Website development - from the first meeting with the customer to the delivery of the project, or how to be a freelancer and survive
Hi, Habr!
I develop websites - of different scale, complexity and price categories. Besides the fact that I lead the whole development process - i.e. I conduct all negotiations with the customer, I write a technical task (hereinafter - TZ), an agreement, I come up with a commercial offer, I often draw the website design myself - this is my core profession, and so far there hasn’t been a designer whom I could completely trust.
Here a lot of topics jumped about how to make TK correctly, manage your time, talk with customers about payment, negotiate, etc. Not in spite of the authors of these topics, but all these thoughts sometimes looked scattered to me, and the speech, sometimes, was about too "high matters" and somewhat one-sided - that is, in most cases it is implied that either you already have your own " a young, dynamically developing company ”with a certain staff of full-time payroll employees, or you are a hired employee-manager in an already formed company, and you also have the staff described above.
')
I will try to describe the whole process of creating a site with my own and, as it seems to me, more close to life for most points of view. Just at one moment I decided to leave the company where I worked for hire and start doing my job - without start-up capital, an office, and any cover of the “fifth point”; Is that the lack of urgent need for renting housing and the availability of St. Petersburg registration.
Who cares - welcome under the cat!
As part of this topic, I will not go into where to take orders. One thing I can say for sure - I do not work and do not plan to work as a performer with popular Russian freelance exchanges (the names and addresses of which, I believe, are known to everyone here). The main reason is the presence of unhealthy price dumping and the concentration of not quite adequate comrades who want to get a portal of Yandex.ru scale for these dumping prices.
I can also say that word of mouth and a good reputation can work wonders. Customers come and go, but sometimes among them there are those who begin to appreciate the sense of duty in you, or the quality of work, or even this - and then begin to regularly supply work.
Such customers, if they regularly have tasks that are feasible for your capacities, provide stability and some semblance of confidence in the future. So stability with “turnover” - and super-profits bring exactly new projects. I, in most cases, are sites.
So, here it is, my scheme of work on a new project:
Consider the stages in more detail.
About acquaintance and where orders come from, I already wrote a little bit higher. I will say one more thing: the customer can later become your friend, but I highly recommend you not making friends of customers or performers - most likely, you quarrel, ruin your relationship and screw up the project, and you will lose a friend. Checked more than once by their own hard experience.
So, you met a man who really needs a website. Find out about what he needs and whether you can help him with it, and then immediately make an appointment. No matter how many times there is talk about the fact that now is the 21st century, there is Skype, everything can be solved remotely, etc. - Direct contact is very important. For the customer to believe in you and not be afraid to give you prepaid money, you must make a good impression on him.
I love to meet in good cafes and restaurants in the city center. The institution should not be noisy and the presence of Wi-Fi is desirable. Such establishments will relax both you and the customer, transfer the communication to a more relaxed way, you calmly discuss everything and understand what the customer wants from you. The opposite is a mid-day meeting at the customer’s office. He, as a rule, is completely focused on his daily routine, he is constantly distracted, and it is very difficult to establish a constructive dialogue. From such meetings, if they do occur, I always go out with a sore head.
When you make an appointment, take into account the wishes of the customer about the place and time, but do not bend over too much - you are equal partners and the time and place of the meeting should be convenient for him and you. Dress decently and push yourself to the agreed meeting place. I like to come at least half an hour - firstly, I am sure that I will not be late, and secondly, I have time to sit down quietly, order a cup of coffee, relax, open a laptop and read the latest news / think about what you are going to talk about. .
Listen carefully to what the customer will tell you. Make a brief summary of his main theses either on a laptop or in a notebook with a pencil. Ask clarifying questions. Smile, look confident. On the question of the approximate timing - you can assume. For questions about the price - dodge, say that everything must first be calculated. Drink another tea, pay (do not skimp on the tip), say goodbye to the customer and go home. At home for a cup of coffee, read your verses written during the meeting, start your favorite email client and start writing a brief.
The brief includes a brief textual summary of what you discussed at the meeting. In essence, it will subsequently be based on TK. Decorate it with a beautiful literary language, but without “water” and verbiage. Have written? Fine! Now the most interesting is the commercial offer.
