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I regret my website redesign

mtlynch.io

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Re: I regret my website redesign

#421

Post by ncallaway »

deaddodo wrote: post #378
ncallaway wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so if I approach competent agencies demanding a milestone-based contract for $7-15k, they'd just tell me to get lost Yep, exactly that. And, for a dev agency (I'm not as familiar with how design would want to structure this), you'd either need _very_ detailed and specific requirements before we consider quoting the project, or we're going to need an up-front discovery phase (that will run a few thousand dollars any…

If a contractor told me to "get lost" over a $15k contract for a three-page rework + redesign; I'd just respond "gladly". That is a dead simple ask and something that could easily be handled by one front-end dev + one designer in 1-2 weeks of half-time work. That easily covers their salaries (in LA, at least) + 30-50% overhead. You would probably pad that out to a month for other jobs + unknowables; but I would be ab…

Well, I was talking about dev work rather than design work.

A 3 page build for a marketing website is probably very well scoped for the dev work (if the designs are done).

If the designs _aren’t_ done, though, and the fixed bid includes the client signing off on the visual look and feel, then… that’s not a tightly scoped requirement.

Could we do the dev in that budget? Almost certainly, I cannot imagine it taking longer than that for a handful of marketing pages.

Will I sign a fixed bid contract, if I don’t have a design and requires the client to sign off on the final look and feel in order to be complete? No, that would be insane.

Re: I regret my website redesign

#422

Post by ls15 »

ThalesX wrote: post #288
kypro wrote: post #119

I don't want to rub salt in the wounds here, but that design is extremely mediocre. The primary mistake here imo was to think you needed professional web design in the first place. You didn't. Professional web design is best suited to companies with a strong brand or websites with complicated UX/UI that needs wireframing. You're just a small business selling KVMs D2C. That doesn't need anything fancy. There are some…

If you have more money than time, you’re not going to start shifting through templates, configuring stuff, dealing with bugs, updating it, generating strange AI logos etc.

Even if the alternative is dealing for months with a design agency that is creating a three-page website?

Re: I regret my website redesign

#424

Post by barbecue_sauce »

koshergweilo wrote: post #377
kypro wrote: post #119

I don't want to rub salt in the wounds here, but that design is extremely mediocre. The primary mistake here imo was to think you needed professional web design in the first place. You didn't. Professional web design is best suited to companies with a strong brand or websites with complicated UX/UI that needs wireframing. You're just a small business selling KVMs D2C. That doesn't need anything fancy. There are some…

> There are some really good (free) AI logo generators out there you can use to generate logos very similar (perhaps even better) than this. How have I never heard of these. Which ones are good though? I couldn't find any free ones

There aren't any good ones. Everybody who recommends these must not have any sense of branding or design whatsoever.

Re: I regret my website redesign

#425

Post by skilled »

mushufasa wrote: post #401
skilled wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

fartingwizard[at]hhhhhsssshssss[dot]dev I primarily code in Python so that's why the weird domain name.

do you have a professional portfolio page or website?

I do not as global warming has caused my servers to dissolve into ash particles. You can try to find me in your favorite code editor (I live there now), but alas...to answer your question - if you are genuinely curious about the type of work I can do, please see Cameron's World[0] as it best reflects my approach to brandable (and sustainable I guess) web design.

[0]: https://www.cameronsworld.net/

Re: I regret my website redesign

#426

Post by ricardobayes »

$175 an hour lol. I know senior designers/programmers who work for a fifth of that in Europe. Perfect English, 5+ yoe I never understood why companies pay hundreds per hour to anyone. You can get equivalent talent for much less, if you know where to look.

Re: I regret my website redesign

#427

Post by knubie »

mtlynch wrote: post #402
kypro wrote: post #119

I don't want to rub salt in the wounds here, but that design is extremely mediocre. The primary mistake here imo was to think you needed professional web design in the first place. You didn't. Professional web design is best suited to companies with a strong brand or websites with complicated UX/UI that needs wireframing. You're just a small business selling KVMs D2C. That doesn't need anything fancy. There are some…

Thanks for reading! > There are some really good (free) AI logo generators out there you can use to generate logos very similar (perhaps even better) than this. In recent years I've used them almost exclusively to generate some initial logo ideas then either made minor alterations myself (where needed), or paid someone a little to do it for me. I've tried AI logo generators and didn't like the results. Last time I tr…

I'll rub a little aloe in that wound. I actually like the redesign. The illustrations are great, and overall it's a big improvement over the original. Worth the price? Perhaps not, but at least you have a better website now, and more experience dealing with agencies.

Re: I regret my website redesign

#428

Post by slingnow »

m463 wrote: post #397
deltarholamda wrote: post #89

You know how, during a big programming project, you have to keep the devs from going "this codebase has a lot of technical debt, let's rebuild the whole thing using Rust and Kubernetes and Deno and move the hosting to Azure and switch databases and use microservices and..."? Designers are exactly the same way. Just as technical fiddling is fun and interesting, making new designs from scratch is just as fun and intere…

I wonder how you judge the tipping point? "Why do it in C when assembly language has been working so well for years?"

The tipping point would be when you can come up with a compelling answer for the question you laid out. You don't just rewrite it in C as a reflex to that question.

Re: I regret my website redesign

#429

Post by gusbremm »

sanitycheck wrote: post #285
gusbremm wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that big, fancy agency will outsource the whole project for 1/20 of the paying price to a small company.

And the small company will hire a single contractor for 1/4 of what they're getting, and that's who will do all the work.

Exactly.

Re: I regret my website redesign

#430

Post by throwaway81523 »

paulcole wrote: post #206
throwaway81523 wrote: post #40

I can't remember seeing a website redesign in my entire life that didn't make the site worse. Many sites have gone down the tubes due to redesigns while always blaming the failure on something else. Kudos for at least having the self-awareness to realize that your redesign didn't help. To first order, there's (usually) only one site metric that really matters, and that's page load speed. Craigslist still thrives desp…

> Craigslist still thrives despite having no features and looking prehistoric, because it's so fast. Google.com homepage looks almost empty. Craigslist and Google's site speed enhances their success, it isn't the cause of their success. Their content is what the user wants. Giving it to them fast is a huge bonus. I don't want to see shit fast. I want to see good stuff fast. If I have to, I'll wait to see really good…

We're talking about the site design. The stuff actually in the site is a separate issue. Most redesigns afaict make the site slower, which is the wrong direction. The content presumably stays the same either way.

Case in point: plenty of HN readers click on the comment thread but not TFA. I believe that a lot of the time, that's due to dread of some godawful slow loading page contaminating their browser with tracking cooties and who knows what.

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