Posts Tagged ‘Project Management’

How Hard is That?

by Brian Casel  ·  9.21.2009  ·  Business

Ugh! This question drives me mad!

Every web design client asks it. It usually goes something like this:

“I want to add a shopping cart to my website. How hard is that to do?”

or

“I’d like a rotating flash animation that changes based on local weather patterns. That’s not too hard is it?”

Does difficulty matter?

Of course not.

I’m still going to charge for it. It must be hard enough for you to hire someone to do it, otherwise you’d do it yourself!

Nothing in web design is hard to do. Everything in web design is hard to do. This question has no meaning to me.

I think many clients have the assumption that if a website is really easy to use, then it must be easy to build. It’s often quite the contrary. Delivering smooth funtionality that’s easy to use is usually a tremendous challenge.

Meeting challenges and working out solutions is what web designers do.

That’s not hard.

Work Overload and How to Deal

by Brian Casel  ·  7.29.2009  ·  Bits

I’m on a train headed to a Mets game, and I’m finally enjoying a rare window of time to take a breather and reflect on all that’s been going on around me these days.

I’ve been literally drowning in a sea of client work over the past month.  And it’s attacking from all directions: ongoing website design/development projects, a flurry of website maintenance requests, new client referrals, plus internal business tasks.

Sometimes I joke that all my clients and prospects secretly get together on Sunday nights to plot a massive attack of work requests to bombard me with on Monday morning.  How else could I explain why my client requests always seem to come knocking when my plate is already full?

Ugh.  Being busy is…

The norm.

It’s the job.  Running a freelance web design business is so much more than the job title implies.

It’s more than pushing pixels in photoshop.  It’s more than firing up code.  It’s more than project management.  It’s more than entrepreneurship.

It’s all of these things, mashed together to form a ginormous beast of a job description.  Here are a few of the perks:

  • Working an average of 60 hours per week.
  • Managing all sorts of stress.
  • Working alone.
  • Working with others – often over email or instant message.
  • No paid vacations.
  • No paid sick days.
  • No guaranteed pay.
  • Little or no job security.
  • Employer health care? 401k?  Never heard of it.

Why would anyone subject themselves to this torture you ask?

It’s worth it.

It is for me at least.

I love knowing that I’m in control of my own destiny as a freelance business owner.  I love every part of the job.  Even the parts that are hard, frustrating, annoying, aggravating.

It’s a challenge.  Every day.  And for all the hardships that this job entails, it has proven to be extremely rewarding in terms of personal growth.  I have learned so much about myself through my work as a freelance business owner.

How I make it work

A tremendous amount of mistakes and lessons learned the hard way have brought me to where I am today – a self sustaining freelancer who actually enjoys his job.

My learning, tweaking, and improving is far from complete, nor will it ever be complete.  That aspect is a major part of the job.

But let me share a few things I have picked up along the way that keep me from going completely insane:

  1. Time management. There is work time and there is leisure time.  You have to mentally distinguish between the two.  That means letting that “urgent” incoming email on Sunday night during your favorite show (Entourage on HBO) wait until normal business hours on Monday morning.  It also means waking up just as early as the rest of the working world.
  2. Task management. I recently began using Things for mac.  Before that, I relied heavily on Google Calendar.  Before that I relied on written to-do lists.  Always keep a bullet-proof system for managing the tasks you can’t forget about.  Don’t rely on your own memory, or scribbling things on post-it notes.
  3. Priority management. You have to know what is most important to your life at all times.  Yes, client work and deadlines are important.  That’s how you make your living.  But you have to weigh the other parts of your life heavily as well.  Family, friends, and your own personal time-off.  Without these support systems, you won’t be able to produce your best work.  When prioritizing within the boundries of your work, don’t forget to think big picture.  Where is your business going?  What are your long-term goals?

Obviously, these are just the tip of the iceberg of the freelance business owner’s lifestyle.  I plan to expand on all these ideas in upcoming posts.

Whenever I find another bit of time!

Five Web Design Worst Practices

by Brian Casel  ·  7.24.2009  ·  Education, Opinion

Today, I wrote a post on the CasJam Media blog outlining some “worst practices” of web designers.

While I don’t claim to be perfect by any means, I can say I have come across my fair share of hacks in this industry and I’m baffled by the way some web designers approach their business.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

When it comes to choosing a web designer for your project or business, everybody seeks talent and reliability. But these qualities can be hard to come by, especially when searching on job sites or online classifieds like craigslist. How can you be sure you won’t end up with a hack?

Go to the full article: Web Design Worst Practices

And here are the five worst practices (go to the full article to read full descriptions):

  • Bedroom web hosting
  • No IE6 support
  • Website is not transferrable
  • No CMS options
  • Poor communication

That last one is a key point in my opinion.  Excellent communication is absolutely essential in professional web design.

Over to you

I’m interested to hear about other horror stories you have experienced with hack web designers.  Do share them with us in the comments.