Read the brief again. Show it to your contractors who will do the project with you. Let them name their approximate price for such work. Add here your cost price as a specialist (designer, in my case). And now once again analyze everything and add commercial interest. When calculating it, proceed from the customer's solvency - and not in terms of the fact that if he is “rich Buratino”, then you can cut it without shame and conscience — on the contrary, if you see that he, like you, is at the dawn of his business it will be appropriate to “move a little” in price - virtue is always good; consider also his psychological portrait that you were supposed to create during the meeting - think for how likely he will “torture” you with unreasonable changes, or ask to put a photo of your beloved cat on the home page of the site by adding sparkling eyes animation on js. Well, in general, do not make a bad bargain. Work brings pleasure when you know that it will be adequately paid.
Determine the price? Make a beautifully designed PDF with your logo (if there is no logo, it doesn’t matter, but do it better or order it), with a heading like “Commercial offer for the development of the site www.domain.com ). In the KP body, describe the stages of work on the site (like I did a little higher). It must be clearly understood at what time and how much the customer must pay! Yes, you can include any bonuses in KP. Be sure to indicate with a bonus that you are ready to conduct training on working with the site’s admin panel for as many hours as the project is completed. You can give the customer a year of hosting. For money a trifle, but a person will be pleased.
Yes, and, of course, indicate the price at which your services will cost the customer. At this point, it should be clearly formed in your head.
Attach a manual to the letter with the brief and send it to the customer. Wait for an answer. Do not answer in a day - call back and ask if he received a brief and a KP? Ah, he, it turns out, was leaving for an urgent business trip - and we are worried where he went. We are waiting for more! And now the phone is ringing, or a new line appears in the list of letters, highlighted in bold.
The following are two scenarios:
1) “Expensive!”, Says. “And what amount did you expect?”, We ask.
a) “Well, 20% of what you wrote“ answers. “I was glad to have dinner with you. See you soon! “- we answer and politely say goodbye. But in general, it happens rarely - to exclude such situations and a personal meeting in a cafe, which I wrote above, is called to.
b) “Approximately 70-90% of what you wrote“ answers. We say that we will call you back. Rule the price tag in KP, if possible. We send. We wait. This is followed by a return to option “1)“ or a transition to option “2)”.
2) “Everything is fine, we are working,” says. We restrain our emotions and agree on a second meeting with the prepayment and the signing of the contract.
How to draw up a contract in detail, I will not tell you. Honestly, I took it to the company where I once worked, and modified it to fit my needs, after which I showed my lawyer to my friend. In the contract it is necessary to prescribe the deadlines for the stages of commissioning the site: the TK, the layout of the main page, the layout of the remaining pages, the finished site. In addition, indicate how much time the customer has to think about the coordination of these stages. In terms of time, do not forget to phone and agree with the customer.
Print the contract in duplicate and go to the meeting. Sign a contract with him and resolve the issue with the payment of the first stage (in my case, I repeat, this is 30% of the total cost of the work). Say goodbye to the customer and tell him that he will soon see the TK on his future beautiful website.
After this stage, I love to reward myself with something. You can buy some kind of trinket, you can go to the movies with a friend, or you can just eat ice cream and be happy. The main thing to note is that you are well done and that things have shifted and "gone, gone."
Now is the time to write TK. Open the brief that you sent to the customer. Describe the short purpose of the site, its target audience, the customer's wishes for the composition and colors. Make a list of layouts that you (or your designer) have to draw. After that, I usually take a notebook with graph paper and draw block prototypes of all the pages with a pencil. After that, I describe in detail for each page the list of elements on them and the events that occur when the user interacts with them. Also, I separately describe the repeating elements of the pages, such as the header of the site and the footer, so that each time they are not described for each page. Communicating with the programmer, you probably already decided what CMS will be used for the site. If in her admin you need some unique modules / pages, describe them too. Be sure to write a note that the stylistic design of the admin site is at your discretion - if so, of course. This will warn the customer from surprise that the domain.ru/admin link will see the standard Joomla / Wordpress / Your CMS styles, not the hypercosmos you drew for the front-end part of the site (again, if you did not agree on friend).
