“Most people think web design is a technical field. And, of course, it is — to some degree. But it’s also a creative field, and I don’t think most people understand this. When I tell people I’m a web designer, their response is often, “oh great, you can help me fix my printer.” Or, “oh, I have Dreamweaver, myself.” In other words, they believe we’re geeks. And maybe some of us are. They don’t seem to understand that a huge portion of what we do is design — layout, typography, color, communication, problem solving — these are the areas where we really earn our stripes. But clients hire us in much the same way as they hire a moving company. They say, “Put this over here, and that over there. Make this bigger. Now change this color.” They don’t realize these are the decisions that they’re paying us to make.“

- Jeff Croft, www.jeffcroft.com

I often ponder this topic when I get a client that “knows exactly what they want”, questions my rate or mentions they “could get so-and-so to do it for less”. Sometimes they really do know exactly what they want and things go incredibly smooth. Other times, nothing could be further from the truth. And when someone could do it for less, my response is to wonder why we’re talking.

Design for the web is an art, as are many other professional trades. It requires dicipline, knowledge and experience. Simple decisions can have a greater impact than initially thought. For instance, a low-contrast color scheme could dramatically decrease the ability of a color-blind visitor’s website experience. It could make buttons hard to find or links hard (or even impossible) to read. Using drop navigations or fly-out menus can reduce the usability of a website. The list goes on…

In Jeff’s post, he brings to memory when anyone could create a web page. It wasn’t that hard and expectations weren’t too high back in the early ’90’s. We had little animated gifs for ‘under construction’ and were infatuated by the ‘blink’ command in HTML. Secretaries or assistants often designed, created and updated the corporate website. No one gave much thought to the blind or those with vision impairment.

I was one of those people too. I have no formal background in design or programming but after 8 years, I have learned a great deal. I made the leap from hobbiest to professional though a lot of research and experience. But the days of knowing a little HTML and being a ‘professional web designer’ are over.

Jeff takes issue with the ability of novice “designers” or “programmers” selling their services or getting senior-level positions without persuing advancement in their craft. I agree with his observation. This issue confuses business owners and challenges the best designers to justify their price. It’s like someone buying a hammer and calling themselves a general contractor.

Read Jeff’s post…