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I regret my website redesign

mtlynch.io

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Re: I regret my website redesign

#701

Post by InspClouseau »

onionisafruit wrote: post #352
encryptluks2 wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I call this the being too nice mistake. It is like the customer that would watch an employee spit in their food and say thanks to them. Effective leaders do not fear confrontation.

In this case it might be a case of being intimidated by a big agency. Isaac telling him that he was their smallest client had a "you're lucky we are willing to work for you" feel.

This feels even more dubious because if I figured out the correct company, they're fishing in the freelancer threads quite a lot. They know what they're offering to HN readers.

Re: I regret my website redesign

#702

Post by bearmode »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #681
s17n wrote: post #521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Founder / CEO. A lot of people will respond "no the founder needs to back off and let the marketing team do its job" but on a decision to allocate 50% of the annual marketing budget, the CEO should be involved.

Bezos famously had iron grip on the Amazon home page - I guess it worked for them. So yes I agree

The Amazon homepage is dogshit, people used Amazon because it was a service that they really wanted. Amazon's success is in spite of its web design.

Re: I regret my website redesign

#703

Post by ratww »

ArchitectAnon wrote: post #405

$46k for those changes holy fucking shit. I’ve charged less than this to design a whole 200m² house. I built a detailed 3d model, secured all the permissions and technical approvals, produced 30 A1 drawings, written a 200 page spec, coordinated engineering, tendered to contractors negotiated the tender, visited the site every two weeks for two years to check they were building it correctly and signed off on thier inv…

It is completely possible (and actually more probable) that you worked less, even though you delivered more and better.

Agencies and Consultings aren’t simply overcharging. They’re also weaponising incompetence and inefficiency so they can bill more hours.

Re: I regret my website redesign

#704

Post by [deleted] »

ratww wrote: post #484
WorldMaker wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems to be the point where sunk cost fallacy strikes hard in the post to me. They had paid $X for "80% of the first milestone of work" and that sunk cost locks them in to everything else that happens. They seemed too fearful from that point onward that if they fired the agency and brought in a new agency or freelancer that they would start from square 1 and do all of the previous work (and spend) over again. Th…

This is why I still like Agile and Scrum, as much as other devs might hate it. “Yeah I want REAL deliverables after the first or second week”. Keeps me honest. And will keep me from working with architecture astronauts don’t really deliver anything but hot air and build ultra-extensible structures that are actually impossible to extend beyond the fantasy world of their maker. Or the equivalent for designers.

[deleted]

Re: I regret my website redesign

#705

Post by cozos »

einpoklum wrote: post #225
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…

> a lot of technical debt ... let's rebuild the whole thing using Rust and Kubernetes and Deno and move the hosting to Azure etc. For me, I'm the dev who says: "This codebase has a lot of technical debt. Let's get rid of all of the containers and VMs and kubernetes and artificial servicification, take it off the cloud, and refactor it into smaller programs which do the work efficiently and which can be built and run…

> which can be built and run on basically any machine(s)

So like containers?

Re: I regret my website redesign

#706

Post by InspClouseau »

O__________O wrote: post #124

From the article: “The real issue, [WebAgency CEO] said, was that I was their only hourly client. I would always be at the mercy of long-term retainer clients pre-empting my project.” — and — From the article: “They were so excited about the project and got carried away, but he was going to remove the hours they’d spent redesigning the blog.” ___ That’s bait-and-switch in my opinion and might very well be illegal. My…

Not OP. No affiliation etc..

"since they might file for legal damages"

On what grounds would their case not be thrown out immediately? Regardless of how well known their lawyer is. Also, the agency might as well close up shop if they sue as they(incl. CEO & most staff) would never be hired again as agency or individuals given the whole nature of the internet.

from https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/yes-you-can-post-n...

> Congress has reaffirmed your right to post truthful negative reviews about a hotel, restaurant, or service — even if you signed an agreement

OP could easily name company and CEOs real name and still be legally sound & protected.

Stop scaremongering please.

Re: I regret my website redesign

#707

Post by nirui »

> Within six weeks, we narrowed in on a concept we all liked

Not trying to be corky, but six weeks and the logo look like an airport booking service? I mean, a pilot should be a person, not a machine. I don't really know where the designer got that inspiration, but it's just not right.

Re: I regret my website redesign

#708

Post by shaman1 »

This sounds unexpectedly familiar to the experience of refurbishing my flat. Goal post moving, postponements, delays, pay in advance and job unfinished, etc.

My take is that you were too flexible and the agency took advantage of that to extract as much as possible. Also the payment strategy (per hour) is not in your favour. For these clear projects (same in constructions) it's best to arrange a fixed price. That of course does not solve all problems because they will cut corners and deliver average work but at least you can hold them accountable and refuse further payments until a certain milestone is completed.

Thank you for the detailed article and good luck with your projects.

Re: I regret my website redesign

#709

Post by account42 »

makeitdouble wrote: post #596
Joker_vD wrote: post #588

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is. If I didn't like Windows UX, I'd switch to something else on my own, thank you very much.

Don't you wish there was a vibrant ecosystem of commercial OSes, each providing a different choice regarding the UX or other aspect you want to prioritize, each being financially viable based on their merits and not getting crushed by a monopolistic gorilla ? You'd have options to go to when Microsoft makes choices you don't agree with. I sure wish we were in that world.

I'm fine with there being a vibrant ecosystem of open source OSes, each providing a different choice regarding the UX or other aspect I want to prioritize. The monopolistic gorilla is there but the only really effect it has is that other commercial developers like to only support the monopolistic gorilla.

Re: I regret my website redesign

#710

Post by 5350-uiop-1130 »

feel like the people giving the agency benefit of the doubt didn't read the article...

this was clearly unprofessional behaviour, maybe not from the designers, but from the managers - they know exactly what they are doing...

and all these content managers on this thread apologising is pretty funny.

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