#28403
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
#21207
Looking for a dream job in the Web industry? What the job titles really mean and what skills you need for each position.
Webmonkey (2003). Careers>Web Design
#25527
Now that greed, pride, and stupidity have wrecked the web economy, how's a semi-idealistic web developer supposed to make a living? Chris Kaminski hitches a ride down the road to dystopia.
Kaminski, Chris. List Apart, A (2001). Careers>Web Design
#13265
Before you get too deeply into establishing your firm, you will need to surround yourself with business professionals who have seen all this before. Putting time and research into the process of selecting these professionals can lead to trusting business relationships that will last for years. Web design firms can count on needing at least an accountant, an attorney and a bank. Corporations will also need a registered agent if they are incorporating outside the state where the business is conducted. Some portions are repeated between professionals since the processes of selecting them are similar.
Kramer, Scott. List Apart, A (2001). Careers>Consulting>Web Design
#21554
Selling Yourself As an Interaction Designer
Rather than focusing on how the site looks, interaction designers are primarily concerned with how an application or Web site functions. They investigate whether the application or Web site performs the intended task in a predictable manner. Interaction design incorporates a lot of skills from other disciplines, such as technical writing and information architecture.
Leonard-Wilkinson, Theresa A. W-edge Design (2004). Careers>Web Design>Interaction Design
#28401
A 10-step guide to setting up a web design or development business. I won't go into all the general stuff about running a business (although some of this info is relevant whatever you do). I'll keep it focused on how you can quickly start doing good work and earning real money.
Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Careers>Web Design>Management
#23998
So You Want to be an Interaction Designer
We get a lot of email from students and usability professionals asking how one goes about becoming an interaction designer, and what background one needs to get into the field. What are good interaction design programs? What real-world skills and experience are required? What, exactly, do interaction designers do on a day-to-day basis?
Reimann, Robert. Cooper Interaction Design (2001). Careers>Web Design>Interaction Design
#20241
Survivor!: How Your Peers Are Coping with the Web Design Crisis
It's ugly out there, but how bad is it, really? We asked 40 of our peers to share how they were coping (or not) with the layoffs and business failures currently plaguing our industry.
List Apart, A (2001). Careers>Web Design
#23349
For starters, many people working on large Web sites hold more than one of these identities or have held more than one of these roles in their career to date, so it makes little sense to limit one's goals to one of these titles.
Kelleher, Liz Hines. ADE Bulletin (2001). Careers>Web Design>Writing>Technical Writing
#20250
Web designers do not live by GIFs alone. In this new series, Kramer explains how to set up your business, prepare for projects, maintain profitability, and grow your firm. It all starts with a solid business plan.
Kramer, Scott. List Apart, A (2000). Careers>Management>Web Design
#25526
This Web Business IV: Business Entity Options
You've mastered Photoshop, Flash, CSS, PHP, ASP, 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. Part Four of a continuing series.
Kramer, Scott. List Apart, A (2003). Careers>Management>Web Design
#19312
Is your organisation in need of a user champion? It might not be the perfect solution, but as a first step it can have far-reaching consequences. If your organisation already has significant resources assisting with interface development, but tends to make key decisions on the basis of hunches or personal opinions, a single individual with a remit to judge the interface from the users point of view may be beneficial. Of course, any appointment must be more than a gesture. A user champion must be confident of management support and fully involved in the development and design process, at every stage.
Farrell, Tom. Frontend Infocentre (2001). Careers>Web Design>Usability
#25482
Web Design and Development Projects
Thousands of web design projects, open for bidding by web design professionals.
#30098
Between April 24th and May 22nd, 2007, A List Apart conducted the first survey of 'people who make websites'; 32,831 web professionals participated. Straightforward survey responses are summarized. Detailed findings, derived by cross-referencing various data, make up the remainder and bulk of this report, and constitute its chief claim to significance.
List Apart, A (2007). Careers>Web Design>Statistics>Surveys
#13268
Web Designer -- And Proud of It!
The hardest part of being a professional web designer is telling people what I do for a living. The range of comments I get runs from dismissal of the web as a fad, to the ever popular, 'My fifth-grade son has his own website.' The main reason that job titles like Web GUI Designer or Web Creative get bandied about in the media and professional circles is that the term web designer carries about as much respect as paper boy in today's society.
MacGregor, Chris. List Apart, A (2001). Careers>Web Design>Professionalism
#21136
Web Developers: On Being Too Wired
I was wondering if anyone else is starting to feel ill at ease about the work that we do. I personally do a lot of web development work. I regularly conduct usability testing on people so that web sites, and other technology, fit better with humans. I make it a point to stress that good design work yields higher profits, growth, and strategic advantage for our clients. While these things are acceptable and fit with our social norms, I feel like we are becoming the defense contractors of the new economy. I remember when folks at General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Boeing were getting heat for being baby killers and the like. Will the masses start revolting against us?
