Earlier quoted context omitted.
how does one contact you?
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 regret my website redesign
401–410 of 789 posts
Re: I regret my website redesign
#402I 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 tried was 3-4 years ago, so maybe they've gotten better.
>Similar things can be said for web templates. There are some really good customisable templates for simple sites like yours out there today. I don't know why you'd pay someone for something so simple, especially when the design is so generic and forgettable (no offense).
Even with a template, there's still a lot of work. Someone has to sift through all the templates to find a good one. Then I still have to pay developers to adapt my existing content to the new theme. And in my experience, template code tends to be pretty bad. Tons of inline style rules so that the page looks good in exactly that configuration, but it's not flexible.
If I had to do it again, I'd still rather work with a freelancer than search for a template and adapt it to my site.
Re: I regret my website redesign
#403Interesting. This is one of those things where experience just really helps. A friend of mine is a Creative Director at a firm and I asked her for advice for a startup I funded and she explicitly advised against an agency at the stage it was at. I'm pretty sure she'd advise against this as well. Instead, a single contract freelancer is probably a better play than an agency for this.
Over time, I have come to value my network very highly. Definitely helped me avoid a lot of missteps.
Re: I regret my website redesign
#404“He felt that the underlying problem was WebAgency’s difficulty scaling down their workflows to fit TinyPilot’s budget. Their typical client has a retainer in the range of $20-40k per month. TinyPilot was buying only 40-60 hours per month, which they typically reserve for maintenance rather than new development.”
I call this bullshit. They had certainly designed in the past for smaller budgets, as they were smaller themselves.
Re: I regret my website redesign
#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 invoices to the client. This is a normal amount of work for that fee in my industry, am I an idiot?
Re: I regret my website redesign
#406[deleted]
Re: I regret my website redesign
#407$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…
Doing the work and billing the work are two entirely different disciplines.
Re: I regret my website redesign
#408$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…
Also if I agreed to a fee of £7k and tried to charge a client £46k without agreeing a new scope of work with a new signed appointment contract I would probably be struck off and fined £20k by my professional regulator.
Re: I regret my website redesign
#409hurry! Ask the WebAgency for a 50% refund or their name will be the HN frontpage.
Re: I regret my website redesign
#410It’s interesting how the author decides against hiring a cheap developer, but in the end still tries to get good service for cheap (i.e. hires a company that works with larger clients, expects them to offer same kind of service to him).
Also:
> If I had insisted on milestone-based payments from the beginning, WebAgency likely would have declined the project.
Sounds like it would have been a good outcome.
Of course it’s easy to say all that in hindsight.