Prelude to A Good Bad Design
It all starts with a website, someone needs a quick layout or a redesign, but don’t want to pay for the professional schooled designer to design a custom site for them….so they settle with a “stay at home mom” who did a website for Aunt Birtha’s Corner Bakery, then, next door neighbor Tony who has an automobile shop needed a website, who talked to Aunt Birtha, and asked the ” stay at home mom” to do a website. Suddenly that “stay at home mom” who plays with ” Facebook”, or a writes a blog thinks, “Uhmmm. This is easy way to make some money.” Without thought or reason, decides to do a little homework on how to web design online, runs down to local bookstore, picks up a book or two on design, gets a old copy of a photoshop and suddenly becomes the new little corner web designer.
The Stirring up
Thats where the problem begins. As these little “stay at home moms, turned web designers” start to do websites for the entire township at a quarter the cost than the professional, everyone who is trying to save a buck runs to her. As she starts to claim that she is different and better than the professional, the business owner who calls her for a quote thinks shes the expert. Again, All she did is think, ” this is a easy way to make a buck.” It starts to become a runaway train of “Good Bad Design”
The Loss of Good Design
The next stage of the bad design births out of the designer themselves. As her little company grows, she starts to wonder how to give some dynamic content and solutions to the ever salivating client who is demanding more. She then decides to hire a friend or someone who actually might have experience in the short life of web designers, since the internet for 10 years, but as we know it today has been a lot shorter than that. That designer then mentions a simple content editor such as Joomla, or Word Press. These two tools are great to use and originally made for simple sites and really not for growing businesses, even though many businesses use them, but beware if your site starts to look like everyone else, because someone else probably has the exact same site. This puts your branding at risk. Someone else already did design it, and all the homemaker has done is tweek it and called it custom. You truly do get what you pay for.
Downfall
The Downfall is when the client and the web designer together have gotten caught up in the “new norm” of what a website should do and be like. There is really nothing original about it. Aunt Birtha’s Bakery website and the next door neighbor’s website are identical, just a few different colors, links and logos, but under the hood, they are the same, with little effort. At first the new site is cool because it looks cool and functions great, and the designer praised but forgetting its a template from thousands upon thousands to choose from, for free. They forget it was designed somewhere else. And even at times, the designer gets tempted by someone else’s design to borrow the look as they say. It sometimes leads to stealing, its easy to even take someone else’s design that could be copy written or even trademarked. This could get the client into trouble and the designer. But if no-one catches it, the “homemaker turned designer” still claims that she does custom work and the client thinks its a custom site. Thats just not good business ethics.
Blackness
A lot of developers and designers also get caught up in the “Good Bad Design”. Even the professional sometimes thinks “uhmmm, I can make quick changes, graphically change it, repackage it, and within a few hours has a push button solution for the client”. It seems more and more fall into this practice. They work a 8 hour work day and treat their job like a everyday office job. The real work has been thrown away in the new web 2.0 world. What happens when the client wants something totally different? Can it be done? They are truly misinformed.They are restricted and may eventually leave because it wont do what they want it to do. This puts a bad name out there for all true designers who design from scratch who can easily change and expand the site according to clients needs.
The sad thing is that while the “homemakers” who designs starts to unravel her non-existent skills, someone else who is carpenter in the day and turned web designer at night starts the cycle all over again.
Recovering from Bad Design
Knowing that its everywhere, the business owner needs to be aware and make the right choice on not going to a ” fill-in-blank ” turned web design specialist” to begin with. By going to ” True Professional in the field” they will not be steered wrong and its in the interest of the designer to be truthful and honest to the client. In the long run, the client will trust you and probably remain loyal to the designer. The costs are higher, but so is the Return on Investment. The client should do their homework, they should:
1. Ask how long they have been in business?
2. Ask if they or their design team have a degree in graphics, website design, or IT.
3. Ask What’s his or hers Education?
4. Ask where else if any did they work at before designing websites.
5. They should ask, Do they draw, or have any other artistic ability.
6. Ask, How are their working habits?
7. Ask them, Do they work 9-5?
8. Ask them, Do they work full time at this or is this a part time gig for extra money?
9. Ask, Is it a passion or just a job?
Conclusion and Solutions
By the answers, you will see what is “True Design” and the difference to what is ” Good Bad Design” If you have any more thoughts or questions or need a free consultation, feel free to contact Newkey Media at www.newkeymedia.com