Describe the minimum requirements for browsers, the minimum width of the browser window and other technical requirements for the system on which the site will be viewed. Say that you are not responsible for additional software installed on the customer’s computer, which may affect the display of the site. The simplest example is the Skype plugin for the browser, which turns the phone numbers recorded in text into call buttons, which, ultimately, technically changes the design of the site.
Do not forget to write about the fact that the site will be filled with test content, and that the full content of the site is not included in this TK (if so). Filling the site is usually a separate work and is performed after the delivery of the site as part of an additional agreement (if the customer does not assume the content of the site, which happens most often).
Try to take into account all the details in the TZ. In the case of disputes and unreasonable “submission”, it, along with the contract, will be your main trump card and argument. Yes, and your contractors you simplify the work by formalizing absolutely all the details of the project.
Subsequently, you will surely come to the conclusion that each subsequent TK will be made on the basis of the previous one, by making adjustments - however, most of the small sites and requirements for them are very similar. Thus, your TK will become more and more overgrown with details, details and notes, becoming more and more correct, solid and serious.
So, re-read your TZ, then send it to the customer. Wait for his answer, discuss it with him, make adjustments - and, ultimately, you will approve it.
The next step is drawing the layout of the main page. If you are a designer, then without me you know what to do. If not, then send the TK designer and scanned prototypes of the site pages (well, or just send it if you didn’t originally draw them on paper, but in a special software). In addition to this, meet with them or call and discuss everything additionally and in words so that there is no misunderstanding.
Lyrical digression. Sometimes the customer asks us, or the contractor asks the designer to draw several design options for the site so that he can choose the right one and work with him further.
I find this completely unacceptable. When you come to the hairdresser you ask to be trimmed three times so that you can choose a suitable haircut for yourself? No, you look at the pictures on the walls or the catalog from which you choose what suits you best. Are you asking the plumber to put you three different toilets, so that you choose the one that is more comfortable to sit on? No, you are shopping plumbers, looking at the toilet, choose the most suitable and buy it, in consultation with the plumber just about where he will lay the pipes.
Three site layouts are triple work. Triple work is paid triple. This time. Even if you ask the designer to draw three different layouts, most likely he, being an expert in his field, whom you trust (otherwise why did you hire him?) Will draw one correct and thoughtful from his professional point of view layout, and two “sucked from the finger”. These are two.
He is a designer, and his sense of taste is objectively to the best of his professionalism and experience. You are not a designer, and your sense of taste is subjective. You can play Russian Roulette and choose from these three layouts the one that is sucked out of your finger, because you will like it - but not most of the site visitors the designer was targeting and in order to create a positive image of your company in whose eyes site is created. The result - you overpaid for the extra layouts and got a bad design that only you and your wife like. Did you want this?
All this should be explained in a softer manner to the customer in the event of this kind of questions. Usually, this is enough.
Let's go back to the layout itself. Check with the programmer and tell the designer what Captcha will be used on the site, which lightbox clone will open the pictures, do you need to make forms with jQuery UI? Let him immediately use these elements in his layouts.
Wait for the layout from the designer, but do not rush to send to the customer - check that everything is smooth, neat and corresponds to the TK. All OK? Submit. Send edits from the customer? Check with them and TK. If everything is adequate and within the framework of the initial agreements, make corrections and send. As a rule, 1-2 iterations of edits - and the layout of the main page is approved.
Similarly, after the approval of the main page, the rest of the site’s pages are approved. Do not forget only at the end to ask the designer to send you the colors of the links in hover-states, include buttons in hover and down states in PSD-files, examples of drop-down menus and design of lightbox-windows and other elements, if any, you use.
According to the prepaid work of the designer - your business. I usually pay a deposit of 50% before starting work, and the remaining 50% after. With the programmer and coder (if it is separate) - the same scheme.
So, the design is approved and made. The time of the next prepayment stage is 30%! Pay off with the designer and throw prepaid money to the programmer. Send him TK and PSD files of site layouts. Also meet / talk to him and discuss everything in detail.
It is very difficult for a programmer to evaluate and track the work of a programmer. It either works or does not work. But the layout is easy to check. Take screenshots of the web site in different browsers and put them on the layouts in the graphical editor. Do not converge? Show it to the coder - let him do it.
Go to the admin area and try to do some standard operations - add an article, upload a photo, add news. Everything should work. Now you can do the test content yourself.
