A guest post by Pawel Grabowski
I recently had a lunch with one of my clients, a well-known and successful graphic designer. At some stage during the meeting our conversation shifted to the way our businesses and sales are going. And it was during that part that I was really stunned by my clients views.
He simply stated how easy it is for him to sell a website. His observation was that you can be pitching hard any graphic design related work but it is the minute you mention a website that your prospects eyes widen. Not to mention that he finally starts paying attention.
And I guess it’s true. Everybody wants a website these days. And with all the technology that surrounds us that we’re so used to, talking about websites is much much easier. All you need to do is mention some technology related stuff and you are an expert.
But there is a danger in this. Selling websites may be easy but it’s also really easy to promise a large system you can not deliver thinking you’re signing up for a simple site only.
I see this happening all the time. Just look at any web related forum out there. It’s full of designers trying to get advice on coding issues, or setting up servers, installing CMS systems and many others. And most of that only because the job exceeds their skills and capabilities.
So, what’s the solution then? Not selling websites at all and stick to print?
Definitely not. Those of you who know me know also that I am a big believer that design studios should expand and incorporate web services into their offer. To me, it is the only way for them to develop their business. And with the times to come it may be a single thing that will actually keep them in business.
What I am also constantly advocate is that in order to build a web career you need to learn, discover and master it. As one of my friends had put it, it’s a big jump from print to web. And you have to train really hard to land on the other side.
So, what do you need to know to understand more what you sell? And ultimately know what you need to deliver.
1. Understand the difference between web and print and realize one important thing, users do not visit your sites for their design.
No matter how silly this sounds it is actually one of the main reasons for many designers failing in delivering web projects. Designers tend to think that their work is the sole selling point of the website but in reality it’s the information contained on the site the only thing that matters to users.
2. Learn how to organize that information.
Learn how users read on the web, what helps them to scan your copy and find information most relevant to what they are looking for. Also you should know what makes great copy on the web and how to write a content that focuses on fulfilling your users needs.
3. Learn how to structure the site as well.
Master ways to build the sites structure so that your user has no problems whatsoever in finding what they are looking for.
4. Learn the technology behind websites.
Just like at the start of your design career where you had to learn the basics of print processes, with the web you need to know how the technology running the show works.
5. Investigate actual limitations of the design material you can use.
Fonts, colors and images all work different than with print. Once you know that difference the whole process of design will become much easier for you. Otherwise there may be some not so nice surprises waiting for you at the end of the road.
6. Understand how the code works.
If you design the site you should have at least a basic understanding of it. But by all means you don’t have to know how to code. All you need to know is what might cause you potential problems. You will be able to avoid those things at a design stage.
Now, all this seems like a lot. But when you think of it, these are really only the basic stuff that you need to know. Once you know them though selling website will be even much much easier. And you will be sure that you know what you sold and what you need to deliver.
Pawel Grabowski is a web usability and front end development specialist at think two, an Irish web consultancy working exclusively with designers and design studios. We help our clients win and deliver web projects of any size. He also publishes his own blog at http://www.papertopixel.org
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106 Comments
I would also suggest that designers actively seek out development partners that can take care of the technical aspects of the website, and the designers need only worry about the design.
We do exactly that with great success – our main strength is web development, and while we do design as well, most of our projects are designed by freelancers and agencies, and we build the sites.
Designer, meet developer. Developer, meet designer.
I really like design for print and often avoid web design but it is certainly more persuasive to be able to offer design for the web as well as print as many companies want everything done by one designer or agency.
The problem with web design is keeping up with all the new technologies and finding the time to resolve the problems these new technologies often cause.
This is a great list and there are some really good points here. I do quite a bit of web design now but really just for my own stuff than for clients. Web design is definitely something that should be mastered before trying to provide solutions for clients as there are many problems that arise with websites and you need a great deal of knowledge to resolve issues quickly. Thanks for sharing this, its a good article.
Good advice as ever Pawel – thanks.
Great post there Pawel!
I think that people should start with a wordpress blog. You customize it with, get some traffic to it with quality backlinks and sell it for a certain price depending on the ranking.
As a web designer im currently helping out a graphic designer who is actually selling websites yet doesnt really have clue about how to design – or build for the web… which i find scary!
This is a very interesting article Pawel. It’s always annoying when I hear people (who have no idea) describing how easy it is to be a web designer.
