When I first heard that Google was releasing a new browser, I was a little annoyed.  I wondered if we really need another web browser.  Then I read the comic book style explanation behind the browser’s development.  It’s very well written and explains some complicated concepts in a very clear way that I think even a non-techie person could understand. After reading it, I couldn’t wait to download the browser and give it a try.  Will I switch from Firefox?   Probably not for a while, because I rely heavily on the plugins for web development that are available for Firefox, but there are also a lot of features that I really appreciate.

The installation was easy and it imported all my bookmarks from Firefox without a problem.  Some nice feaures of the browser include:

• a great start page that shows thumbnails of your most most visted sites, along with a search box and your most recent bookmarks
• one-click bookmarking
• a single bar for everything - search, address, history  
• lots of added security to keep malware from being installed and warn you of phishing sites
• popups will no longer be a problem
• Every tab you’re using is run independently in the browser, so if one app crashes it won’t take anything else down- you just close the tab

Sounds cool doesn’t it?  What do you think?  Do you see this as just one more step in Google taking over the planet?  Or, do you think it’s a good step forward in the “evolution” of the web browser?

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I have had several clients tell me of bad experiences with designers in the past who were difficult to work with and they didn’t feel they had gotten a good value for their money.  In the end, they regretted having hired them. When you are looking to launch a new site and have chosen to invest in a professional design, how do you go about choosing a good designer? How do you tell a good one from a not-so-good one?

What is “good”?

“Good” is a rather subjective term isn’t it?  There are designers who do great work, but who are not necessarily great to work with and vice-versa.  I won’t get into what good design is here, because others more expert than I am have written on the subject quite well.  In the end, you will want to find someone whose work you admire who creates visually appealing, easy to use sites who is also helpful, responsive, flexible, and sticks to established timelines.

Start with their portfolio

A good designer will have examples of their work available- not only graphic examples, but live sites as well.  Does the majority of their work appeal to you?  Are they easy to navigate and use, or merely pretty to look at?

Get some references

If you’re not referred to the designer by someone you know who has already worked with them, it is a very good idea to get some references, just has you would if you were going to hire an employee.  I recently had a call with a potential client who said he had contacted a former client of mine to ask about their experience working with me.  That was the first time to my knowledge someone had done that.  Why?  If you’re going to pay for a professional service, and in many cases give them a deposit up front, don’t go into it blindly, hoping it will turn out okay.  There is no way to know what someone will be like to work with unless you ask someone who has “been there, done that.” Any decent designer would be glad to give you some references to contact.

Good designers are in demand

Unless they are just starting out and looking for new clients, a good designer will be in high demand and will be booking work out weeks and months in advance.  This might be frustrating if you’re in a hurry to get a site up, but you may need to be willing to wait for the person you want.

Good designers are not cheap

As it is with most things- you get what you pay for. That is not to say that you won’t run across someone who is undervaluing their work and end up with a great deal. But for the most part if you want a good designer, you need to know that their time is valuable and that ultimately the money you spend is an investment in your own success.

Good designers ask a lot of questions

Good designers want to know what appeals to you, what your goals are for your site, what your target “customer” is like, and what is going to make your site unique.  They are going to have to ask plenty of questions to get a good sense of what is going to make your site successful and make you happy.

Making clients happy is the goal of any smart designer, because we know that the best way to get good clients is for them to be referred by other happy, satisfied clients.

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As I’m always interested in other designers’ process, I thought I’d share mine along with some of the tools that I used for the recent redesign of my site.

Concept

As I begin the design process, I look through my inspiration folder in my bookmarks, and through inspiration sites like Best Web Gallery. I particularly liked that site because it includes a small site preview when you mouse over the thumbnail. To get color inspiration, I use ColourLovers and ColorSchemer. As I page through the color schemes others have created, I make screen prints of those that I like and paste them into Photoshop and then narrow down to one that suits the site the best. Once I have design and color inspiration I go away from the computer and close my eyes. That might sound a bit strange, but I find that I must have some time to visualize the site before I do any sketching.

Sketch & Mockup

Once I get a visual idea in my head for the site, I then either sketch the layout on paper or begin sketching in Photoshop. I wanted to move to a grid layout so I downloaded the outstanding 960 grid system, which includes Photoshop grid templates that I used to lay out the site.

Once I had the body of the site complete, I had a really hard time deciding on the background. I had a great time using the pattern maker at Colour Lovers, but never ended up with something that looked good. So, inspired by sites like N Design Studio, I used a set of brushes found at Brusheezy. Though the background is wide, It was worth it to design for the wide screen since over 70% of you are using something wider than 1024px.

Code

I fully intended to use the code that came with the 960 grid, but as I got into it, being anxious to make my design a reality, I gave up too quickly trying to figure it out and instead used a totally cool javascript grid bookmarklet that allowed me to dynamically overlay the site with a grid. It made it easy to tweak the margins and padding to line everything up as I had it in the mockup.

As always happens, I got everything set up and then checked it out in IE6 and of course, the code required some minor changes. I bring this up because 9% of you are STILL using IE6! I know some don’t have a choice, but if you do, please, I beg you, upgrade! Better yet, switch to Firefox.

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