Standards, when does a Designer stick to them or ignore them?

Pop quiz, You go to McDonald's and order up a Big Mac, what do you expect to find in the box alongside your fries and drink? I'm guessing you answer was something along the lines of the old Ad jingle

"Two all beef patties, special sauce, Lettus, cheese, pickles, onions on a seseme seed bun"

This has come to be expected because McDonald's has a standard of what the Big Mac is, and the end consumer has come to expect that standard when they order.

Web Designers, like McDonald's with their Big Mac, also have standards We are supposed to use when preparing Our products for the Customers. Those Standards are known as programming languages and is why, no matter the Website, using the code 

<img src="file.ext" alt="description" hight="pixels" width="pixels"> 

will result in your brower displaying a specific image exactly how it was told to display it on any device.

Any device and Standards is where the comparison to McDonald's much beloved hamburger starts to fall apart in Web Design though. You see, Web Design does indeed have a organization that is tasked to overseeing Web Standards.  That organization is the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C for short.

The W3C oversees standards for Web Design, in all forms from Websites to the Web of Devices ( which is commonly being referred to as the Internet of things, or IoT), and they do their job well except for one problem. 

Thanks to the efforts of companies like Google and Microsoft's Bing, coupled with the ever progressing changes to Mobile Computing, the Standards are not progressing at the same speed as technology does.

This, actually creates a very unique problem for Designers as on the one hand, practices of Good Design should dictate that Our final products are meeting the code requirements of these W3C overseen standards while at the same time result in lower rankings on search engines or even incompabable display of content on different browers.

In other words think of dealing with Web Standards and evolving technology like this

Imagine you have walked into McDonald's, ordered that Big Mac, got to your table and upon opening the box found a Whopper.

Customers,Tips on How to secure the services of a Web Designer

We Web Designers get it, your project is important to you as are the reasons behind your desired project, but there are times when we Web Designers have to decline projects.

Earlier today, Inertial Zen Designs received an email from a potential client, nothing unusual for a Design Company to get. Only this email was but one line of text

Hello,how are you doing today?

No signature, nothing else. Well of course, to ensure that this is an actual potential client, and in the name of what's best for business, a polite response was sent with some probing questions.  Those questions included the following:

What type of Website are you looking to have designed?

How many pages are you needing this Website to be comprised of?

When is your desired Go Live date?

And 

would you be so kind as to let Me know how you discovered Inertial Zen Designs

Of course signed with 

Regards,

David Peters, Owner Inertial Zen Designs

the result of these probing questions was an INSTANT response which a 8 point list of what the person was wanting. That list, to sum up was a request to clone another Website's layout, placing it on a desired domain (which I might state was discovered to be already registered by a third party as the person sending this email stated that they did not already have a domain), in a less than 60 day time frame and expecting all of this for a budget of less than $10,000.

Now, readers, you may have noticed a unique request in My probing questions listed above, that being asking the emailer if they would be so kind as to let Me know how they came to discover Inertial Zen Designs.  This is what is known as a Turing Test, and was added to see if this potential client was actually reading the email, a failing that was proven when the "client" asked that I get back in touch with him with 3 pieces of information including

And will like to know if you are the owner ??

The fact is We Web Designers love to hear from New Clients. Part of what makes our jobs exciting is the ability to work with people and bring their ideas to life. Web Design, however, is a very complex career. We have values and standards, and can be very selective in the projects We take on, and like any Professional We expect to be treated with respect for the skill set that we have. 

Website projects, especially ones with multiple Webpages to them, can run into the hundreds of thousands, in fact the Municipal Government of the City My offices are based out of just awarded a $130,000 CAD contract to a firm for a Redesign of the City's Website.

Web Design Companies are more than happy to help you envision your project and take it from your Mind to screens that can reach potential customers find Your products and services, but for that to happen there needs to be a team effort, and that means Respect being given from both sides.

Please, for the benefit of securing your future Web Designer have the following handy when you contact us:

1. Contact Information

    We Designers love to know who we are going to be working with.

2. Summary of desired project

    Details help us envision your project.

3. Make sure that the domain you desire is available 

   Logos, Headers, Content and Search Engine Optimization all end up being tied and referencing your domain name in many ways. if your domain name is not available it can back up a project causing additional costs and the missing of your Go Live date.

4. Have your content and media ready for Us.

  Without content and media, your customers have NOTHING to read, also much like having your domain name secured, it limits the delays and saves your budget having these details ready

5.Evaluate your Budget and Time Frame / Go Live Date

 Web Design projects, like the one mentioned above, are usually billed by the hour with most Designers charging between $45 to $60 an hour minimum. 

This means that project can take around 2,167 to 2,889 man hours (around 54 to 72 weeks) For a project in the $10,000 range, you can expect a Website to take around 167 to 223 man hours (or 4 to 5 weeks ) to be designed

Keeping all this in mind up front will give you, the client, better chances of securing a Web Designer while allowing We, the Designers, the best chances of bringing your vision to life.