Links: Experience Solutions | Twitter

Can you tell us a little bit about Experience Solutions and how you first began?

We specialise in making websites easy to use. Ali Carmichael and myself are the two directors and we met a few years ago when we both worked in a web agency in Bournemouth. He was Head of Project Management and I was Head of User Experience. We felt that my 10 years of experience as a usability engineer combined with his 10 years of web project management were a good mix. Over a few whiskeys in our local pub in Bournemouth we formulated our plan to take over the world…the usability world…well on the South Coast at least.

What kind of services do you provide to your clients?

We offer services that help our clients get closer to their users. Our main offering is usability testing where we recruit target audience users and test websites with them. We’ll work with our client to understand which areas of the site are the most important to their business, which areas they have concerns with, and which areas they have questions about. We’ll draw up a test plan which is designed to give users realistic tasks to perform while we observe and ask questions. Once the research is complete, we’ll work with our client to find solutions to the user experience issues we found.

In addition to usability testing we also provide user experience audits and online usability surveys to understand what changes need to be made to a site. Once we have a list of issues, we’ll work with the client to generate improved user journeys and wireframe key areas of the journeys which need to change. We often generate a prototype of the new site to test again with users until we and the client team are all happy to launch the amended site.

How important is usability testing to get the best results from a website?

If you compare the web industry now to where it was 10 years ago usability testing is everywhere. Back then it was a luxury that most companies saw as useful, but weren’t really convinced. Now, we have agencies coming to us because their clients have demanded usability testing. It shows how far the industry has come and the importance of understanding who you are designing for right from the beginning.

Without usability testing web designers, online marketers, developers, and site owners often guess what their users need. They tend to either design what they would like to use, or mimic what competitor sites do. With usability testing we help remove the guess work, the opinions, and the confusion and help them focus on the areas of the site users struggle with. By removing the user barriers, the website will make users happier, convert better, and generate more business.

What is your normal workflow for creating a website from start to finish?

Whilst we are involved throughout the design process, we don’t do any web design or development work ourselves. Instead, we try to remain impartial and offer the voice of the user in the process.

A full redesign project would usually start with a user requirements capture project to understand what users need from the new site, which competitor sites they use and why, and what’s missing. We’ll then create user profiles (or personas) with the project team to focus on who they are designing for. We’ll then set out the core user journeys to design for and wireframe the key pages. At that point we’ll step out and come back in to test a prototype of the site with users. We then provide ongoing support throughout the development and launch. Once a site is live we provide regular testing which, in combination with web analytics, allows us to focus on key areas to continue to improve conversion rates on the site.

Are there any other designers or agencies in the industry producing work that you really admire?

The other companies in our field that we think are at the top of their game are Ideo, Cooper and adaptive path.

Do you subscribe to any blogs, podcasts or magazines to help stay on top of the web design world?

Yeah we do, but finding the time to read it all is the biggest challenge. Fundamentally what we do is help other people solve user experience issues creatively so it is important for us to keep up with new design work. Smashing magazine is fantastic for this. Like any professional, it’s always good to keep up with what’s going on in your industry so we have a couple of blogs we like to keep on top of like http://www.everydayux.com/ , http://www.usabilitypost.com & http://www.uxmatters.com/

What hobbies do you have and do they help you ’switch off’ from the internet?

We’re both massive football fans. Unfortunately this doesn’t always help us relax but it does take our mind off work. Ali is a Liverpool fan and I’m a Chelsea fan so you can imagine that there are some tense moments between us. Ali plays and manages his Sunday team while I prefer to get a little less cold and muddy by playing Fifa 10 on my Xbox 360.

Finally, do you have any tips for people starting in the industry?

I think the only advice really worth listening to when it comes to starting a career is to keep an open mind, try lots of different approaches, find what you really enjoy and do more of that. Specialising in a field you get a kick out of is the best way to earn a living.

