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Solo operators who offer Web design services are increasingly
working direct for big name clients who want to avoid high fees
by using experienced freelance talent.
For the Web designer, this
means wearing several hats including that of project manager. How
do you keep a project running smoothly without jeopardizing what
you do best - designing?
By Nigel Gordijk
Most of my clients are design consultancies and, more often than
not, they want me to work in their office using their equipment
and software. However, some of my 'direct' clients aren't set up
to accommodate a designer and so I have to use my own facilities
in my home office.
I prefer the latter option as it allows flexitime working. I'm
an early riser so I tend to be at my desk at 8.00 a.m. and finished
by mid-afternoon. If you're working at a client's location (or worse,
if you're a wage-slave) 'face time' becomes important, as you have
to be seen to be working.
Working without having someone looking over your shoulder can be
liberating in some respects - you work your own hours, and there
are no office politics, to name but two - but can also be intimidating
in others. At the end of each workday I complete a timesheet for
my client and sometimes I feel a strange sort of guilt when I'm
recording the time spent doing work that can't immediately be seen.
For example, on a recent Web project I spent most of one day cropping
and resizing images that appeared throughout the site. The client
wouldn't see the pictures straightaway because the pages hadn't
been coded yet - but I knew what size the images would be - and
the sheer number of them meant a lot of laborious Photoshop work.
The client never questioned my hours for this task, but at the back
of my mind I kind of worried that they might. How could I prove
I'd actually done something that I couldn't show?
Had I been working in the client's office where they could see
me churning out a production line of cropped photos, this wouldn't
have bothered me. But because of my insecurity about working unseen,
I was feeling cut off from the client.
Even a designer who, like me, has more than a decade's experience
under their belt can occasionally feel that they're working out
in the wilderness. So here are my solutions for making sure that
working out of sight doesn't mean being out of mind.
Face time
Regardless of where I'll be executing the project - my home office
or design consultancy's office - I always try to have the project
briefing face to face. There are always questions that arise in
meetings that may not be apparent to either party when writing an
email or talking on the phone. It gives me an opportunity to get
to know the client and, more importantly, for them to know a bit
about me.
For example, I designed the Learndirect Scotland Web site for the
Scottish University for Industry (SUFI). The first few meetings
were at the client's offices in Glasgow although the actual design
work was carried out at the London office of Web consultancy Interactive
Bureau. Meeting the client face to face in those early stages, as
well as seeing their body language while discussing possible design
directions, proved invaluable months later, deep into the project.
In these days of working over the Internet there are projects where
meeting the client in person is simply unfeasible. When I designed
the Lilies White Web site, all briefings and communication were
carried out by email, phone and post. As much as I love visiting
Canada on vacation, I draw the line at transatlantic commuting.
It's good to talk
Communication is essential. When working from home, I email weekly
progress reports to the client, describing what I'd achieved in
the past week and what remains to be completed. It's important that
the client is aware that you're still alive and working on their
project, not slouched in front of the box watching daytime TV and
billing it as research.
(This, of course is ludicrous. Have you ever seen British daytime
TV? Utter cack. I'm convinced that the television schedules were
designed by the UK government to encourage the unemployed to look
for work.)
Also, I find that asking questions about an ongoing project shows
that I'm continuously thinking about it. No one will think you're
dumb if you ask for clarification; on the contrary, it looks good
for you if you raise intelligent points.
Get feedback
Ask for regular feedback from the client, but set deadlines for
their comments, preferably in writing or by email. There are two
reasons for this: it allows them to feel part of the project, while
setting a deadline keeps the whole thing moving along. If they fail
to respond by your deadline, then you may have a useful fallback
position if the project timing slips.
Sometimes, there may be more than one person involved in a project
on the client side. To avoid confusion, I always ask that feedback
is co-ordinated through one person. Because these various people
are usually in the same building, it's easier to avoid repetition
or contradiction this way.
Now, I'm afraid you'll have to excuse me - 'Bob the Builder' is
about to start... |
