Designer Ethics
Note: This was pulled from the old lost archives so it comes from a few years back, but still applies today. Obviously I don’t offer design services anymore since I partner with someone who is more than capable of handling that stuff.
As a designer beginning his own company it is important for me to have clients that believe in the service that I am offering and that service being designing web sites. Not only am I offering them a service, but I am also giving them a product, which is their own website. I wish that every client I have now will find my work good enough that they will refer me to others. This is obviously the best form of advertising and the best way to get business.
Now in my area there are a lot of designers (as I am sure there are in your area) who offer web design services. However, their services differ from mine. They create websites and offer many other services like database design and networking. I create websites and offer a limited amount of services. See, creating quality websites today requires great skill because there are many different things that you need to know. This is especially true if you wish to design CSS based websites. I want clients that can see that the service that I am offering them is quality. Sure the guy down the street can build their site for $500, but will that same guy put as much care and love into creating the site as I will? Will he be creating a site that when it comes time to update does not require hours or days to do so he can charge them a high fee? Will he create a site that follows the standards set by a governing body?
I need to pay bills just as much as the next guy. If someone offers me $500 and I let them know that if they want everything that I can offer them it will cost more and they still only offer me $500, then they will only get $500 worth of my skill and work. However, if I approach a client with a proposal that states they are getting my best quality work for $1600, then I obligate myself to offering them my best work and that includes building a standards compliant site.
I am a designer who offers quality. I create sites in CSS because I know down the road when it comes time to update the site I can do it quickly for my client at a reasonable fee. My client does not care if the site was created in CSS or tables. That was my decision. My client does not care if his site validates or that it follows some standards set by a governing body. However, I care because I wish to offer the finest service and product that my client paid for and that is one of the reasons I try to stick with standards.
Believe me I know how much of a pain it can be trying to get pages to validate. Actually I don’t, because whenever a page does not validate I can usually find the error quickly and change it. It seems the only hassle to getting pages to validate is going to the W3C site and typing in the url. I use a Firebird extension to take care of that for me so checking pages is almost no hassle at all. Even though this site validates it is not imperative to me that it does unlike my clients’ sites because at the moment this site does not pay the bills. However, the people who do pay the bills for me, deserve a quality standards based site if they expect to get all their money’s worth.
I am not preaching to anyone or forcing my beliefs of web design upon you. I just wanted everyone to see the ethical code that I have placed upon myself, which helps to explain why I design the way I do and why I like standards.
When it comes to web standards, I really see them as just a stable platform to build upon, like when you build a website using XHTML you give yourself a chance to do all sorts of transofmrations (when needed) using XSL. When you use CSS, you’re getting rid of the near-future headache that minor changes might cause.
But I can see the other problem you’re talking about. Many (I can even say most) clients don’t appreciate the underlying work, they only see the end result and I’m not sure how can they see the difference anyway.
I tend to educate our clients, sometimes even give them a crash course on web stadnards, explain the advantages in numbers like file size, download time, etc. I think it helps a lot.
By Rami Kayyali on June 20, 2006 1:33 pm
Why did you bring this post back again?
By Mike on June 20, 2006 1:51 pm
The best way I have found to explain standards is a very watered down defintion of trading standards for web designers. I know it misses many points, but if you think about it in those terms it reinforces the ethics of the designers that use standards. Everyone has different ethics, that is sort of the point with ethics. Bottom line is as you’ve stated, if it is a money based task ie; paying bills or revenue for client – the underlying code is put aside and will probably not even be noticed. I think that is one of the bonus points for standards, they are sort of a unsung hero behind it all and making it work better and easier for all. Admitadely this ‘unsung hero’ is banded and sung about at every opportunity by anyone in the web industry.
By karmatosed on June 20, 2006 2:58 pm
I brought it back simply because of some stories I have been hearing lately with regards to how designers are treating clients and I saw it as still relevant for today.
By Scrivs on June 20, 2006 3:19 pm
Speaking of which, I know it’s still a new site and all, but when are you planning to run the ol’ validator over Wisdump?
By Mikey Mc on June 20, 2006 7:23 pm
Well put! Validating really isn’t hard at all, and definitely not something to lose sleep over. Whenever I see those little “XHTML” and “CSS” buttons on client sites I chuckle… who cares?
By Montoya on June 21, 2006 11:48 am
I think web design is at a point where most “professional” designs work with standards now. Regarding this it is hardly something to brag about anymore. I started off as a print designer than started doing web design 6 years ago learning only standards out of the gate. To me, I can create a site easier with them than without them. I am ashamed yet proud in a way to say using non standards are harder for me. Heck, I still can’t figure out tables exactly and have no need or will to.
At the same time, back to the bragging part, caring about you work and giving 100% does not make you an ethical hero. You are being hired to do so. It’s nice that you like to pat yourself on the back thinking you “care” more than the next guy but none of that really matters. Your idea of “care” does not necessary mean your work is best suited for the job at hand. Yes we have to pay the bills. At the same time, so do McDonald workers. I do this for a living too but I’ll be the first to admit that web design is not back breaking work. Especially now a days there is so much info and tools available. I have built standard compliant sites for friends for like $250.00 – it might ahve taken me a day or two. Nothing magical about it. I rarely felt I deserved $90 a hour because I knew the difference between DIVs ID and CLASSES. Of course for some clients with higher profiles and higher budgets and higher concentration on my part I charge more.
