Last week we discussed how to choose a web site designer. This week we are going to talk about contracts and your project’s life-cycle. I want you to keep in mind that I am not an attorney. What I write here is based on my experiences with the Internet industry.

So why have a contract with your designer? There are two reasons:

1. Under the Intellectual Property laws in America the creator of a work retains all rights, unless the creator is under employment (an employee) or transfers those rights to you by contract. In simpler terms, if you hire a designer as a contractor anything he designs for you still belongs to him unless you have a contract that says otherwise.
2. Time can be a huge issue for many projects. You want a project life-cycle (time-line) in writing. If your designer takes six weeks instead of the agreed upon four, you will have grounds to be upset, and your grounds will be in writing.

So what benefits does a designer gain from having a contract with you? Again Intellectual Property questions are decided in the contract. Although ownership of the design and usually world wide rights are transferred to the client in the contract, designers normally retain ownership of original artwork. This is a standard practice, yet many clients who aren’t used to the industry feel uneasy about the original artwork issue. Here is a good rule of thumb: If you plan on having another designer down the road use the design in a similar work, you should negotiate to buy the rights to the original artwork.

Every designer you may talk with can tell you about that one client that never paid. Every industry has this problem in one form or another, web design is no different. To combat this dilemma, most designers require a percentage of the final project cost to be paid before actual design work begins. You can expect to pay 1/4 to 1/2 of the total cost at the signing of the contract. Don’t take offence at this, it is a common business practice and provides a buffer of safety for you and your designer.

So what about Additionals? Additionals are additional costs that are not generated by the designer which you may need to pay. For instance, as part of your site’s design, you have requested that an image of down-town Dallas be integrated into the site. Your designer lives in El Paso so she doesn’t have access to the Dallas skyline. She can, however, purchase the rights to use an image of Dallas from another photographer. The cost for the photograph will be billed to you as an additional.

So what is a reasonable amount of time for a project to be completed? That really depends on you, the client, and the complexity of the project. For a static site, that is basically an online brochure you can expect something like 2-3 weeks. For a custom shopping cart expect 4 months or longer.

The time spent to produce a web site is called the project life-cycle and can be simple or complicated, depending on the site being designed. During the life-cycle you will meet with your designer and review design concepts and iron out a contract. Your designer will then spend time completing the design and code, after which testing will ensue.

A professional designer will have experienced users he hires to test his sites for usability. If you are developing an e-commerce site, you should additionally consider having a small percentage of your target audience test the site.

Finally your site will be published online and the fun part begins – advertising. We will talk about advertising later; right now it’s important to remember this is a big step in the project life-cycle.

Lastly, once the site has been up and running for some time, you and your designer should sit down and discuss possible improvements. Your site is a living breathing object. Well, not really, but it should appear that way to your user. Updating content is the best way to keep users coming back.

Next week we will discuss domain names and hosting.

As a business professional, you are most assuredly aware of the Internet. In fact you probably use it every day; and if your business isn’t online already you certainly wish it were. This week let’s discus the basics of web site design and your relationship with your designer.

Besides your accountant or attorney, you will probably never have as close a working relationship with anyone as your web site designer. You should spend as much time and effort looking for a good designer as you would an attorney.

Why put so much effort into this person? Web site designers are a very strange breed. In one respect they are artists and like all artists they have an instinctive vision for their work. On the other hand, they are business professionals and understand that you, the client, have your own vision for your business and that vision must supersede their own. When you search for a web site designer, you are looking for a passionate artist that is willing to redirect his passion towards your goals. That can be quite a tall order for some artists, but it is very important. Remember this person is going to be representing you on the Internet and to the entire world.

A good designer will want to know, from the very beginning, what your goals are, who your target audience is and your advertising strategy. If you can’t give an answer, then you aren’t ready to design a web site.

But what if you’re not sure what your online goals are and you have no clue what advertising possibilities are available on the Internet? You can speak with your designer. He should be able to answer any questions you have. But there is a difference between going to a designer and saying, “I need a site, I don’t know how to market it, just handle the project, ok?” and saying, “I need a site, I don’t know how to market it, what are my options?” In the first example the business owner is trying to escape from the responsibility, but in the second the business person is asking for advice.

If you ask for advice on a topic, your designer knows you are willing to trust and learn and to be a partner. If you expect him to take over your job as front man for your company, he may choose not to work with you. Your designer can’t replace you.