Links: Experience Solutions | Twitter

Thanks for giving us an insight in to usability testing and Exerience Solutions, Damian

Simply click each image to view or download them from Flickr or click here to view the complete Flickr set.

Any of the images can be used for both personal and commercial purposes.

We hope you find these useful!

Links: 6 Figure Freelancing | Freelance Total| Twitter

Earlier this week Luke interviewed me for his website so I thought I’d return the favour and ask him a few questions for our readers to learn more about him and his work!

Can you tell us a little bit about how you first got into freelancing?

Before I started freelancing, I was at uni, and paying my bills from playing online poker. I had already run an online shop for a couple of years, and I thought I had plenty of knowledge about websites, so I decided to try and diversify my income and sell some websites.

I got my first clients through an ad on ebay (which proved to be hugely successful when I was starting out), and through direct mail + a follow up call.

Do you consider yourself to be mainly a designer or developer (or a bit of both?)

I’d say a little bit of both. My uni course was in business, so I don’t have any formal education in either.

Looking back at my work from 2007, it was pretty bad from a design perspective, and I’ve improved a lot since then. I still wouldn’t say I’m a good designer though, especially compared to the amount of really talented designers that are out there.

My development skills are kind of the same. I’m good at what I need to be good at, but there are loads of developers that are much better than me.

My strength really comes from being really good at figuring out what a client wants, and putting a plan together to achieve it, and using whatever resources I can get to make it happen.

What is your normal workflow for creating a website from start to finish?

I think my workflow is pretty standard

• Project definition
• Wireframe
• Visual design
• PSD -> html/css
• Develop any features
• Flesh out content
• Testing
• Launch
• Marketing

Of those, I’d say project definition is the most important step.

I like to spend a lot of time with clients before doing any work. In some instances up to 3 meetings before getting started. It gets the client in the right mind, and I find it speeds up the rest of the process. Good planning prevents annoying changes.

Where do you find inspiration on the web?

For design stuff mostly DeviantArt. I am a bit embarrassed to admit it but sometimes I check out some of the expensive design contests on 99designs to see what’s happening there. I also have a few web designers that I absolutely love.

Since I outsource a fair chunk of design work, I find myself keeping up with trends from hiring designers that are better than me.

Are there any other designers in the industry producing work that you really admire?

Yeah I really love some of the work from http://www.pixel-house.com.au/. That style really appeals to me. Something about the way they use images and still keep everything so pristinely clean really attracts me.

Even though he isn’t a designer, I also really admire Brendon Sinclair (http://www.tailored.com.au). While not the most politically correct guy, his writing and books have helped me out a lot.

Can you tell us about your blog 6 Figure Freelancing?

Yeah sure. It’s a blog I’ve very recently started. I like to think of it as an analytical, theoretical and sometimes a practical blog, and the idea behind it is to examine freelancing from a business perspective.

I feel a lot of freelancers are creative types first, and business people second. While that’s probably a good thing in a lot of cases, my guess is that most of the time, being a business person first makes more money.

A lot of creative types don’t care so much about the money, and that’s a fair point. But I do. It’s funner for me to make a big sale than an awesome design.

My hope is that through my short, frequent, and usually analytical posts on the blog, my way of thinking about things can help other people think about making more money from freelancing.

At the same time, I’m gradually building up some templates, documents and other very practical things for freelancers starting out. Like one post I wrote about the wording of my emails where I follow up payment, and another I wrote about some of the terms in my proposals. These practical things are for freelancers who are just starting out and haven’t yet organised their business systems.

From your experience of running 6 Figure Freelancing can you tell us what you think makes a good blog article?

I don’t think I’m really qualified to answer that question. My blog is really new and still quite small. Maybe you can ask me in a year

From a readers perspective, I like reading articles that open my eyes to new ideas, or new perspectives.

How did you get involved with the Freelance Total app?

