Web Design 101
-
Here's a tiny WTF to start the week...
Back when I had first got a job, was clueless and was struggling to build my first commercial website it was becoming evident that while I had the technical details down, the actual graphics design was not something I specialized in. As such my boss decided to take this matter to a design company we've used in the past. Now when I say design company I don't mean web design. These people would design advertisement fliers, expo kiosks, business cards and the like. However my boss decided that we should let them design the site menubar, which was basically a bunch of navigation buttons on the side of the pages. So we had a meeting to discuss this which went a bit like this...
Me: we just want a bunch of button which we'll then use to take us to different pages.
Them: Ok. how many will there be?
Me: 4 now and we'll be adding a couple more later on when we add the extra sections of the site.
Them: That's a problem. We'll need to know in advance how many buttons there are.
Me: Right.... like I said the buttons will change.
Them: Ok, we'll put them all in now and we'll have the ones that don't go anywhere yet to point to pages that say "Under development".
Me: <explains why having an "under construction" page in a live commercial site is A Stupid Idea>
Them: *blink* Ah.
Eventually they said they'd work on it and give us an offer. A week or so later they made an offer to make the graphics for the menu bar for 800 euros. We didn't take it.
-
Ah yes, the web-clueless graphic designer.
Many are the times where I've received a design in AI or pseudo-PSD (exported form AI anyway), with practically ZERO edges aligned to pixels. In fact, the last time, a row of icons didn't match both horizontally and vertically by as much as 2 pixels.
I waste time when I have to partially remaster the layout.
It's not that they're ugly designs. They're just rarely fit for an immediate slice job. It's a pet peeve.
-
@dhromed said:
It's a pet peeve
Are you kidding? I have wet dreams about the day I get to work with a graphics designer who can add his stuff to the project by himself. Surely learning to use of the many template systems out there can't be that dificult...
-
@DOA said:
Eventually they said they'd work on it and give us an offer. A week or so later they made an offer to make the graphics for the menu bar for 800 euros. We didn't take it.
Ah yes, graphic designers. Back when I was young and stupid, I was trying to run my own company. We needed some mailing leaflets, and our secretary said she had a friend who was a graphics designer. Naively, I agreed to let him suggest a design. A few days later, he turns up with an A4 sheet of paper, folded into three, with some rough pencil sketches for content (OK, this was before cheap PCs). He charged 400 pounds for that - which was a month's salary for me at the time. I know, I should have got a quote - look, I [b]said[/b] I was young and stupid !As for the bozo who does that stuff for my present employer - does a six-figure sum for what is essentially an instruction manual sound wrong ?
-
'Web'-designers working with AI, I have five years experience with those people and working with their designs!
Their 'workflow' always results in a patchwork of automatically created layers with manually aligned elements (working very precise means: zooming in to 1600% and then aligning manually), embedded texts converted to outlines (try to translate those texts!), slightly slanted lines (somehow they never get the hang of drawing perfectly straight 90 and 45 degree angles) and oval 'circles'. The worst thing are imported bitmaps, scaled without regard for their exact aspect ratio.
I once completely redrew the whole design in Photoshop, pixel by pixel. The result is still on-line: check GEOS. It's obvious that the icons for Scope through News haven't been redesigned.
-
A graphic designer I used said that they refused to ever underline hyperlinks, as it looks so unprofessional! You've gotta luv'em!
They have the ability to create un-useable websites like this one www.shark-design.co.uk
I think that site needs a WTF all of its own.
-
Ah... Graphic designers... The (not so) fond memories.
Once a design firm tried to charge 1000€ to change the background color in a flash animation.
Why? Cause it was final art (as in the print trade) and so it costed extra.
-
@Gabelstaplerfahrer said:
The result is still on-line: check GEOS.
This is very very unsexy.
I'm grateful that I work with competent designers/stylists.
-
@dhromed said:
Ah yes, the web-clueless graphic designer.
For a while I worked with a graphic designer who couldn't make the transition from print->screen, at all. I'd ask for a button or graphic for a site our employer had us building, and she'd ask how many inches it should be.
-
@citizen10bears said:
A graphic designer I used said that they refused to ever underline hyperlinks, as it looks so unprofessional! You've gotta luv'em!
They have the ability to create un-useable websites like this one www.shark-design.co.uk
I think that site needs a WTF all of its own.
WTF, indeed. They seriously need to read "Don't Make Me Think"