Very useful article, especially for amateur webmaster like me, thank you.
A little secreat!
Many website companies will work with designers, allowing designers to offer website to there clients with out doing any work. If you do some look’n around you will be surprised how many website companies offer there services and allow you to have a private brand. How cool is that! 
I never considered selling websites was an easy task. Especially since I’m just starting out with the design part, I’m actually a copyrighter. But I have lots of friends that are either programmers or designers, and I know how hard it is for them to catch the perfect balance between design, content and usability. We can’t really guess clients’ preferences or how will they react to certain websites.
I agree it is becoming very important for design studios to offer some sort of web sight design service. We are dipping our feet into this very market at the moment by offering to create the design concept and logos for a sight which a customer can then take to there programmer to turn into reality. However if this take off we will take on a designer / programmer ourselves..
Although I agree that you don’t need to put a great deal of time into the design of your site but rather the content, it’s important to note that korny layouts, flashing GIFs and the likes won’t help either. There are plenty of tools out there like XSitePro and others that can create standard layouts for you in different colors and themes and don’t require any coding to do it.
Thanks for sharing the steps. It’s really been discuss clearly the important details. I will bookmark this to get some updated post.
It’s true…web design opens a whole can of worms that many people are not prepared to deal with. This is why I’ve been holding off.
Your information is very useful I really enjoy reading your articles.
Thank you for posting this article. It is very informative. We all need to be reminded of those important points once in a while.
Cheers!
Hi.
I am working in a office all day long but as time goes bye I try to use it to develop my skills as a designer.
I love to redecorate and furnish me and my husbands house and help friends with new ideas of how to make there home look better using modern design furniture.
I find great inspiration in
мебель
Hey Pawel,
thanks for this post, it will be really useful to my business partner and me. We have been avoiding the topic of building our website for a while now but I’m going to forward this to him now and hopefully we will both gain some confidence and get our act together! Really helpful, thanks again,
Sofia
Hey, cool advices here! Very interesting article. And yes, today no company can live without internet,just not possible. So good to adapt oneself to it.
Great article. Well described ‘the leap from Print to Web’. When I made the leap from Print to Web over 12 years ago it was little hard as there weren’t many cool advice and tutorials sites around. That time I use to think more about creativing graphical impact rather what now seems to be content related sites. Coding and navigation was a difficult transaction from one to another too. Learning more about the latest technology for web to me seems great fun.
Nice post, Pawel, and a good perspective on graphic designers preparing to work on web design.
Web design has complexities which don’t exist in print design: browser compatibility, content management (as you mentioned, Pawel), even setting up sites for SEO, are important concerns for every website project. Also, it’s very important to understand how people read and take in information on their web browser and how that differs to the way they read information on a brochure, poster or report.
Anyone designing for the web has to understand that it’s a dynamic, interactive medium with a very different format to printed material.
Good post. Many designers still try to transfer print concepts on to web pages without understanding the fundamentals of web design.
Excellent post Pawel, very helpful.
It has become very important for design studios to offer some sort of web sight design. We are working this market at the moment by offering design concept and logos for a sight which a customer can then take to there programmer to turn into something tangible.
I would have thought that graphic designers would have started doing this years ago.
In web design it is not enough just to be a front end developer anymore and you really have to make efforts to pick up the back end code at least to an intermediate level.
It’s the same idea of expanding your skills base in order to stay fresh and on top.
Nice post, Pawel. Thanks!
Thank you for sharing the information it is definitely helpful. We should also keep in mind the printing aspect of all the web-pages of the website as it is one of the most important feature and too graphic usage doesn’t allow the user to print the essential information easily.
The world of website design is changing. The use of templated websites appears to be taking over.
I started out at a publication house and currently work as a designer and print broker. I have seen more clients wanting web based than print based. I currently use dreamweaver and am moving into wordpress. I am not a coder by no means but in ever changing times we have to expand our skill sets
Pawel!
Thanks! It is very useful article!
Absolutely excellent information and very useful for me
I agree with Tracey but the one advantage about web design is that it is usually not very costly to make changes if a mistake is made unlike printing! There is a lot to learn about designing for web but there is just as much to learn about designing for print so if a web designer wants to offer design for print there would be just as much to learn (I believe) as mistakes are too costly to make when it comes to printed material.
Excellent points!
It has been my experience that many developers I work with are fantastic at making things function but not at making it attractive. No offense intended if you are an exception to this rule.