When I see how some fill the sites with test content in the form of text “Test test test test test test test test test test test test” and the same “pixel” and “artifact” photo for all occasions, I want to take ... take a deep breath. A site is a product, a product that you sell. A product must have a presentation, otherwise it will not buy. No desire to write from the head "fish" texts for test articles and news? For Latin there is Lorem ipsum , and for Cyrillic I like Yandex . Spring . Various photos for articles and news can be found in Google images .
Make some test news, test articles. Put in the text hyphens, tabs. Dilute large text blocks with links , bold and italics . Use numbered lists. Show to the customer that you tried on his project, and did not do everything “tyap-lyap” - believe me, he will appreciate it!
All is ready? Not a site, but a sweetie? Throw a link to the customer, let him watch. Answer all his questions. If there are changes, consult the TK, with the approved layouts and make the right decision.
Finally, agree on the last meeting, close the work and take the remaining 40% of the cost of the site. You and your partners deserve them! And yes, do not forget to commemorate the delivery of the project with your people! Very correct tradition.
What else do you want to say?
What else to say - I myself at the beginning of my journey, because I work for myself until about a year. I also have many problems - I do not have enough time for anything, first of all, to systematize my portfolio and create my own website. Artists also often fail with quality and with terms - sometimes you have to edit the layout, the code yourself, tell them about various technologies.
In general, I would love to discuss all this in the comments.
Thanks for attention!
UPD: And thanks for the invite, friends!
I develop websites - of different scale, complexity and price categories. Besides the fact that I lead the whole development process - i.e. I conduct all negotiations with the customer, I write a technical task (hereinafter - TZ), an agreement, I come up with a commercial offer, I often draw the website design myself - this is my core profession, and so far there hasn’t been a designer whom I could completely trust.
Here a lot of topics jumped about how to make TK correctly, manage your time, talk with customers about payment, negotiate, etc. Not in spite of the authors of these topics, but all these thoughts sometimes looked scattered to me, and the speech, sometimes, was about too "high matters" and somewhat one-sided - that is, in most cases it is implied that either you already have your own " a young, dynamically developing company ”with a certain staff of full-time payroll employees, or you are a hired employee-manager in an already formed company, and you also have the staff described above.
')
I will try to describe the whole process of creating a site with my own and, as it seems to me, more close to life for most points of view. Just at one moment I decided to leave the company where I worked for hire and start doing my job - without start-up capital, an office, and any cover of the “fifth point”; Is that the lack of urgent need for renting housing and the availability of St. Petersburg registration.
Who cares - welcome under the cat!
As part of this topic, I will not go into where to take orders. One thing I can say for sure - I do not work and do not plan to work as a performer with popular Russian freelance exchanges (the names and addresses of which, I believe, are known to everyone here). The main reason is the presence of unhealthy price dumping and the concentration of not quite adequate comrades who want to get a portal of Yandex.ru scale for these dumping prices.
I can also say that word of mouth and a good reputation can work wonders. Customers come and go, but sometimes among them there are those who begin to appreciate the sense of duty in you, or the quality of work, or even this - and then begin to regularly supply work.
Such customers, if they regularly have tasks that are feasible for your capacities, provide stability and some semblance of confidence in the future. So stability with “turnover” - and super-profits bring exactly new projects. I, in most cases, are sites.
So, here it is, my scheme of work on a new project:
- Acquaintance
- First meeting, discussion of the project
- Brief and commercial offer
- The second meeting, the signing of the contract, prepayment 30%
- TK, his statement
- Layout of the main page, its adjustment and approval
- Layouts of the remaining pages of the site based on the style, specified by the main page, their adjustment and approval
- Prepayment 30%
- Layout and programming. Acceptance and approval of work results
- The third meeting, the payment of the remaining 40%, training to work with the admin panel (if necessary), the closure of work under the contract
- Transfer website to "combat" hosting
Consider the stages in more detail.
About acquaintance and where orders come from, I already wrote a little bit higher. I will say one more thing: the customer can later become your friend, but I highly recommend you not making friends of customers or performers - most likely, you quarrel, ruin your relationship and screw up the project, and you will lose a friend. Checked more than once by their own hard experience.
