Breaking out of the Cubicle: How a Small, Swiss Company Got its Groove On

In the mid-1990s, Makiko Itoh and her partner left New York's cubicle land for a web shop of their own in the suburbs of Zurich. Learn from her tips on running your own web agency.

Itoh, Makiko. List Apart, A (2001). Careers>Management>Web Design

Business Entity Options

You've mastered Photoshop, Flash, PHP, CSS, XHTML and JavaScript; studied usability, accessibility, and information architecture; and can fake your way through XML. But there’s more to running a web business than that.

Kramer, Scott. List Apart, A (2002). Careers>Management>Web Design

The Business of Web Design

There's a lot more to being a successful web designer than designing good web sites. Your job is actually to satisfy your client. This section provides guidelines from our experience of running web agencies, which we hope will help you be more successful and more fulfilled.

Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Careers>Web Design

Business Web Sites for the Self-Employed: Part Two  

What does it take to get a Web site running on the Internet? When you have a site that is ready for some real-life testing, you are ready to put the site up. Publishing a Web site is a three-step process: getting a domain name, choosing a host, and posting the site.

Fugate, Alice E. And Elizabeth A. 'Betsy' Frick. Intercom (2003). Careers>Freelance>Web Design

The Client Did It: A WWW Whodunit

Why is it that we allow ourselves to be put in a compromising position where the client tells us how to be web designers? Maybe it's because the perception among the wider public is that 'anyone' can make a website. And they're right. Anyone can make a website--but not everyone can make an emotionally engaging interactive experience that will live in the visitor's memory. (Similarly, anyone with access to a photocopier and a stapler can 'make a book,' but good books are scarce.)

Shepherd, Robbie. List Apart, A (2000). Careers>Consulting>Web Design

Cybermarketing in English and German: Observations on the Multilingual Web Site of a Finnish Company  

Cybermarketing is a recent aspect of marketing strategy, which involves establishing company presence in cyberspace, in other words on the World Wide Web, or on the Internet. The instrument used in cybermarketing is the company web site - or the company home page as it was first called. The company web site is, likewise, a new concept; the first, most innovative business enterprises only established their web site presence in the second half of the 1990s. Indeed, business professionals have been slower than academics in adopting the communication potentials incorporated in electronic media on the whole, including the World Wide Web and the Internet.

Yli-Jokipii, Hilkka M. Hogskolen i Ostfold (2001). Careers>Web Design>Localization>E Commerce

Dealing with Job Loss  

Leonard-Wilkinson suggests how Web designers can cope with the problems of unemployment in a difficult market.

Leonard-Wilkinson, Theresa A. Intercom (2001). Careers>Unemployment>Web Design

The Demise of the Lone Ranger  

Mavericks need not apply. In Web design, you have to collaborate.

Giordan, Daniel. Adobe Magazine (2000). Careers>Web Design>Collaboration

Developing a Web-Based Portfolio  

Kendus discusses the benefits of online portfolios for job candidates and offers tips on creating them.

Kendus, Steven M. Intercom (2002). Careers>Portfolios>Web Design

Diving into the Wonderful World of Web  

When asked for my opinion on how to break into the Web world, I usually tell people to volunteer. I was very lucky when beginning my Web career in the early days of the Internet—my Web sites received a lot of good exposure. But when I jumped into self-employment a few years ago, I had to start all over again: I needed to show potential clients what I could do, not what my Web team could do. So I found a poorly designed Web site and offered to redesign it for free (the Oklahoma Indian Times Web site at www.okit.com). OKIT jumped at the offer (to read more about this, see “The Need for Web Site Navigation” in the June 1999 issue of Intercom). A lot of my friends thought I was crazy doing all that work for free. But I needed to build a Web site from scratch so I could give prospective clients an example of my work. Nothing is more convincing than before and after pictures.

Leonard-Wilkinson, Theresa A. Intercom (2001). Careers>Portfolios>Web Design

Estimating Online Projects  

Describes a detailed process for estimating the time and costs of online communication projects.

Drakeley, Caroline A. Intercom (2003). Careers>Web Design>Consulting

Freelance Copywriters: Double Your Income

Freelance copywriters are a strange group of people when it comes to running their own businesses.

Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2005). Careers>Web Design>Writing

Freelancing in the Web World

To live the freelance life is to live a life of uncertainty. Not knowing when or from where your next paycheck is coming requires a certain mind-set that not everyone possesses. Some may argue that with so many companies struggling just to keep their heads above water now that the bang is out of the Big Web Boom, full-time work is no more secure than the freelance lifestyle. But before you unplug that feeding tube once and for all, ask yourself if you really have what it takes.

Thomas, Evany. Webmonkey (1998). Careers>Freelance>Web Design

Freelancing in the Web World

So you think you've got the cojones to be a freelancer, eh? Then join Evany as she gives you some pointers on this wild and woolly career move.

Thomas, Evany. Webmonkey (2001). Careers>Freelance>Web Design

Getting Paid

As businesses struggle to stay in business, many are short–changing vendors or woefully delaying payment. Zeldman laments the difficulties of getting paid.

Zeldman, Jeffrey. List Apart, A (2002). Careers>Consulting>Web Design

Have Women Websters Achieved Equality On the Internet?

Will cyberspace fulfill our dreams of creating a new work environment where not only women but men can choose to work remotely at home, rocking babies with one hand while pushing pixels with the other? There are no easy answers.

Bucqueroux, Bonnie. Wise-Women (2004). Careers>Web Design>Collaboration>Gender

Information Architecture: Where Does It Fit?

It seemed five years ago that 'information architect' was becoming a popular, fancy name for tech writer. Have all of the information architects of the late '90s morphed into usability specialists with a special emphasis on the Web? Or have they gone back to being 'learning products engineers' and 'technical writers'?

Lizak, Samantha. STC Williamette Valley (2004). Careers>Information Design>Web Design

Introduction to Interaction Design

I recently ran into a fellow STC member, Jennifer Square, in the elevator of a large company where I am contracting. We didn't have much time to catch up, so Jennifer e-mailed me later. Her e-mail signature contained an intriguing new job title: interaction designer. I had heard of interaction design but had never known anyone who actually did the work. I wondered what disciplines it encompassed. Was it just something that all good Web designers did anyway, unconsciously? How did it differ from information architecture? Did I do this in my job without realizing it? Was it something I could list on my résumé? In this column, I will define interaction design by comparing it to information architecture, a related field.

Leonard-Wilkinson, Theresa A. W-edge Design (2003). Careers>Web Design>Interaction Design

Is the Internet Really Collapsing?

The sky is falling. It has been falling for about a year now, and it feels like it won’t stop falling until every business associated with the Internet is dead, dead, dead.  What is happening now happens with every new explosion of technology. When the sky has finished falling, it will leave behind an industry with far fewer, but much healthier players. And then things will get better than they ever were.

Tognazzini, Bruce. Nielsen Norman Group (2001). Careers>Web Design>User Interface

Marketing Your Web Business  

Leonard-Wilkinson presents several ideas for marketing Web businesses to appropriate audiences.

Leonard-Wilkinson, Theresa A. Intercom (2002). Careers>Consulting>Web Design

New Roles for Technical Writers: Web Masters "Oh My Gosh, Now I Own the Web Page!"  

In my presentation, I share my experience as a new web master, focusing on how technical communicators are well-suited 10 becoming web masters. I discuss what to prepare for and how things change when you become the webmaster.

Gillihan, Dana L. STC Proceedings (1996). Careers>Web Design>Writing>Technical Writing

One Boy's Life: Surviving the Dot-Com Blitz

A boy, a job, and a dot-com economy. ALA's Nick Finck tells his personal story of hirings and firings on the cusp of the dot-com crisis.

Finck, Nick. List Apart, A (2001). Careers>Web Design

The Ones That Don't Come Back

On occasion, (and only about 5% of the time) a client will not renew with us. They give us various reasons for this, the most common of which has something to do with 'not the results I was expecting.'

Wilkie, David. Search-This (2005). Careers>Consulting>Web Design

Post-Boom Job Guide

As an individual with a vested interest in discovering what's really going on in the marketplace (i.e., I'm looking for a job too), I decided to put my considerable free time to good use and do some investigative journalism. What follows is a kind of State of the Union for Internet developers: Is it really that bad out there? What happened to all the work? What skills are companies looking for in the new New Economy? And most importantly, what can you do to get/keep a job in these troublesome times?

Penhaligon, Greg. Webmonkey (2003). Careers>Web Design

Pricing and Selling Web Design Services

Price your services appropriately in line with your competitors. Never sell yourself short - always make sure your clients appreciate what they're buying.

Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Careers>Web Design>Consulting