Starting Out – Things I’ve Learned as a Freelance Web Designer

In the 14 months I’ve been officially freelancing, I’ve learned so much. I’ve had the privilege of working with some truly remarkable people and companies. When doing what I do, it’s easy to lose track of time, so when I look back at some of the first designs I’ve made I can honestly say I’m improving, but there is definitely vast room to improve. Below are a few key elements which I have tried to follow while freelancing, and hopefully an aspiring designer can learn from even one of these tips.

Simplicity is Key

The designs you make between becoming relatively familiar with Photoshop and learning to create a worthwhile design, are often the worst. Because as you start learning different techniques in Photoshop, you naturally want to exhibit them through your work. But more often than not it just adds to the clutter of web designs people start out with. Watching Jon Ive talk about Apple products helped me understand the importance of simplicity and how to avoid it. And I have definitely made this mistake on more than one occasion.

For example, gradients are nice when used properly, but subtlety is key.  Using gradients that have similar colors, and that are perhaps only a few shades apart adds depth, without it looking overworked and cheap.

Familiarity is also important. When making a search form, people usually use a magnifying glass icon, because that image association is embedded our brains. It’s the same with colour. Green is for positive actions, red for warnings or excitement. These little things make seem unimportant but they really can make the difference between an alright site and a great site.

Work on your brand first

Its important to make a strong first impression when trying to find potential clients. That’s why your personal place on the web should encompass all your skills, all your ideas of what web design should be, and perhaps where you think it’s going. Don’t follow trends, set them.

If you are not able to make yourself look hire-able, how can you expect to create a site for clients who want to be. Some essential things to include on a personal site might be :

• Portfolio – Make sure this is updated as often as possible
• Services – Outline your services clearly and make sure you can do them all
• Testimonials – Ask clients for their opinion – it gives your site a bit of personality
• Contact Info – Pretty self-explanatory

Some of these sound pretty obvious, but it is surprising how many people forget the important things, especially when they are focused on making something look good, but without thinking about the end user, your missing the point of having a site in the first place.

Stay Frequent & Social

Things like Twitter and Facebook are great because they’ve brought blogging to the average Joe. They’re simple, fun and you can gain alot from it with only a few minutes of use a day. I dont have time to blog daily (or weekly for that matter), so when I have an idea, thought, or something to share, I tweet, or Share on Facebook. And the more I am active on these, more people come to my site. My SEO is fine, but I get a lot of referrals directly from Twitter and Facebook primarily because of my frequent postings on these services

Designing frequently is also important. Web Design isn’t a static career. Trends come and go, practices and frameworks are introduced weekly. Keeping up to date can set you apart from everyone else. Break the mould, and try to create a design as different as you can from the last. If you don’t have any clients right now, create something anyway, and hone your skills.

It’s not about what you want or even what the client wants

Its about what their end-user needs. A lot of clients seem to think that a 2 hour tutorial on Powerpoint gives them a creative advantage over you, but the fact is, they hired you to solve something for their users, not them. Yes, clients know more about their business, but they hired you for your expertise and you have to find a way to let them remember that. It’s alright to say no to clients, as long as you have reason to. Whether its regarding payment or a design suggestion, if they are wrong, and you know it, be straight and tell them (nicely though).They’ll thank you for your honesty.

Just remember that with every design you make,  its an opportunity to better yourself. Try to create something different. Every time that you open Photoshop is a chance to improve, to do something entirely different, to experiment, because you’ll never learn otherwise. Stop when you have to, or if you think your ruining something, and do something else. Have fun with web design, it’s not meant to be serious but to grab attention and excite people.

This is my ultimate career, and I can believe I’m doing it right now. Of course I have off days, and get sick of it from time-to-time, but I play around with colours and images all day – whats not to love?

The iPad Dilemma

As I start writing this, its 3am and in the 9 hours since Apple introduced the iPad, and I’ve been trying to figure out why I feel let down. Everything about the event was perfect. Steve Jobs, as usual, put on an excellent show. He could sell you a used mattress and you’d be leaving happy. The device however was an utter disappointment, and the reason Apple gave for selling it is even worse.

They say they are trying to bridge the gap between the smartphone and the portable computer, that it has to excel in key things like: Browsing, Email, Movies, Music,  eBooks. But Apple has forgotten that they have already made products that to these things, and they do them well.

Ask the User : What browser are you using right now?

I always love getting information to the most important people of blogs, the readers. Theyre the ones who take time out of their day to read my blog and for that I wanted to get some input from you guys.

The browser wars is a heated-argument, but I think generally its safe to say that nearly everyone in the know hates Internet Explorer. This week, I want to know “What browser you are using right now?”. Not the browser you prefer, or the browser you use generally, but the browser that you are visiting this site on.

Vote Below

[poll id="2"]

Happy 7000th Day

A few weeks ago, alot of bloggers talked about Wolfram Alpha, stuggling to find its usefulness. Some even went as far as listing pointless joke questions to ask the powerful yet young computational search engine. Things like “What is the meaning of life?” dont belong in this engine. What is both interesting and fun at the same time are often the simplest.

I typed in my birthday, “18 April 1990″ into WolframAlpha to find that the date was 6999days ago. Tomorrow I turn 7000 days old. Or 1000 weeks. Or if you really want to be boring 19 years old and 2 months.

Some other info about that day 7000 days ago:

• sunrise : 6:31 am GMT/IST
• sunset : 8:39 pm GMT/IST
• duration of daylight : 14 hours 8 minutes

I also learned that I have the same birthday as Conan O’ Brian, and America Ferrera (Ugly Betty).

So you see, Wolfram Alpha may only be for mathematicians and idiots for now, but you can get some use out of it. Just dont ask “Why did the chicken cross the road?”

Young Tweeters

Twitter has become a definitive service for the online community. While there is no doubt Twitter’s main demographic is 20 – 35, there has been a surge in the number of young visitors, and whether it is to catch up on the latest tech, sport, news or celebrity talk, I wanted to find out why. So I asked them.

Tommy Collison is the self-proclaimed “Irelands youngest blogger”, but he is also one of the most personal too. He writes on his blog TrustTommy.com daily and at 14 years of age he became an award-winning blogger at the Irish Blog Awards. He tweets about his non-chocolate diet, his drumming and toasters.

Kevin Coleman is Irelands newest young blogger, and at 16 years of age, he set up KevinColeman.ie a blog about sport, social networks and all things funny. He’s an extremely popolar tweeter with just over 500 followers.