenever payment comes in, I transfer two thirds of that payment into my personal account (both accounts are at the same bank so this doesn’t cost anything). I keep one third in the business account to cover tax, national insurance and business expenses.

When things go wrong

If you’re unable to get paid, the last resort is some sort of legal action. Thankfully I am inexperienced in this area. To date I’ve been able to get paid with no major problems. If you work with good people and use the tips above, hopefully you can avoid this too.

I’m sure there are some people out there with horror stories so please share and let us know how you dealt with the problem.

Further reading

• 5 Essential document templates for freelance web designers
• 10+ ways to help you get paid
• Getting paid on time

How do you get paid?

Do you get paid in stages? How do you accept payment and how much does it cost? Ever not got paid? Share your tips and thoughts in the comments below.

1. Website Planner

The website planner is sent out to potential clients to gather their requirements. This gives you a quick overview of the project and helps you decide whether you want to take it on or not.

The goal is to find out:

1. Who the client is
2. What the client does
3. What the project is
4. What the client wants (deliverables)
5. An understanding of their market and competitors
6. What they like and don’t like (about their current site and other sites)
7. Budget and time

Examples

• Front
• Buffalo
• Clearleft
• Happy Cog

2. Emails

I have several email templates that I save in a plain text file. This is to save me retyping the same emails over and over. Templates include:

• For when you are interested in a project and attaching a website planner
• For when you don’t have time to take it on and have to decline it (and maybe recommend someone else)
• Sending a proposal to a potential client

Example

Hi Bill,
 
Thanks for your email. I’m afraid I’m booked up with several projects at the moment so don’t have time to take on the redesign of Microsoft.com

You might like to try Steve from Apple.com – another very good designer that I highly recommend.

Best of luck with your project

3. Contract/Proposal

Once you’ve gathered your clients requirements and have a good understanding of what they require, you need to send them a contract and proposal. Things this document should include:

1. Outlines both parties obligations
2. What you are going to produce and the deliverables
3. How much the project will cost
4. Payment plan e.g. 50% up front deposit, 50% on completion
5. Signatures from both parties

Examples

• Andy Clarke has an excellent example of a killer contract
• Freelance contracts: do’s and don’ts

4. Services & Pricing

I personally don’t use this one (so I wouldn’t call this essential) but it’s useful to have. A document outlining your services and prices. This way you can send potential customers a list of what you do and also give them a ballpark figure for how your pricing works.

It’s good to get this out of the way up front in case their budget doesn’t suit your pricing.

Examples

Haystack shows rough pricing costs for studios.

5. Invoice

An invoice template that you can send to clients requesting payment. I highly recommend you use some sort of invoicing system, there are lots to choose from.

Invoices should include:

1. Who the invoice is to (client)
2. Who the invoice is from (you)
3. Date and invoice number
4. Service(s) carried out
5. Total costs
6. Any terms e.g. Payment required on receipt of invoice
7. A little thank you note

Examples

• Freshbooks
• Billings
• The Invoice Machine
• Simply Invoices

What do you have prepared?

Do you have any other documents at the ready? Please share with myself and others below.

Keeping an eye out for your career’s future is important for everyone.
However, for web designers, looking forward may be even more important than for many other professions. Many web designers are freelancers, or work for more than one company at a given time. Jobs can be short or long term contracts, so looking for the next job is often not too far out into your future.

What A Career Blog Can Do For You

In today’s business world, networking, whether online or in person, is an important part of keeping your career fresh and keeping an eye out for the next job. Career blogs are just one of the ways web designers and other freelance professionals can keep abreast of who’s hiring,
what’s hot in the industry and which skills they should be adding to their portfolio.

Following you’ll find five career blogs that are essential reading for web designers. They’ll provide insight on how to keep your career fresh, as well as give you important tips on finding your next job and marketing your skills appropriately.

1. Krop

This is an all around good site for web designers. Their blog is very informative, providing information about some of the most important sites on the web, including how they’re created. They also offer articles on job hunting and staying marketable. In addition, Krop offers a large database of available jobs, so it’s a great place to search for your next gig.

2. Smashing Magazine

Smashing has one of the largest design related blogs on the web, so you’ll find lots of useful information on their site. They also offer tutorials on lots of design programs. Their job database is quite large and is segmented into full time and freelance positions, making it easy to find exactly what you’re looking for.

3. AIGA

AIGA is the professional association for designers, and is one organization all designers should join. Their website has a great job bank, along with plenty of other resources for designers. Their “Voice” section is a great interactive blog that explores all aspects of design and encourages reader feedback. When job hunting, keep in mind that many large companies advertise first and foremost through AIGA.

4. AG Design

This site, known as All Graphic Design, offers lots of articles and advice for graphic designers, including a great design gallery. Their blog is a great resource for finding graphic design jobs and for keeping your skills sharp. In addition, there’s a design forum for addressing all sorts of questions and issues facing graphic designers.

5. A Digital Dreamer

One of the best sites for graphic designers, Digital Dreamer offers general information for all sorts of graphic designers, as well as some specialized categories, suited to specific types of designers, such as video game designers or animators. The career articles are particularly good for beginning designers who are still in the early stages of their career.

