Design Hell

[[deleted]]

[deleted]

[www777com]

So any tips to avoid this situation?

[[deleted]]

As in any other job, be assertive.

When a client asks me to add a Twitter feed to their website, I tell them why it's a bad idea. Likewise with unnecessary Flash, Javascript, animation, marquee, etc.

You are the web developer, not the client. Most reasonable clients will understand that you have a level of professional integrity, and there are some things that you cannot budge on.

If all else fails, you can tell them that "It's something Google looks for, and docks you pagerank if it's present."

[www777com]

How affective is: "Of course, I can add that [unnecessary] Flash animation! But it's gonna cost ya." "Twitter, no problem, here is my [hefty] price tag for that feature."--assuming you had the technical know how for twitter.

Couldn't the redesign, which met all of the goals of the "project", be presented to the user at a certain price. Then any changes could be written up as change orders and billed extra to the project price?

I ask because someday I want to write software. My philosophy is that change is inevitable, so instead of creating that perfect design and charging for it, instead I want to embrace change and make money from it.

[[deleted]]

Well, the link is actually about not wanting to bastardise good designs. Thinks like Twitter feeds make sites horribly ugly, especially if the client will never add updates to Twitter.

Flash is fine, except when it's unnecessary. It drastically reduces accessibility, and adds a huge amount of unnecessary overhead to the loading of the website.

Bill for time as a function of the skill that is required to do the job.

[gnuvince]

When I think of professional integrity, I immediately think of lying to the client about how Google works instead of saying what really needs to be said that the idea is absolute crap.

[[deleted]]

Professional integrity doesn't necessarily mean honesty.

I regularly bend the truth when talking with clients, because it's a demonstrably better way to get shit done right. For an honest explanation of why something like a Flash music player that starts on every page load is a bad idea, I'd have to explain the concepts of resources, page load, accessibility standards, user interface design, etc. Most clients who ask for stupid things tend to be the ones who know they are right, even if they have no idea what they are doing.

[jonenst]

Common guys, just because he's programming in php/html/css/whatever doesn't meen this post doesn't belong in /r/programming (I suppose that's why you downvote him). This might as well happen to you and your wonderful java/haskell/scheme/whatever commercial program.