I am currently taking a class in web page design in order to enhance my resume. I wanted to know the pros and cons any of you have encountered in building web pages for clients. Any suggestions?

Sommer

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Sommer

The biggest issue I've faced is that clients are not technical. Or perhaps they are just technical enough to be dangerous.

I had a client who made some minor changes in her CSS file. Problem was, she didn't download the current version first. Instead, she used an old version that was on her drive & blew away the current version when she uploaded it. The current version had hours & hours of my work!

She called me frantic, because her web pages were not displaying correctly. I scoffed cuz they were just fine the day before. When I looked, it took a couple years off my life. I talked to the client & got her to repeat her steps & I realized what she had done.

Fortunately, I had saved a copy. Backup everything & save everything!

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Lezly Harrison
Laserdog Productions - Code that Doesn't Bite

They shouldn't be messing with designer's work because they have no idea what they are doing. This is also the reason why they hire a designer in the first place, to do something they do not know how to do. It is weird that clients love to mess with the final product, as if they are trying to tell us that they are capable of doing the same thing but in the end, we still have to clean up their mess.

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Writing Consultation | creative writing, customer support, website maintenance

Originally Posted by dognose

The biggest issue I've faced is that clients are not technical. Or perhaps they are just technical enough to be dangerous. ...She called me frantic, because her web pages were not displaying correctly... Fortunately, I had saved a copy. Backup everything & save everything!

Oh my, can I relate, Lezly! A client of mine with a WP site changed the WP URL in Settings > General. Such a simple, innocuous thing. Not. It knocked her site down. Got a panicky email. Called her and let her know I would fix it, and not to panic. Recovered her site and then had a nice lil friendly discussion with her afterwords.

Also have had clients change the CSS and really muck things up. Oy. Backups are our friend. As a designer, that is a great bit of advice to adhere to.

Another thing to do is to add a LOT of commenting in the code so they know what will change if they edit any of it. But even then, a forgotten ; or } or capitalization or misspelling in a div or class, etc. can cause problems. That's when we get to step in and "save the day."

Gotta love it!

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Jules, SunRise Virtual Solutions - WordPress Customization & XHTML/CSS Web Sites

I had thought about taking a class to make I was somewhat up to date before I put that I could create and not just maintain

I usually work with the programmers as an assistant and have heard the rants and raves about clients touching/messing up code. How frustrating for you all, thank goodness for backups! I am interested in web page design classes, suggestions? Would you guys think local CC courses are best or online webinars or??

My advice would be to download the free trial of Dreamweaver from Adobe's web site then head over to W3 Schools.

Step through the HTML tutorials, then the CSS. There are a bunch of online examples that you can play with to see what each command does - then use Dreamweaver to try and replicate the examples and build a small site.

Originally Posted by Business Cornerstone Services

My advice would be to download the free trial of Dreamweaver from Adobe's web site then head over to W3 Schools. Step through the HTML tutorials, then the CSS. There are a bunch of online examples that you can play with to see what each command does - then use Dreamweaver to try and replicate the examples and build a small site.

I agree! Dreamweaver is a good program and I love, love W3 Schools site. Good Luck and remember to have fun and just play around to see how things work before starting on a client's page .

Thanks for the tip on the W3 Schools. I think that will come in handy.

Originally Posted by dognose

The biggest issue I've faced is that clients are not technical. Or perhaps they are just technical enough to be dangerous. I had a client who made some minor changes in her CSS file. Problem was, she didn't download the current version first. Instead, she used an old version that was on her drive & blew away the current version when she uploaded it. The current version had hours & hours of my work! She called me frantic, because her web pages were not displaying correctly. I scoffed cuz they were just fine the day before. When I looked, it took a couple years off my life. I talked to the client & got her to repeat her steps & I realized what she had done. Fortunately, I had saved a copy. Backup everything & save everything!

Yikes! That's what they call knowing just enough to be dangerous. I've started changing the permissions on the custom CSS file after I've made changes so that it's no longer writable by the client.
I love that WordPress gives the option of giving the client an Editor user role rather than Administrator, they still have total control over their pages and posts but can't mess with the inner workings.

One of the issues I deal with is the client's that can't seem to decide what they want. They start off with certain wants and then keep adding more or decide mid stream that they want to go in a completely different direction. You have to set limits in these type of situations early. I put as much detail about the creation of the website as possible in the contract, that way if things start to get out of hand I can explain that its going to cost more due to the additional time involved.


It's also frustrating when they insist upon something that you know isn't a good choice (like adding flash to their home page) ugh!!
In these cases you can only explain why you wouldn't recommend it, but be willing to do what the client wants.

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~Tina Marie Hilton of Clerical Advantage
& founder of VA Survival School