So, you met a man who really needs a website. Find out about what he needs and whether you can help him with it, and then immediately make an appointment. No matter how many times there is talk about the fact that now is the 21st century, there is Skype, everything can be solved remotely, etc. - Direct contact is very important. For the customer to believe in you and not be afraid to give you prepaid money, you must make a good impression on him.
I love to meet in good cafes and restaurants in the city center. The institution should not be noisy and the presence of Wi-Fi is desirable. Such establishments will relax both you and the customer, transfer the communication to a more relaxed way, you calmly discuss everything and understand what the customer wants from you. The opposite is a mid-day meeting at the customer’s office. He, as a rule, is completely focused on his daily routine, he is constantly distracted, and it is very difficult to establish a constructive dialogue. From such meetings, if they do occur, I always go out with a sore head.
When you make an appointment, take into account the wishes of the customer about the place and time, but do not bend over too much - you are equal partners and the time and place of the meeting should be convenient for him and you. Dress decently and push yourself to the agreed meeting place. I like to come at least half an hour - firstly, I am sure that I will not be late, and secondly, I have time to sit down quietly, order a cup of coffee, relax, open a laptop and read the latest news / think about what you are going to talk about. .
Listen carefully to what the customer will tell you. Make a brief summary of his main theses either on a laptop or in a notebook with a pencil. Ask clarifying questions. Smile, look confident. On the question of the approximate timing - you can assume. For questions about the price - dodge, say that everything must first be calculated. Drink another tea, pay (do not skimp on the tip), say goodbye to the customer and go home. At home for a cup of coffee, read your verses written during the meeting, start your favorite email client and start writing a brief.
The brief includes a brief textual summary of what you discussed at the meeting. In essence, it will subsequently be based on TK. Decorate it with a beautiful literary language, but without “water” and verbiage. Have written? Fine! Now the most interesting is the commercial offer.
Read the brief again. Show it to your contractors who will do the project with you. Let them name their approximate price for such work. Add here your cost price as a specialist (designer, in my case). And now once again analyze everything and add commercial interest. When calculating it, proceed from the customer's solvency - and not in terms of the fact that if he is “rich Buratino”, then you can cut it without shame and conscience — on the contrary, if you see that he, like you, is at the dawn of his business it will be appropriate to “move a little” in price - virtue is always good; consider also his psychological portrait that you were supposed to create during the meeting - think for how likely he will “torture” you with unreasonable changes, or ask to put a photo of your beloved cat on the home page of the site by adding sparkling eyes animation on js. Well, in general, do not make a bad bargain. Work brings pleasure when you know that it will be adequately paid.
Determine the price? Make a beautifully designed PDF with your logo (if there is no logo, it doesn’t matter, but do it better or order it), with a heading like “Commercial offer for the development of the site www.domain.com ). In the KP body, describe the stages of work on the site (like I did a little higher). It must be clearly understood at what time and how much the customer must pay! Yes, you can include any bonuses in KP. Be sure to indicate with a bonus that you are ready to conduct training on working with the site’s admin panel for as many hours as the project is completed. You can give the customer a year of hosting. For money a trifle, but a person will be pleased.
Yes, and, of course, indicate the price at which your services will cost the customer. At this point, it should be clearly formed in your head.
Attach a manual to the letter with the brief and send it to the customer. Wait for an answer. Do not answer in a day - call back and ask if he received a brief and a KP? Ah, he, it turns out, was leaving for an urgent business trip - and we are worried where he went. We are waiting for more! And now the phone is ringing, or a new line appears in the list of letters, highlighted in bold.
The following are two scenarios:
1) “Expensive!”, Says. “And what amount did you expect?”, We ask.
a) “Well, 20% of what you wrote“ answers. “I was glad to have dinner with you. See you soon! “- we answer and politely say goodbye. But in general, it happens rarely - to exclude such situations and a personal meeting in a cafe, which I wrote above, is called to.
b) “Approximately 70-90% of what you wrote“ answers. We say that we will call you back. Rule the price tag in KP, if possible. We send. We wait. This is followed by a return to option “1)“ or a transition to option “2)”.
2) “Everything is fine, we are working,” says. We restrain our emotions and agree on a second meeting with the prepayment and the signing of the contract.