Rhodes, John S. WebWord (2000). Careers>Web Design>Usability
#15033
Web Expertise: Taking Your Knowledge to the Next Level
If your field is Web development, you've probably realized that it's not enough to know just one or two Web-related technologies. You know Java and XML? Fair enough, but to excel -- and market yourself as a true Web pro -- you've got to know a constellation of Web technologies. This is the Five-Acronym Rule: You've got to know at least five acronyms, and know them inside out, to advance in the field. So if you only know HTML and JavaScript, you're no Web pro. But if you know Java, COM, WAP, LDAP and SQL, you'll have a much easier time moving up.
Hoffman, Allan. Monster.com (2003). Careers>Education>Web Design
#18596
Web Shops Add Services to Rival Traditional Agencies
There's room for speciality design agencies, Web developers and full-service interactive agencies. A former director of media resources and research at Bates Worldwide, New York, Mr. Gugel said he thought it was only natural that an interactive agency offer everything a traditional agency does--but modified for the Web: account management, media planning, strategic planning and research capabilities.
Riedman, Patricia. AdAge.com (1998). Careers>Web Design>Usability
#26229
When You Are Your Own Client, Who Are You Going To Make Fun Of At The Bar?
Should your blog have a business? Jim Coudal shares insights into the adventure of transitioning from client services to product creation.
Coudal, Jim. List Apart, A (2005). Careers>Freelance>Consulting>Web Design
#28278
Why Web Development is Hard to Explain
When someone asks me what I do for a living it usually leads to blank stares or embarassing pauses. Saying that you are a 'Web developer' does not trigger a visual response with most so they always need to follow up with a series of questions that might give them some clue as to what you really do for a profession. Even after getting some idea about what the job entails they have to know.. "Do you make money at that?". Well here's a bit of history to help you out.
Hiveminds (2006). Careers>Web Design
#28907
Web design is still a young discipline, and it's generally poorly understood. As the web becomes mainstream, an increasing number of people and organizations want websites--and so more people are involved in commissioning, managing, and designing them. It's not surprising that many of these people aren't familiar with how web design works. Clients, managers, and colleagues often assume that web design is a subset of some other discipline, like advertising, graphic design, or software engineering. This creates a tendency to write it off as a low-value, straightforward process that can be streamlined and automated, like a production line. The result is unhelpful pressure on you, the web designer. You're asked to design faster, using a smaller budget, and without access to key stakeholders--which can make it difficult to maintain your professionalism, leaving everyone unhappy with the final design. The logical conclusion of this perpetual streamlining would be to stop using your judgment altogether, as if you were a piece of off-the-shelf software: a robot.
Kahn, Jonathan. List Apart, A (2007). Careers>Web Design>Professionalism
#32470
Are We Designers or Developers?
On the about page of this site I used to call myself a “developer/designer/occasional writer”. It’s a bit confusing, and I still find it hard to know what to answer when someone asks me what I do for a living. Am I a Web designer? A Web developer? A Web programmer? All of them? Neither? It really is a difficult question to give a simple answer to.
Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2007). Careers>Web Design>Programming>Writing
#32481
What You Need to Know If You Want a Job in Web Development
The true nature of Web development is a complicated metric to gage without being in the field for many years, and without reading about and listening to thousands who are in the field with you. It can be a frustrating experience for any one person graduating college and starting their career, or wanting to transition into a separate discipline. I decided to try and change that with some personal reflection.
Reindel, Brian. d'bug (2008). Careers>Web Design>Assessment
#32658
Creating The Perfect Portfolio
At its core, building an online portfolio is much the same as any other design brief—the only difference is that you are your own client. So as with any design brief, it’s best to begin by asking yourself, “who is my target audience?” Let’s look at two types of portfolios.
Ta'eed, Collis. Digital Web Magazine (2008). Careers>Resumes>Portfolios>Web Design
#33943
Filling Your Dance Card in Hard Economic Times
The worsening economy will adversely affect our industry, at least in the short term. However, our skills and products are suited to ride out hard economic times. Marketers can easily measure return on investment for electronic media. Likewise a web address—such as an online shop—provides a wider audience and lower overhead than a street address, and could therefore be a better investment. So how do you ensure your company isn’t a wallflower? Keeping your dance card full is about making a truly positive contribution. Here are seven steps to help get you into the rhythm.
Ronalds, Pepi. List Apart, A (2009). Careers>Web Design>Freelance
