Web Graphic Design for Small Businesses

An anonymous reader writes "I'm a competent geek running a one-man-show for a small business. I do everything IT in this company; servers, email, desktop support, managing Ethernet switches, cash registers, inventory database, and the company website. My boss has asked me to 'punch up' the website to make it more appealing. Although I can hold my own with HTML, PHP and a couple SQL products, graphic design isn't one of my strengths. I'm looking for some advice on how to improve the site without making it overstimulating for the webophobic. It's also important that it conform to ADA accessibility guidelines. In particular, I'm looking for books or tutorial websites that teach the basics of good graphic design — how to make it more appealing without losing the ability to communicate effectively. Also, I would appreciate suggestions for tools to use to make this more efficient (Windows and Linux are both OK)."

Comments

Get someone else

[diskis]

I'm a good geek of all arts. But when I try to dabble in graphical design, I always fail spectacularly.
Get someone with actual talent to do it.

Do really you think you can train a graphical designer to code with a few book and tutorials, and not get out results fitting for thedailywtf?

Re:Get someone else

[piojo]

Personally, I think it's nicer to search for a nice CSS/site template. I found one that I really liked for my home page. They are very easy to adapt, and you know what you are doing is legal. (I looked for ones that didn't require me to write anything really tacky at the bottom of the page. "design by [author]" is fine, "design by Free CSS Templates" is not.)

Re:Get someone else

[roadsider]

As a professional web site designer, NO. I don't. Naturally, any creative person worth their salt has their influences and inspirations, but to cut and paste someone else's design and merely change the colors and fonts is outright theft. You want good graphic design? Hire someone with real credentials. There are plenty of young, hungry, fresh-out-of-school designers that'll work for cheap and give you good work. Advertise on Craig's List. Don't think you need to hire someone? Think you can do it just as well? Good. Next time you need an appendectomy, just go to the library and borrow a medical text and try it yourself. I'm sure you'll do fine.

Hire someone

[Lord Apathy]

I have a little bit of advice in this area from experience too. I was the IT department of a small company like that once. I was ask the samething. I can put together a home page but a business page is a whole different bowl of wax. You screw it up and you can lose customers.

My advice would be to scout some of the local talent first. You can find some really good artists and designers out of the local techschools. Most of them will work cheap, a good page might set you back 200 bucks.

Re:Hire someone

[holophrastic]

You guys aren't satisfactory geeks -- I think you've lost your geek roots. There's nothing IT-bound to geekdom. Instead, it's the simple notion of "screw it, I'll just figure it out myself". The entire computer geek world came about from having to learn something that no one else knows.

How can you advise someone capable of learning not to do so? No one's asking to become a professional marketting expert in ten days. The potser is asking to learn over a long period, and to start with something small.

That's certainly doable for someone clearly able to learn.

I seem to recal a book review on slashdot some year or six ago that proposed a web design book for programmers. It described basic colour and layout theory and such. I haven't the foggiest as to when or what, but certainly they do exist.

As a web developer myself -- I do handle both the programming and the design work. I shy away from the serious design work if only because it isn't worth my programming time, but the simple design work is easy and fun. Just sit there with the blank canvas and be patient. Many many iterations is the key. Just talk it out. Think about your design goals, break them down, try them out. It's really just pseudo-code and a paint-brush.

Pay someone else

[TubeSteak]

Contract out to a professional.
You've already got a lot on your plate.

Re:Pay someone else

[mgabrys_sf]

Geez I wish I had mod pts today. That's the biggest and most important argument. Philosophies aside (and I'm a designer and it's the early morning and I'm migrating files and reformatting a computer I'm selling at the moment and would normally be crankier than hell and could flame this to China) the most important consideration is TIME. Would it be worth it for him to put another item on the agenda which could be a timesink and still not come up to par - or could you save time (and a heap of money) using a professional?

The whole point of a service economy whether you're marketing, graphics or IT is getting a specialist who can knock your socks off and use their time to the fullest advantage. I'm getting bummed by the whole 'kitchen sink' fad because it's really not only lowering the bar - but it's really pandering to the jack of all trades master of none crowd. I know enough code so that my designs and templates will hook with the back end effectively and I can make revisions, but I put in big flashing neon when a recruiter or client comes calling because they see all the languages I have listed on my resume that it's not my passion, interest, or the best most effective use of their time to be mucking about with their systems or the back-end more than I should.