How to draw up a contract in detail, I will not tell you. Honestly, I took it to the company where I once worked, and modified it to fit my needs, after which I showed my lawyer to my friend. In the contract it is necessary to prescribe the deadlines for the stages of commissioning the site: the TK, the layout of the main page, the layout of the remaining pages, the finished site. In addition, indicate how much time the customer has to think about the coordination of these stages. In terms of time, do not forget to phone and agree with the customer.
Print the contract in duplicate and go to the meeting. Sign a contract with him and resolve the issue with the payment of the first stage (in my case, I repeat, this is 30% of the total cost of the work). Say goodbye to the customer and tell him that he will soon see the TK on his future beautiful website.
After this stage, I love to reward myself with something. You can buy some kind of trinket, you can go to the movies with a friend, or you can just eat ice cream and be happy. The main thing to note is that you are well done and that things have shifted and "gone, gone."
Now is the time to write TK. Open the brief that you sent to the customer. Describe the short purpose of the site, its target audience, the customer's wishes for the composition and colors. Make a list of layouts that you (or your designer) have to draw. After that, I usually take a notebook with graph paper and draw block prototypes of all the pages with a pencil. After that, I describe in detail for each page the list of elements on them and the events that occur when the user interacts with them. Also, I separately describe the repeating elements of the pages, such as the header of the site and the footer, so that each time they are not described for each page. Communicating with the programmer, you probably already decided what CMS will be used for the site. If in her admin you need some unique modules / pages, describe them too. Be sure to write a note that the stylistic design of the admin site is at your discretion - if so, of course. This will warn the customer from surprise that the domain.ru/admin link will see the standard Joomla / Wordpress / Your CMS styles, not the hypercosmos you drew for the front-end part of the site (again, if you did not agree on friend).
Describe the minimum requirements for browsers, the minimum width of the browser window and other technical requirements for the system on which the site will be viewed. Say that you are not responsible for additional software installed on the customer’s computer, which may affect the display of the site. The simplest example is the Skype plugin for the browser, which turns the phone numbers recorded in text into call buttons, which, ultimately, technically changes the design of the site.
Do not forget to write about the fact that the site will be filled with test content, and that the full content of the site is not included in this TK (if so). Filling the site is usually a separate work and is performed after the delivery of the site as part of an additional agreement (if the customer does not assume the content of the site, which happens most often).
Try to take into account all the details in the TZ. In the case of disputes and unreasonable “submission”, it, along with the contract, will be your main trump card and argument. Yes, and your contractors you simplify the work by formalizing absolutely all the details of the project.
Subsequently, you will surely come to the conclusion that each subsequent TK will be made on the basis of the previous one, by making adjustments - however, most of the small sites and requirements for them are very similar. Thus, your TK will become more and more overgrown with details, details and notes, becoming more and more correct, solid and serious.
So, re-read your TZ, then send it to the customer. Wait for his answer, discuss it with him, make adjustments - and, ultimately, you will approve it.
The next step is drawing the layout of the main page. If you are a designer, then without me you know what to do. If not, then send the TK designer and scanned prototypes of the site pages (well, or just send it if you didn’t originally draw them on paper, but in a special software). In addition to this, meet with them or call and discuss everything additionally and in words so that there is no misunderstanding.
Lyrical digression. Sometimes the customer asks us, or the contractor asks the designer to draw several design options for the site so that he can choose the right one and work with him further.
I find this completely unacceptable. When you come to the hairdresser you ask to be trimmed three times so that you can choose a suitable haircut for yourself? No, you look at the pictures on the walls or the catalog from which you choose what suits you best. Are you asking the plumber to put you three different toilets, so that you choose the one that is more comfortable to sit on? No, you are shopping plumbers, looking at the toilet, choose the most suitable and buy it, in consultation with the plumber just about where he will lay the pipes.
Three site layouts are triple work. Triple work is paid triple. This time. Even if you ask the designer to draw three different layouts, most likely he, being an expert in his field, whom you trust (otherwise why did you hire him?) Will draw one correct and thoughtful from his professional point of view layout, and two “sucked from the finger”. These are two.