These sites are certain to be helpful to graphic designers in any stage of their career. Keeping up with these sites and reading their blogs regularly is sure to help any graphic designer keep abreast of all the changes and job opportunities in the graphic design field.

About the author

Mary Ward is a freelance author and writes about design job topics, such as how to choose a web design school, artist career tips, and more.

The book is by Leon Brocard and Jake Brumby and they provide you with an easy to follow checklist for a web project start to finish. Requirements and brief to design through to launch and all the stages in between and they offer lots of useful tips along the way like usability advice and optimisation techniques. It is broken down into a 100 point checklist in total, with a good explanation of each.

This book is a very easy read and I would recommend it to beginners, junior designers/developers and students. Most experienced designers would or should know this stuff but it wouldn’t do any harm to take a look and have a precise checklist to go by.

I read it over a weekend but you could read it in a few hours easily. It’s not one of those books that you’ll read then let gather dust on the bookshelf though as you’ll find it very useful to keep by your side, ensuring your projects’ checklist is complete.

You can buy it online, although LuLu (the publisher) was looking to charge me £50 for P&P so I contacted the authors and they were kind enough to reply promptly saying they could send me a copy for £9 + £3 P&P, which was nice of them. It’s now also available for PDF download, which is handy.

So Tick My Boxes is highly recommended. Very useful, easy to read book.

Freelancing is about the freedom to chase and achieve the life you want

I greatly enjoyed this book and I could identify with a lot about what it said. I’m not usually a big fan of eBooks (there’s a lot of rubbish out there) but this was enjoyable and useful.

The problem with freelancing

As a freelancer it’s easy to fall into one (or all) of these traps:

• Over worked and underpaid
• Scrambling to meet deadlines
• Needing more clients
• Wishing for free time
• Frustrated with admin overheads

Some of the things that you, as a freelancer, should be implementing to get rid of the problems above:

• Use systems to reduce your workload
• Outsource boring tasks
• Create assets that generate recurring revenue – work once and generate money for a long time

Sneak preview

I don’t want to share all the great tips that the book has to offer freelancers, but here’s a quick example of how to save yourself more time.

Automated systems can save you 5 hours per week (or 260 hours per year)

• Think of everything you do that takes up time
• Now write down checklist of what you have to do, e.g. website proposals
• Now create a template proposal that you can use over and over again, and isn’t specific to one client
• Bingo, you just saved a couple of hours per week

This is a pretty obvious example, but if you check out the book you’ll be provided with a lot more tips and a lot more inspiration.

The book is $29, a fair price for this 200 page document. I’d recommend The Unlimited Freelancer not just to freelancers, but businesses owners, entrepreneurs and students also. It reads well, it’s extremely helpful and it inspires. Oh, and they do guarantee you a complete refund if you don’t like it.

Let me know what you think of it if you end up reading it, it’s gave me lots to think about.

As I work on my major Masters project (due December), and while doing the odd freelance job, I take inspiration from the likes of Carsonified and Contrast who have been known for their ‘drop everything else for a week’ approach to work on other projects, and I work on my own side projects.

Their approach to taking a week to focus on 1 new project (from start to finish) is great but working 1 or 2 hours a day on a side project is also beneficial.

Why bother with side projects?

Luck favors the people who try stuff - Guy Kawasaki

1. Take a break

Take a break from your normal routine and refresh your head. Exploring different ideas can get you out of a creative block and bring inspiration.

2. Expand your skill-set

Try out new frameworks, see what you can do with different APIs, test your design skills. The creative community never stops moving so you need to make sure you stay up-to-date.

3. Brand awareness – raise your profile

Whether you’re a freelance designer or a large corporation, side projects can help raise your profile simply by having your name associated with it.

4. Contribute to the community

It’s always good to contribute something to the community. It’ll be appreciated.

5. Have fun

You can have a lot of fun working on your own stuff because you’re in control of the brief and there’s no one to tell you what to do.

6. Passive income

It’s hard to beat an application that makes money while you sleep or get on with the rest of your life. You might not make a fortune, but a few extra bucks a week to fund your Saturday night on the rip is a welcome addition :)

7. Try stuff

If you want to be successful in life I believe you have to try stuff. If it works, happy days! If it doesn’t, learn from it and move on. “Luck favors the people who try stuff”, says entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki.

Where to start

a. Take notes

Take notes when you think of projects and put them on your to-do list. I carry around a small notebook in my laptop bag and constantly add ideas to my ‘Someday’ list in Things.

b. Talk to other creatives

Talking to others will spark new ideas.

c. Read

Read a book from an inspiring designer or look at a book of visuals to get ideas.

d. Mashups

APIs make it very easy to launch small apps. Look at all the Twitter mashups now available. Think of different uses for Google Maps, Flickr, YouTube.

e. What would you find useful?

Chances are that if there was a website or tool that you would find useful, then there are 100s or 1000s of people who would also find it useful.

What side projects are you working on?

A successful side project I co-founded was The Big Word Project and I’ve just launched an Irish web design gallery (Web Designire) which only took a couple of hours a day for 5 days to develop (read more about it here).

Please feel free to share the side projects you’re currently working on or have produced in the past. It would be great to have your input.