Not to pick on you in any way, but what would you consider THIS site design to be worth? I should I pat myself on the back for looking at the code here, realizing it is a basic Wordpress template slightly modified, and proclaiming I could have made this in a few hours? Would you expect to GIVE someone like me or whoever $1600 and up for this design if you were not a designer? To me, it’s all about the details of the project. The firends site for $250 I mentioned above is a lot more detailed than this site here yet I still felt like I got paid enough for my efforts. I agree that most of the time a designers work is not truely appreciated but it is my opinion that has equal to do with the designers attitude as it does with the clients. We are not a high and mighty group of magical web workers. We are just a bunch of people with a concentration in a field that knows, cares, and loves our work (most of the time). I could say the same for my plumber. I could equally say I have a hard time justifying that he wants $60 an hour to fix a leaky pipe because he “has bills to pay” the same way I can understand how clients expect more for our industry rates.
By cpawl on June 21, 2006 12:02 pm
Sorry for the typos…
I also wanted to mention that is is our responbility as web designers to know and use standards. Whether this be the default or on a project basis. This IS the industry now. Just as a Flash developer should know Actionscript 2.0, or a print deisgner should be up on InDesign as well as Quark, and so on and so on. Only the strong survive. This industry like most is dog eat dog. The client should not have to feel your special for using standards more than the next guy. They should only know they hired someone who is right for the job at hand and will get it done as they see fit with the latest and most efficent technolgy possible.
No rewards, just hard work from a proclaimed professional. Knowing standards does not make one a professional. There are drag and drop applications than can create vailid sites now a days. Hell, now a days you can sign up for hosting like Dreamhost, install WordPress with one click, download one of the many tmeplates, and have a blog running in less than 20 minutes. That is all besides the point.
It is our responsiblity to know them and to use them. It is our responsibility to put our skill and work into every job we aquire. If we don’t think one is “worth it” as much as the next then all that happens is… we faded.. dog eat dog..
By cpawl on June 21, 2006 12:19 pm
Speaking as a client, or better yet someone who has tried to hire a designer. Its hard to know what I should pay. I understand the need for standards and how it benifits my company. Quotes have been all over the board from 300 bucks to 10k for the same job. It has beeen such a stressfull and time consuming process that we have given up on hiring someone and have started to implement a design our selves.
By settripn1 on June 22, 2006 1:17 pm
I have written a few posts on my site trying to get this exact point across, but I think I went about it the wrong way, trying to explain what ‘you’ should look for in a designer.
In this article (even if it is a repeat cause I missed it the first time) you hit the nail on the head Scrivs. Thanks for sharing.
By Mike on June 22, 2006 1:32 pm
In Malaysia, they don’t know about website standards, usability and accessibility so it’s even more difficult trying to even start explaining to them.
At the moment, my team’s biggest challenge is coming up with a method so easy that the message gets to the client who’s never heard of this thing but can understand and see the point which we’re trying to come from.
Difficult but not impossible. :)
By Danny Foo on June 23, 2006 12:30 am
yeah… because designers are not licensed it is a free for all when it comes to pricing. clients don’t know good design from bad design. with all the free templates around a non-designer can easily pawn himself off as a pro.
people dont know what to look for because there is no accreditation. the defacto basis for “success” and “qualified” for a designer is his client list. do an ad for a fortune 500 company and you are instantly qualified.
there are wal-mart clients and macy’s clients. walmart clients don’t have money. they even buy cheap products to save money. macy’s clients have money and they want the best. the challenge comes in getting macy clients and tolerating wal-mart clients until you do.
personally, when my 70 yr old grandmother and my 12 yr old neighbor printed business cards claiming to be web designers I quit and went into mowing yards.
By ethee on June 27, 2006 11:31 am
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By Cape Tech Herald » Blog Archive » Designer Ethics on July 8, 2006 9:50 am
I am one of those designers in your area :) I originally tried, with my old business partner, to sell sites for around that $500 mark, just to build up a portfolio. I’d just like to say that yeah, I was going to put that same level of quality and work into it.
Actually, I’d always put that amount of work into something, as long as my name would be associated with it. Of course no one ever wanted to work with us. Most people in Tampa have the idea that websites are useless. They figure that their storefront is enough. Maybe you could pen an article about getting clients (other than the usual here’s how to freelance article) which would be helpful.
I’m not sure why we failed, but I’m ready for another go. We tried everything from calling companies in the area that should have websites and don’t, going to places that we’d like to work with in person, and randomly driving to places. We even went to one business in Ybor with a working site and shopping cart to show them (in their current version you can order things for the price of free). We were going to put out a mailer but weren’t sure if that would even work judging by the poor success we already had. We even attempted to create a site with free listings for local business that we’d like to be able to find on the web so that we could get our name out. Even then we found some resistance.
People always talk about marketing yourself as a designer and whatnot. How?
By Joe Clay on July 10, 2006 12:16 pm
Marketing website design services is tough when you have sharks asking a mere $199 for a fully functioning e-commerce site — and its even tougher when brick and mortar businesses have heard stories from others how ineffective websites are.
What I found is to go after specific niches — like dentists, or automotive repair/pimpers/customizers, etc. and sell it as a perpetual advertisement, an electronic brochure to be used in tandem with traditional mailers, postcards, biz cards, and such.
This is something they understand, and actually want.
At least in my neck of the woods…
By Ted on May 26, 2008 7:23 pm