Beautiful Website Design 2 - What You Get

So you want a beautiful website design, and in the process of creating it, you have gathered formidable allies. A skilled graphic designer is on hand to create any piece of custom artwork you can dream up. A talented website developer is ready to position all the images with the proper code, making everything visible on the web. You have fulfilled your first task in the process as well, providing them with information about the sort of site that you - and your customers - would like to see. They have talked with you to refine your ideas, hashing out a final layout, color scheme, and navigation system. Now it's time to sit back, relax (no, better make that, fret constantly), and wait for the final product to materialize.

But what are you supposed to expect? At what point have your designers completed their job fully? What should be the end result of the site? Naturally, it has to work right and have all its pages, but shouldn't one expect a little bit more from a beautiful website design?

You should expect more. You should not expect miracles or mind reading. Chances are, you provided colors, maybe sketches, probably a sample of another site or two that you like the look of. They know what sort of business you run, who your target audience is and what their preferences are, what images might best get your message across or attract a visitor's eye. And now they will bring to bear all their skill to create your website.

And you'll have them go back and change about a dozen things.

Yeah, it will probably happen that way. Naturally, there's every chance that you will have provided enough information and your designers will be thinking along similar enough lines that their first draft is also their final one, but such cases, in my experience, are rare. Even if the layout was exactly what you asked for, looking at it on the web tends to reveal details you overlooked, or bring to mind ideas you hadn't considered. There's also every possibility that variances in computer, browser, and screen size mean that more space off to the sides that needs a color or repeating image, or that what the designers were looking at isn't exactly equal to what you are viewing.

When you get that first email with a link to your new site, bear in mind that it is only a link to the first draft of your new site. An artist will sketch a picture several times before committing it to paint. A writer will edit and re-edit a book before it is ready for publication. And likewise, a graphic designer will have to go back and alter layers, colors, and masks before an image is just the way you want it. A web designer will have to change styles, tags, and divs before everything looks just right.

You don't have to do something yourself if you want it done right. In fact, in the case of highly technical or artistic professions, you usually can't do it yourself unless you want it done wrong. However, you do need to continue to provide input, zoning in on all the little details until your site has been completed to your satisfaction. What you get when you receive that first link to your new beautiful website design is only the first draft. Your designers expect some back and forth before they can send along the final.

So you want a beautiful website design, and in the process of creating it, you have gathered formidable allies. A skilled graphic designer is on hand to create any piece of custom artwork you can dream up. A talented website developer is ready to position all the images with the proper code, making everything visible on the web. You have fulfilled your first task in the process as well, providing them with information about the sort of site that you - and your customers - would like to see. They have talked with you to refine your ideas, hashing out a final layout, color scheme, and navigation system. Now it's time to sit back, relax (no, better make that, fret constantly), and wait for the final product to materialize. 
 
But what are you supposed to expect? At what point have your designers completed their job fully? What should be the end result of the site? Naturally, it has to work right and have all its pages, but shouldn't one expect a little bit more from a beautiful website design? 
 
You should expect more. You should not expect miracles or mind reading. Chances are, you provided colors, maybe sketches, probably a sample of another site or two that you like the look of. They know what sort of business you run, who your target audience is and what their preferences are, what images might best get your message across or attract a visitor's eye. And now they will bring to bear all their skill to create your website. 
 
And you'll have them go back and change about a dozen things. 
 
Yeah, it will probably happen that way. Naturally, there's every chance that you will have provided enough information and your designers will be thinking along similar enough lines that their first draft is also their final one, but such cases, in my experience, are rare. Even if the layout was exactly what you asked for, looking at it on the web tends to reveal details you overlooked, or bring to mind ideas you hadn't considered. There's also every possibility that variances in computer, browser, and screen size mean that more space off to the sides that needs a color or repeating image, or that what the designers were looking at isn't exactly equal to what you are viewing. 
 
When you get that first email with a link to your new site, bear in mind that it is only a link to the first draft of your new site. An artist will sketch a picture several times before committing it to paint. A writer will edit and re-edit a book before it is ready for publication. And likewise, a graphic designer will have to go back and alter layers, colors, and masks before an image is just the way you want it. A web designer will have to change styles, tags, and divs before everything looks just right. 
 
You don't have to do something yourself if you want it done right. In fact, in the case of highly technical or artistic professions, you usually can't do it yourself unless you want it done wrong. However, you do need to continue to provide input, zoning in on all the little details until your site has been completed to your satisfaction. What you get when you receive that first link to your new beautiful website design is only the first draft. Your designers expect some back and forth before they can send along the final.