Creating great work is most often a team sport.
So, my advise is BUILD YOUR TEAM!
I started out as a graphic designer, illustrator and been in web design for 9 years using Dreamweaver. I knew eventually I’d have to kick the ‘tables’ habit and get with it.
Now I use Sitegrinder, a software ‘plugin’ for photoshop. It codes everything for me once my site is ready to be built and i am free to be as creative as I like. I used to stress about having to learn to code which would have taken away from my design time.
I am a tester on the beta for the next version which will allow a CMS to be built too!
Yes, the information is what matter the most. But a newbie blogger would need a good leverage in order to attract people on their blog. And that leverage, my friend, is the blog (custom) design.
It can be hard to make the jump from graphic to web design, it requires new skills, and not programming – usability and web typography are two aspects which are often forgotten but really make a good website stand out. I wish graphic designers would stop going down the cheap route and actually learn how to design proper, well functioning, cross-browser compatible websites – or pay someone to do this for them!
It helps if the designer understands the fundamental differences between designing for online media and offline. It also helps if the developer understands the importance of page layout, colour and typography. From these mutual understandings, great things can come !!
I think we need only learn about technology that customer usually ask about it. In order to make ourselves know what we’re doing, you know. But not necessarily we learn vigorously about it.
Thank you for posting this article. It is very informative. Designers don’t have to understand the code of a site (sure it helps if they do.) As long as the designer can tell and explain in detail, what he/she want to a good programmer then the site will be made according to specs. No need for a designer to need to code. In my opinion two different area’s of expertise.
I’m not a web designer per se (other than my own), but when talking “web” and design, my instant thoughts are focused on monetisation and marketing.
Now I know that not every website has that in mind, but a fair few do and the debate between aesthetics and metrics is a key consideration at initial design discussion stage.
I’ve recently bought the watrall / siarto book “Head First Web Design”, which is a great if straightforward resource for producing accessible, usable, engaging websites.
I’ve bought this book to supplement my growing SEO knowledge and if I were a designer stepping up to the plate to capitalise on this web conundrum, I’d make sure that I had a firm grounding in SEO to really enhance the sites I produce and provide real value to my clients. A nice looking plane is great, but fundamentally it needs to fly and the better it flies, the more likely other are going to want to buy a ticket to enjoy the same experience. Combining great design with an understanding or how to produce results is the absolute key. Get that Google reader working, scan those SEO blogs as the key to great design.
In some instances, adding web design to your list of services might bring in new clients. These new clients may never think of you for their print needs unless they have some sort of existing relationship with you. Web design is a good introduction, as long as you can produce. You can’t afford to be picky these days.
Great post. When I started online, I had no idea about web design (and to be honest, my first website was a disaster).
I completely agree that if you don’t know how to design a HTML website, to start with WordPress – very easy to manage and customize.
If you have money to spend, either outsource or get yourself a proper website building (preferable with WYSIWYG if you don’t know HTML). These can add the structure for you, you just have to make sure that you can organize it in a way that is user friendly.
Good advice as ever Pawel – thanks.
Excellent post Pawel, very helpful.
Nice post Pawel. In correct time I got this information. I am in a plan of selling web sites. Thanks for sharing the tips
I’ve been bying websites the last few yeast and to be honest it’s a lot trickier than selling. for some reasons all webmasters seem to think they are the new Youtube. Asking price for a site with 100 visitors a month, no revenue and 5 less than decent articles on tooth paste will never go below $100.000
Good advice and a good article. The reality of it is that the client should get the best possible website meaning user-friendly, well put together, and well designed. I understand that how a website looks is the least of the concerns but it should by no means look like crap.
The right aesthetics also makes a website a fun environment and speaks for the quality of the business the website is for. It’s all about radiating professionalism and producing something that is well rounded.
Hope the information that is been shared in this article will really helps me to design and sell the website easily. I think a website should combines all the ingredients like user friendly, search friendly, and presenting a theme in an impressive way.And I guess that successful website will converts most of its visitors into customers.
I think there are alot of web deisngers out there that have had little or no formal training which make it much harder to build a good site.
The main problem I’ve always had when taking over websites created by graphic designers is the fact that they try and exactly replicate their printed brochures – all the text ends up being saved as graphics as it uses an unusual font, and so you end up with a nested table full of images. The end website looks like their brochure has been scanned in and pasted in a web page.