|
| |
|
|
Nicole
Posts: 2992
Joined: 9/15/2004
From: Sydney, Australia
Status: offline
 |
What do you advise your clients? - 11/23/2004 1:47:17
Hi everyone,
I'm wondering how often you feel it's necessary to revamp a website and whether you advise this to your clients at all? Maybe a site has been online a long time and is going a bit stale (in your opinion OR according to site statistics), or maybe it's just one way we can create more work under the guise of telling a client it's a good way of staying ahead of their competitors? Maybe new technology or software is available now that wasn't available when the site was created or last underwent an overhaul?
I ask this for a reason as I started redesigning a Client's website almost 2 years ago, when my design skills were far below what they are now, and their site now looks very bland compared to how it could look, indeed i believe it's time for a new look. The thing is, it was a very extensive site, over 100 pages within it, and because of the time / financial limitations they put on me (to work on the site to a max. of 6 hours per month), the site was only finally completed in it's entirety in June this year. So the design is using my 2002 knowledge, yet the site was only completed 5 months ago, how can i convince them that it's time for a change?
Thanks
Nicole
p.s. I am considering redesigning it for nothing for them (and maybe i should to learn more and develop my skills and it's also a community organisation, but i certainly can't afford that right now, and there are so many pages that would have to be redesigned.
_____________________________
". . . and God created man in his image." errr, shouldn't that be "and man created God in his image'?
|
|
|
|
Giomanach
Posts: 6191
Joined: 11/19/2003
From: England
Status: offline
|
RE: What do you advise your clients? - 11/23/2004 3:38:26
Hi Nicole
I've never had the need to do this before, but here's how I would go about it:
1) Knock up a few new designs for the site, but create them as images, so the client can't steal off with the idea, and do it themselves..
2) With a polite, professional and diplomatic tone, contact the client, informing them that you wish to revamp the site, and give them the benefits, don't tell them it's gonna be a long haul, tell them you will be making it to a more aesthetically pleasing design, a more accessible design, and SEO the whole web, give them the benefits to them, not the downsides to you.
3) In the first contact (email/letter/phone call), do not inform them of any price range, this comes into play when they say "OK, we'll think about it, how much will you be charging?" Then, you can decide on a price for the revamp. I know you said you'd do it for free, but some companies will insist on paying.
4) Let them choose the design they want, I know this seems obvious, but I know a far few who didn't, and gave the client a design they wanted to throw away....
5) Where possible, use includes for ease of maintenance. If using FP, you can use FP Includes, but dependant on your server you may need to use ASP Includes, or PHP includes etc. This way, when you come to update the site, and you have done so properly, all you will need to to when editing header/nav is edit one file and it will change globally. Yes it's a lazy mans way, but god bless whoever invented includes!
6) Keep the same standards of professionalism throughout all of it.
I know some of that seems a bit obvious, but that's how I would go about it in a nutshell...
HTH
_____________________________
| |
|
|
|
paulie
Posts: 558
Status: offline
|
RE: What do you advise your clients? - 11/23/2004 8:00:13
Nicole,
Artistic people make artistic decisions; business people make business decisions. Read the first few pages worth of posts in the SEO forum here and you won't find many discussions of graphic design, except when discussing how to keep it from interfering with the optimization of your code.
My point is that in order to convince a client that their site needs a makeover, find a business reason that justifies it. If their site has no meta-tags, explain to them how search engines use those. If their site does a poor job of presenting their products or services, explain how it could be improved. If they could be providing a customer service component by adding some database functionality or a simple email form function, sell that.
In my experience, most clients know when their site has grown tired looking. But by then, they usually have a business idea that they are much more excited about than just new window dressing. Sell the functionality, SEO or layout improvements, and make the graphic redesign seem like an added bonus. When you total up the invoice, it will come out larger that way, and you will have a better chance of continued business with the client.
I just want to add that I've seen a number of your posts, and in my humble opinion, you're asking many of the right questions at this stage of the game. Stay with it, and best of luck to you.
Paul
_____________________________
| |
|
|
|
dpf
Posts: 7121
Joined: 11/12/2003
From: India-napolis
Status: offline
|
RE: What do you advise your clients? - 11/23/2004 10:37:17
Nicole:
Paulie makes excellent points! Consider this too - you have been playing with that site 2 years while learning more and more - they havent - they just got their site a few months ago and are pprobably happy with it! I maintain a site that was built several years ago by an add company with no css - lots of funky code - some FP pages, some hand done. It would serve them well to have it all with css except, from their vantage point, the eventual savings that would result from maintainance being easier are more than offset but what I would charge them to convert it - at least short run. so it awaits the eventual day when they want a redesign.
We have all watched you post lots of questions - well thought out and you are full of honesty but be careful in this situation. your obvious honesty may get you in trouble - you want to admit that their design is bland because your skills were not mature but what message does that send - about you. are there small things you could do to perk it up without a redesign? substitute some images etc. anyway, good luck
_____________________________
Dan
| |
|
 New Messages |
 No New Messages |
 Hot Topic w/ New Messages |
 Hot Topic w/o New Messages |
 Locked w/ New Messages |
 Locked w/o New Messages |
|
Post New Thread
Reply to Message
Post New Poll
Submit Vote
Delete My Own Post
Delete My Own Thread
Rate Posts
|
|
|
Printable Version 