Designer Ethics

If you are freelancer or a designer that runs their own studio you know how important it is to get potential clients to believe in the services that you offer. It isn't enough that you know you are capable of doing the job correctly. If they choose to go with you and enjoy your work enough hopefully they decide to tell others about the great job you did. Nothing beats word-of-mouth marketing.

Whether we like it or not, web design is a crowded field. There is absolutely zero barrier to entry because it is a discipline you can learn as you go along. Some people try their best to learn and improve while others simply want to collect a paycheck. What other industry has potential clients telling you that their little cousin can do the work cheaper? You hope that you don't encounter that many clients like this and the ones you do take on respect the prices that you set as you feel they reflect the work that you will perform. However, are you really charging correctly for the work being performed?

We all have bills to pay and mouths to feed. When a client approaches you with a budget of $500 and you know that you can't do your usual work within that budget then be honest with them. Let them know that either you can't do it at that price or that you can do it, but can only do $500 worth. Don't short change yourself and certainly don't short change them by saying you can get the job done when in the back of your mind you are thinking differently.

Back when CSS was just starting to hit the mainstream, a large number of frontend devs were still coding their clients' sites in tables knowing that future revisions would take more time than if they were done in CSS. Is not offering the best option the way you want to go about making money? Most clients won't care if their site is done in tables, CSS or Assembly language. They just want a site that works and all their customers will love. However, when they go for their next redesign do you want their future designers to see the mess that was created or being told they will be charged more to clean up the mess that you left? Just because a client might not care about how you do stuff under the hood or is unaware of the consequences it doesn't mean you should leave them hanging.

When was the last time you checked the compliance of a site that you built? I'm not going to go into a standards debate, but do you at least try to make your client's site pass as many standards tests as possible? Drawar has issues passing these tests due to the Facebook and Google widgets being used, but I only know that because I checked. I checked because I want as many people as possible to use the site within the means that I have provided. Do you want that for your client?

Although we like to share stories of how the guy down the street is undercutting us on price, there are equally horrifying stories of designers overcharging for services. Running your own business is one of the greatest ethical tests you will encounter. Daily you will come across an issue where the end result will define how past, present and future clients look at you. How do you want to be perceived? What ethics will you maintain?

I can't help you define what your ethics should be. Maybe you can post them on your website to help build a trust between your client base and yourself. Just understand that too many people have been burned by designers who didn't do what they said they would. Being a great designer means nothing if you don't have great ethics to back up your skills. Figure them out now and stand for them no matter what.