Keep Track of Blog Post Ideas with Zenbe Lists

by Brian Casel  ·  6.4.2009  ·  Business, Opinion

Today I’d like to mention a tool that works wonders for my daily routine.  The tool is Zenbe Lists, and it’s the perfect solution for keeping tracking of all those blog post ideas that pop into your mind (at least that’s how I use it).  It comes in both a web version and an iPhone app, each syncing with each other.

If you’re a blogger, you know how important it is to write down your ideas as soon as they come to you.  If you don’t, you’ll forget them and wish you had them when it comes time to write.  Every good blogger should have a long list of blog post ideas ready to go when they’re needed.

Zenbe on the Web

Zenbe Lists makes it easy to quickly jot down these ideas and save them for quick recall later.  It’s a web-based system, so you have access to your lists from any computer.

zenbe

The interface is super easy to use.  Once you’re logged in, just enter your blog post idea (or any list item) and it immediately gets added to your list.  The site uses lots of nifty ajax effects so everything updates really fast.  I can usually open up Zenbe, enter a list item, and get out within 10 seconds.

Zenbe has the perfect set of features, without over doing it.

You can manage multiple lists.  I currently have three lists.  One for each of my blogs.  Each list is collapsable for easy navigation.  You can also drag and drop list items to re-order them, plus mark items as checked, or delete them.

Zenbe on the iPhone

The thing that really makes this a useful tool in my arsenal, is the Zenbe iPhone application.  I believe its 2 or 3 bucks in the app store.

The iPhone version of Zenbe delivers all of the same features as the web version, with a very similar look and feel.  Add, edit, check, delete list items, create and manage lists… It’s all there on your iPhone.

Syncing is what makes it all worth it.  Hit the “Sync” button on the iPhone app and your lists are now totally synced with your Zenbe account on the web.  Nice.

Anyone else love Zenbe lists?

Managing Web Design Client Files

by Brian Casel  ·  5.31.2009  ·  Education, Opinion
picture-1

When managing a growing list of web design clients, it’s crucial to keep a system for storing all of the files associated with each client.  Just about everything we do in web design involves saving files – all different types of files.  Without a reliable folder struture, it’s easy to lose track of your work.  Organization avoids all sorts of problems.

The Benefits of Organization

Before I share my method of managing client files, I’d like to first point out the benefits of staying organized at all times.

  • You will never lose anything.  Obvious.
  • You know exactly where to look for a specific file.  Saves you time.
  • Your clients rely on you as their backup.  Lets be honest, most of our clients aren’t very organized.  That’s where you come in.  Reassurance that all of your client’s materials are secure in your hands is a great benefit, and it will keep them coming back to you for additional work.

Web Design Client Folder Structure

Here is how I set up every one of my web design clients.

I keep all of my clients files inside one folder, called WEBSITES.  I place this folder right on my desktop for easy access, and regularly back up this entire folder to two external hard drives.  Backing up your files is crucial.  More on this another time.

Each client gets their own folder.  Within that folder are four main sub-folders:

1) Design

This folder contains all design files.  Photoshop documents, Illustrator files, design comp screenshots.  I place the main design files at the top level of this folder (homepage.psd, second-level.psd, etc.).

Within the Design folder, I create a folder called “Production Graphics”.  This folder contains design files that are pieces of a larger design.  For example, sometimes I’ll create a PSD for creating a special type of thumbnail image that gets repeatedly created.  Or I might have a PSD for a complex header graphic that gets re-used with different content.

Then I’ll create sub folders for other design related stuff like “Logos”, “Screenshots”, “PDFs”, etc.

2) Development

This folder contains all of the development files.  These are the files that make up the client’s website.  The files and folder structure mirror the structure on the web server.  When I connect via FTP (usually the built in FTP client in Panic Coda), I preset it to open the Development folder on my local machine for easy file transferring with the web server.

3) Documents

This folder contains the project proposal, project contract(s), and any other legal documents.  I also use an online fax service, efax.com.  This folder contains the efax documents for this client.

4) Materials

Here is where I place all of the materials for the project.  These materials usually include raw copy documents provided by the client, unedited photos, guideline documents, and other production-related documents.

This folder can quickly get filled up, so it’s important to create sub-folders to organize this folder even further.  For example, I often create folders named “Photos”, “Copy”, “Feedback” (clients often provide feedback in word documents).

Important! Don’t put off placing your client’s materials in the Materials folder.  Things can get pretty hectic when your inbox gets jammed with client requests, projects are flying at you from every direction, and the tweets keep pouring in.  Don’t let that distract your mission of keeping all of your client’s files organized!  As soon as they email you a document, drop in the Materials folder for that client.  You can get working on it later, but at least you know where to find that file when you need it.  Plus, you will avoid an embarrasing phone call to the client asking them to resend the file because you lost it.

Google Documents

Lately I’ve been utilizing the power of Google Documents.  I usually make personal notes for each project and save them here for quick access from any of my computers (I’m up to three now : )  Again, I separate each client into their own folder within Google Docs.  Organization people!

Over to You

How do my methods for web design client file management differ from yours?  I’m always interested to hear how others do what they do, so please share your organizational tips in the comments section.

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