Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

"How much does a website cost?" – a survey of web designers

blog.folyo.me

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 112 posts

Re: "How much does a website cost?" – a survey of web designers

#11

Post by JonWood »

When it comes to the web app pricing I'm not sure about this:

"For example, the mere fact of supporting user accounts will mean having to design sign up, sign in, and “I forgot my password” screens as well as all the different error states associated with them."

I'd much rather have UI guidelines, which cover how forms are built, what an error state looks like, and how text is formatted. A set of building blocks, rather then a unique design for each activity being undertaken.

In my experience designers who design each page individually usually provide designs which can't be adapted easily, and require each page to have much more work applied then would otherwise be necessary.

By all means provide a full design for key processes, for example the checkout process on an e-commerce site, but for a lost password form I should I be able to put that together without having to call in a designer.

Re: "How much does a website cost?" – a survey of web designers

#16

Post by paulmckeever »

Thanks for sharing this and I hope Folyo is getting off to a good start. I know a lot of designers who struggle to figure out the market rate for their work and will find this really helpful. Design can add huge value to a business and good work costs money.

But I find the way you've approach the survey to be flawed. The cost of design work is generally a factor of how complex the problem is to solve. Most designers I know charge effort * hourly rate = fee, much like developers and other professional services.

So quantifying prices in terms of a homepage, additional layouts etc is meaningless. I don't find your distinction that only web apps (and not other parts of the web) require both visual and UX design helpful.

@JonWood gets it pretty spot on: handing over a pretty PSD file is getting less common as more design agencies get involved in prototyping and front-end development. Creating a visual language and building blocks is far more useful.

Re: "How much does a website cost?" – a survey of web designers

#17

Post by sgdesign »

JonWood wrote: post #11

When it comes to the web app pricing I'm not sure about this: "For example, the mere fact of supporting user accounts will mean having to design sign up, sign in, and “I forgot my password” screens as well as all the different error states associated with them." I'd much rather have UI guidelines, which cover how forms are built, what an error state looks like, and how text is formatted. A set of building blocks, rat…

You're right, of course. Maybe this particular example was poorly chosen, but I just wanted to illustrate the fact that web apps are often more complex than you think.

(plus it's been my experience that some clients do want mockups for each screen, even though I always tell them that the "building blocks" approach you describe is much more efficient)

Re: "How much does a website cost?" – a survey of web designers

#18

Post by jurre »

wofser wrote: post #15

I always answers like this: "How much does a website cost?" "It depends". "Depends on what?" "A lot of things". I am a web developer, not a web designer.

I know that you're right and I know that it is the wrong question to ask, but answering it like that is what makes a lot of non-dev/designers dislike us. Maybe try helping them ask the right question by saying something like: "Well it depends on what you want, what kind of website are we talking about?". It might take a couple of minutes more to answer their question but it has a much higher chance of actually getting a new potential client.

Re: "How much does a website cost?" – a survey of web designers

#19

Post by citricsquid »

"How much do you charge?" = bad

"What is the average of your x previous invoices for x?" = good

Sure I might charge by default $1k for a logo but the chances of $1k being billed every time are slim, every client is different. The average invoice price is the most valuable metric. Every designer will say they charge $5k when they charge $1k because it makes them feel good.

Re: "How much does a website cost?" – a survey of web designers

#20

Post by sgdesign »

paulmckeever wrote: post #16

Thanks for sharing this and I hope Folyo is getting off to a good start. I know a lot of designers who struggle to figure out the market rate for their work and will find this really helpful. Design can add huge value to a business and good work costs money. But I find the way you've approach the survey to be flawed. The cost of design work is generally a factor of how complex the problem is to solve. Most designers…

Agreed. I charge by the hour myself (although looking back at the totals for various recent projects, I find that they end up pretty close to the average survey results).

I'll be the first to admit that it's extremely hard to estimate the costs of designing (or even developing) a site. That being said, I think even vague figures such as these can be useful, if only to establish a basic minimum budget for projects.

Post reply on HN