Almost everyone out there has looked into hiring a web designer / firm at one point or another, and in the process they do some extensive research on these designers to make sure they are the right company for the job. Often we wonder “are you the right client for the job”. Here are five tips to help you become a better client and to keep the development process as smooth and painless as possible.

1. Have realistic cost expectations

The reason that most design firms have a fairly high minimum rate is because there is a ton of work that goes into creating a great website. When most people view a website, they just see a handful of pretty pictures and text. They don’t get an opportunity to view the thousands of lines of code that go into making those pretty pictures and text function the way they do, (not to mention the countless hours of sitting in photoshop creating those “pretty pictures”). Usually any designer will try to accommodate any budget, but like a friend of mine once said, “You can’t expect to get the silver spoon treatment when you’re on a paper plate budget.” In this industry (much like all industries) you get what you pay for. You wouldn’t walk into a Mercedes dealer and tell them you want the 2011 S-Class for the price of a Hyundai would you?

2. Be respectful of off time

A lot of designers, my self included, will give out our personal cell phone numbers to make ourselves more accessible to our clients. What that means is if I’m out of the office, and you need to get in touch with me, you can reach me on my cell. It does not mean that you should call me a 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning or at 11:30 p.m. on a Wednesday night, (both calls woke up my 11 month old son at the time).

3. Stay organized

After all of the development is said and done, it’s time to load content. At this point all of the responsibility falls on the client. When it’s time to get the content together, Stay Organized! Rather than emailing 25 hi-resolution photos, one email at a time, put them all into a folder called “Images for (insert your company name here)’s website”. At the end of the day it will save you hours of uploading and attaching, and it will save me hours of downloading and organizing.

When it comes time for text, the best thing for us is to just put all of the verbiage into a word document and clearly label each page and section. The easier it is for us to understand, the quicker we can get your content loaded and your project launched.

4. Try to have realistic launch date expectations

One of the most common issues the we run into is unrealistic launch dates. After having the framework done and everything programmed and styled, we will often sit around waiting for content from the client. Two months and 100 emails later we will receive a message from the client with their content attached and a closing sentence of, “We’d really like our site to be live by tomorrow”. Really!? Usually we are working on multiple projects at one time so a good rule of thumb would be that for every week that we are waiting for content, that’s how long the launch will be delayed.

 5. Don’t launch an unfinished site

Launching your website with the mentality of, “I will just fill in the content later, when I have time to sit down and write it,” is really not a good idea. This has only happened to me a couple times, buy I must say that I will never understand this train of thought. I understand that the new site is more visually appealing than your old website, but going live with a site full of “Lorem Ipsum” (placeholder text) will most likely cause your visitors to leave your site and never come back. There will never be a substitute for good content, so why ditch your content rich site for one full of gibberish.

Final Thoughts

I apologize for this post turning into 5 steps to keep me from crying like a little girl. The bottom line is: YOU SHOULDN’T EXPECT YOUR WEB DESIGNER TO CARE ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS MORE THAN YOU DO. Meaning, we are merely here to help YOU execute YOUR goals for YOUR company. I think this is something that every client should know, so that after the project is complete, we can both walk away with a good client/developer relationship.

Yo Gabba Gabba

Scrubs

Lockup Raw on MSNBC

The Deftones – “Diamond Eyes”