Posted by on May 13, 2010 in How To, My Business Adventures, Webdesign | 1 comment

Today I had to do a 10 minute presentation to my business networking chapter. Since a fellow member had suggested I talk about website design today I tried to think of a subject for them that wouldn’t bore them to tears.  I could easily talk about HTML code and scripting all day long but I think I’d lose their attention in about 20 seconds.

So what I did was come up with some tips I thought were important characteristics in being a good web-designer. I came up with 4.5 points for now…I know, a good number like 5 or 10 tips would have been cleaner but I never claimed I was good with numbers…or tips.

Here we go….a good website designer:

Does not design for the client

Surprised? A good designer will always design for the client’s audience.

I might encounter a client that tells me they really think their website should have a purple background with pink polka dots. “Oh by the way, put pictures of my cute cat Mittens on the homepage”. It might be quick for me to follow the easy path and do just what my client wants. OR I might do research to find out if it’s really what my client’s audience wants to see if they’re determining where to bring business.

Sometimes it’s a gut instinct; I don’t have to research very far to judge that a polka dot website would not work very well for a commercial insurance agent for instance.

Strives not to get noticed

An ultimate accomplishment for a designer should be to get attention for the client’s message and not to the website’s design. If you land on my website and spend all your time oogling the moving animation, playing with rollovers buttons, and cheering on the sound effects (wait…are we still talking about websites here?)….I’ve lost you. Have you ever been to websites were you’re blown away by the design but can’t remember what the site was about?  *raise hand*

While you can’t fault the tool, I think it’s been one of the major issues for some people who design Flash websites to over-develop a site to the point where the message is lost. Never do something just because you can.

Realizes that design is secondary to service

It may surprise non-designers to realize that a good potion of what we do on a day to day basis has nothing to do with actual design. On a good week I might spend 10% of my time actually sitting here doing creative work, while the other 90% of my time is doing research, planning, meetings, hand-holding, education, training, writing, sales, & accounting.

A large portion of my client base are from people who have become fed up with their former web designers who become detached and unavailable after a while. I always think it’s a far better compliment to be remembered for having a good service in my business than it is to have something compliment me on just my design work. Design is very subjective, whereas everybody wants good service.

Knows your options & has the experience to guide you towards the best solution

This is where the 1.5 tips comes in. This issue can be split up; first a good web designer knows there’s a million ways to skin a cat. If you ask me to develop an “e-commerce” solution for you, I can name 15 different ways to do it with all kinds of budget ranges.  That’s the first part of the tip; you must be aware of things that are available out there even if you might not need to use many of those methods or tools.

The other part of the tip is also important. Guide your clients towards the best solution that fits their needs. That can sometimes mean pointing your clients towards solutions that might be even less than what they were prepared to spend, or making choices out of all the options you know so that your client doesn’t take the risk of choosing options that aren’t suited for their business.

There you have it, 4.5 lessons I had learned over the last 15 years on how to do this kind of work. Now go forth and multiply…