He is a designer, and his sense of taste is objectively to the best of his professionalism and experience. You are not a designer, and your sense of taste is subjective. You can play Russian Roulette and choose from these three layouts the one that is sucked out of your finger, because you will like it - but not most of the site visitors the designer was targeting and in order to create a positive image of your company in whose eyes site is created. The result - you overpaid for the extra layouts and got a bad design that only you and your wife like. Did you want this?
All this should be explained in a softer manner to the customer in the event of this kind of questions. Usually, this is enough.
Let's go back to the layout itself. Check with the programmer and tell the designer what Captcha will be used on the site, which lightbox clone will open the pictures, do you need to make forms with jQuery UI? Let him immediately use these elements in his layouts.
Wait for the layout from the designer, but do not rush to send to the customer - check that everything is smooth, neat and corresponds to the TK. All OK? Submit. Send edits from the customer? Check with them and TK. If everything is adequate and within the framework of the initial agreements, make corrections and send. As a rule, 1-2 iterations of edits - and the layout of the main page is approved.
Similarly, after the approval of the main page, the rest of the site’s pages are approved. Do not forget only at the end to ask the designer to send you the colors of the links in hover-states, include buttons in hover and down states in PSD-files, examples of drop-down menus and design of lightbox-windows and other elements, if any, you use.
According to the prepaid work of the designer - your business. I usually pay a deposit of 50% before starting work, and the remaining 50% after. With the programmer and coder (if it is separate) - the same scheme.
So, the design is approved and made. The time of the next prepayment stage is 30%! Pay off with the designer and throw prepaid money to the programmer. Send him TK and PSD files of site layouts. Also meet / talk to him and discuss everything in detail.
It is very difficult for a programmer to evaluate and track the work of a programmer. It either works or does not work. But the layout is easy to check. Take screenshots of the web site in different browsers and put them on the layouts in the graphical editor. Do not converge? Show it to the coder - let him do it.
Go to the admin area and try to do some standard operations - add an article, upload a photo, add news. Everything should work. Now you can do the test content yourself.
When I see how some fill the sites with test content in the form of text “Test test test test test test test test test test test test” and the same “pixel” and “artifact” photo for all occasions, I want to take ... take a deep breath. A site is a product, a product that you sell. A product must have a presentation, otherwise it will not buy. No desire to write from the head "fish" texts for test articles and news? For Latin there is Lorem ipsum , and for Cyrillic I like Yandex . Spring . Various photos for articles and news can be found in Google images .
Make some test news, test articles. Put in the text hyphens, tabs. Dilute large text blocks with links , bold and italics . Use numbered lists. Show to the customer that you tried on his project, and did not do everything “tyap-lyap” - believe me, he will appreciate it!
All is ready? Not a site, but a sweetie? Throw a link to the customer, let him watch. Answer all his questions. If there are changes, consult the TK, with the approved layouts and make the right decision.
Finally, agree on the last meeting, close the work and take the remaining 40% of the cost of the site. You and your partners deserve them! And yes, do not forget to commemorate the delivery of the project with your people! Very correct tradition.
What else do you want to say?
- Transfer the finished site to the customer's hosting only when you receive all the money. This is a simple and appropriate defense against dishonesty.
- Fight laziness if you have it. Do not delay for tomorrow what you can do now.
- Be a man of your word. Promised to pass the stage on Monday? Do not have time? Hurt yourself in the cake, get some coffee, energy drinks, forget about your personal life, but hand over your work on time. As a last resort, contact the customer in advance, apologize and discuss new terms. It is the responsible and executive partners that customers recommend to their friends and colleagues.
- Keep a diary. I use Google Calendar for this. Record meeting dates, deadlines and all upcoming important events. Deadlines I paint in red, something pleasant - in green, and unpleasant, but important things - in the marsh. When the case is done - immediately note it in gray. Accordingly, after a week I look at how many gray rectangles I have, and if there are many, it means that I am good!
- Read all sorts of self-motivated articles and books, such as Time Drive by Gleb Arkhangelsky. It really helps!
What else to say - I myself at the beginning of my journey, because I work for myself until about a year. I also have many problems - I do not have enough time for anything, first of all, to systematize my portfolio and create my own website. Artists also often fail with quality and with terms - sometimes you have to edit the layout, the code yourself, tell them about various technologies.
In general, I would love to discuss all this in the comments.
Thanks for attention!
UPD: And thanks for the invite, friends!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/142164/
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