I came out of publishing, printing initally on the way to design & advertising - and it always was an advantage to be able to interface with the production directors and speak their language later on in my career and know that my stuff could get on and off the press with minimal fuss (not to mention having a better grasp of really cool things that could be added to the design). I never claimed to be a true dot-head who could read screen angles and see color through the seps exclusively (true side-story - the best color expert on one of the pre-press and high-end publishing campuses I worked with was actually color-blind. But GEEZ could he read film).

I always am quick to point out when a client is bogging themselves down timewise when they go outside of my usual skillset. Sure I could learn advance scripting for building new libraries to hook into - but is it really worth their time? And by worth I mean money.

Punch up

[kylben]

My boss has asked me to 'punch up' the website to make it more appealing.

Sounds like the project has already failed, then.

Seriously, start by asking questions, not offering answers. And I mean to him, not to slashdot. What is it the site is meant to communicate? What services does it provide? What values should it express? Why does he think it is not appealing now? Who is the audience? What are their values and expectations? Why are you worrying about this on Sunday?

People that do this are called graphic artists for a reason, and art is communication and it has a vocabulary. Start with what you want to communicate and how it can/should be communicated, then find colors, shapes, symbols and relationships that express that.

Get a professional if you can, he's the one that knows to ask those questions, and how to execute the answers he discovers.

Unify your online presence and Marketing programs.

[mikelieman]

Websites are MARKETING tools, and must be part of a unified Marketing Strategy.

You want a Marketing Pro, who can deliver the rain, handling the "Vision", while you can concentrate on the implementation.

Art Institute

[hotsauce]

Absolutely. Get someone from the local Art Institute of $yourCity to look at your current glossy brochures and do it. Grahpic design is as far from programming as grahpics are from the mechanics of the printing press.

And yeah, she'll probably be a she :) That's the bonus, you'll get to work with a creative, and see how the other half live (gender- and professionally-wise). Then actually follow through with what she designs for you, don't just cringe at the large grahpics and crazy layout.

Re:Art Institute

[dgagley]

Local Art institutes do not teach reality in graphics. Especially graphics that does not clog the band width. I have to re create designers work for print and online on a monthly basis. You can seek design help but you my need to alter it to work at a clean and understandable form. Try some small web design firm that is willing to help on side projects. You may also be able to share codding projects with them and make some side money as well.

HTML is *NOT* Art

[RobotRunAmok]

I run into this misunderstanding all the time, on both sides (geek and suit).

There is nothing about being a "geek" or knowing HTML, CSS, or javascript that magically grants someone designer chops. It's like expecting the guy who sets type and runs the printing press to be a novelist or journalist, or expecting the chemist who mixes the paint to also be a canvas artist.

This misunderstanding was prevalent back when the web was "new" (circa '94-95), but it's inexcusable today. In any case, it's a lot easier to teach HTML and CSS to a legitimate designer, than design to an HTML jockey.

If the work of a real designer or design firm is simply not in the budget (which is crazy talk, because there are firms online that grind this stuff out now for chump change), than find some CSS book with a CD full of templates that grant license to modify. But please, for the sake of art, sanity, and all that's holy, keep IT out of web design!

Please note: Code is *not* poetry, and HTML is not code...

Re:Get a professional to do it

[Pulzar]

Ask yourself - would you let a typical graphic designer manage those Ethernet servers, etc. that you currently maintain on your network? No! It works both ways.

That's not a valid argument. To take it to an extreme, you'd never let a chef do brain surgery on you, but you might let a brain surgeon cook you a meal with some help from a cookbook. Just because one profession has little chance of succeeding in another, the opposite does not have to be true.

If the design requirements are small, a capable geek can read some books, look at some design ideas, and probably come up with something worthwhile for a small business web site.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Creative is not a noun

[Anonymous Coward]

As a designer in the creative industry, I have no problem being called a 'creative'. In fact it's how we refer to ourselves and what separates us from the 'suits'. You're the first person I've ever heard of that had a problem with it.

Good web design is when you can look at a site and not notice the design at all. It's simply effective and cohesive and requires no extra thought or deduction on the part of the visitor.

Re:Unify your online presence and Marketing progra

[mdavids]

Websites are communication tools, not marketing tools. By all means make them look and feel nice (and consistent with your branding), but treat your users with respect. They chose to visit your site, so don't treat them like they're just passing through while waiting for "America's Biggest Celebrity Dancing Loser" to start. You don't need to grab their attention; you've got their attention. Now give them what they came for.