The best way to get a pre-designer idea of what you want for your site is to spend an hour or two looking at your competitor’s web site. Look at where they advertise, what are they saying, and to whom are they advertising? What does their site do, is it sharp and snappy or elegant? Do they have a shopping cart or just an informational site? Do they accept PayPal or credit cards or both?

After you review and think about these questions, formulate then in your mind, and then on paper, what you need:

“I need a shopping cart that will allow my customers to buy my widgets using PayPal and all major credit cards anytime any where in the world. I need to be able to run special promotions and gift offers and I need the site to rank high in search engine lists for the key words: widgets, texas big widgets, and billy’s widget barn. Additionally, my target audience is the young up and coming couple looking to buy their first widget, so the site needs to be modern and sleek.”

This little monolog may not sound like much, but to your designer it will sound wondrous. He’s probably never had a client come in with such a straight forward list of desires. You just impressed your designer.

At this point the two of you can start discussing more pointed aspects of the project such as, if you need a dynamic (shopping cart) or static (informational) site. What kind of colors to use, the fonts you like, etc. Also take the opportunity to talk with your designer about creating additional print artwork to match the new site’s design. A corporate image is very important. If your company doesn’t have an image or is unsatisfied with its current image, now is the time to consider new artwork. If your designer knows in advance he can design his art to function well online and at your print shop.

Next week we’ll look into contracts and the project life cycle.

I was lying awake last night, in that strange state between waking and sleep and somehow my subconscious brain began to compare recent events to an old Godzilla movie.

Although we had warning, I don’t think anyone truly understood of what Katrina was capable. The gargantuan monster with other worldly power ripped through our proud cities with little effort.

So where does the Internet fit in? The Internet is fighting back with what it does best, information. I want to take you on a brief tour of Internet resources; we will cover sources for finding and searching for victims of Katrina and also look at some interesting sources of news.

Texas has accepted over 200,000 displaced people from Louisiana. Thousands more are being moved to other states. With all this moving around, families and friends can become separated. The International Committee of the Red Cross has released one of the best resources available for seeking and finding family members. Red Cross workers have unprecedented access to Katrina’s victims and can work directly with them to list their information online, and to assist them in their search for others.

If you are looking for someone, check out the Red Cross information database at http://www.familylinks.icrc.org/katrina/people.

Other sources are available as well; although they are more of a grassroots effort they can be very useful. www.bulletinblog.org offers family and friends the ability to post a listing and image of their family member in hopes that someone will recognize that person and reply that they are ok.

The Katrina Forum also looks like a well designed grassroots effort, http://www.theurantiaboard.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3250. I don’t know a lot about the organization sponsoring the board, but there are some serious posting and discussions going on. Also, there are listings of people willing to house victims. I’m sure there are many who wish to help in such a way, but this is the first place on the Internet I’ve seen that’s made an organized effort to get this information out to where it’s needed.

Let’s take a look at some Katrina news sources on the World Wide Web.

There are always the well known news outlets, CNN, Fox News, NBC, CBS, etc. Let’s take a look at “Eye of the Storm”, a web log, or “blog” written by Josh Norman and MKeller of the Sun Harold in Biloxi, Mississippi. They have been chronicling the storm from the beginning with first hand knowledge. You can check them out at Dancing With Katrina.

If you remember a few weeks ago I wrote an article about Google and we took a look at Google Maps. Jonathan Mendez, a 24-year-old programmer in Austin started Scipionus.com and with the help of Greg Stoll created a customized Google map that allows anyone to post damage information on the interactive map. One post by a user on the ground read:

S of Gretna Blvd - water has finally subsided in the front, in the back there is still water in the street, flooding below Gretna Blvd to St. Cletus, Creagan/Mason/Claire/Hero had been flooded with 2-4f water, variable some house with none or 6″ and others with 3f

For more information see http://www.scipionus.com/. But please don’t make any posts unless you have very specific and useful information.

NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently released new aerial images of the Gulf States and the damage done by the marauding intruder. The site contains some large, high resolution images so if you have a dial-up connection you will need go to the library or use a friend’s computer.

In the end nothing can really put people’s lives back together. A lot of folks are going to have to create a new life, in a new location and nothing we say or do can make that easier. But knowledge is power, and these folks could use some of that now, so I encourage you to help anyway you can. Donate money or time if possible, and maybe you can use some of these resources to help folks connect with their families.