Sure. For those that aren’t aware, Freelance Total is a business management application for (as the name suggests), freelancers.

Freelance Total, I think like a lot of apps of this type, started off as a stick to scratch my own itch. At the time, I was getting someone else to send out invoices and do follow ups for me. It was a complete mess. The average time it took to get paid was woeful. I was missing leads because I was forgetting to follow up, and I was using some project management software that made projects take longer to manage than actually do.

I realised that if I wanted to grow as a freelancer, I had to sort out the basics first. A strong and stable base for my business would free up more time to focus on growth.

I founded Freelance Total and built the first version myself, and have since partnered with a couple of others so we can bring out more features.

The idea behind it is to make it as flexible as possible, while still creating strong systems.

What advantages does you app offer to freelancers?

The mindset I talked about earlier – coming at freelancing from a business perspective with the goal of maximising profits, is something that I think is unique to Freelance Total.
Many apps focus so features like time tracking and invoicing. While freelance total has those things, it focuses on things that appeal to a more profit oriented individual. For example, recurring invoices, a sales pipeline, and streamlining the freelancing process from initial contact to final payment.

It mimics some of the freedoms you get in apps like Basecamp and Backpack, and brings them into a more structured system like you would find in Freshbooks. I think that’s a very unique thing for an application like this. And our feature plan for the future drives the application further in both those directions at once.

Freelance Total is not about any one individual function. It’s not just about projects like Basecamp is. It’s not just about sales like Salesforce is. It’s not just about invoicing like Freshbooks is. It’s about including the features that freelancers use, and presenting them in a flexible and fun way.

Thanks for the interview, Luke!

Darren set up Online Selling in January 2009 providing website design and eCommerce websites.

PHP will be celebrating its 15th birthday this year, and now is a great time to look back and wonder at how it’s managed to become such an integral part of internet design and application during that time.

It has become one of the first choice languages of web application developers, the go-to language if your website needs something more than what HTML can give you. Over 20 million domains have PHP installed, and it is considered the most popular Apache HTTP Server module by far. Some of the most famous examples of PHP at work are Facebook, Wikipedia, Yahoo!, Digg, Joomla, WordPress, YouTube, and more. PHP has become part of the internet.

For the anniversary of PHP, I decided a “5 Useful Tips” list was in order, to help you use PHP to its full potential (and to avoid some of the problems inherent in the language!). I hope you find these useful.

1. PHP memory allocation

PHP scripts have a memory allocation attached to them by the server. To stop a PHP script taking up too much processing power, usually an arbitrary Mb usage is allocated. Sometimes this is a hinderance to web developers, so to increase the amount of memory allowed, enter the following line into the php.ini file on the root of your website. If the php.ini doesn’t exist, you can simply create it. You can increase this number if you still need more memory, but you may find an upper limit set by your host.

memory_limit=16M

2. PHP include functions

PHP can be used to great effect on websites which don’t involve any database interaction. By using the PHP include function, you can include another .php file anywhere in the current file. This can be extremely useful to include, for examples, headers, or footers, or a left menu that stays fixed. Instead of having to make changes to each file in the future, you can change the one PHP included into all the others. The syntax for including a file is as follows:

<?php include ('directory/file.php'); ?>

3. Setting variables in PHP

Another really useful PHP tip is to create variables, which can be a huge time saver later on down the line. Do you have to regularly enter a phone number or email address? By storing bits of information into variables, you can change the information and once and have it propegate site-wide instantly. No more Find and Replace, we say. To store a variable, use the following code:

$variable_name = 'variable_result';

And to call the variable, use:

<?php echo $variable_name; ?>

4. Using if statements in PHP

Using if statements in PHP can be incredibly useful for only showing information you really want to. The potential that an if statement can give you is huge, and the syntax is incredibly easy to use. For example, if the variable telephone1 is defined, then show it:

<?php if
("$telephone1" != "") {
	echo ("$telephone1");
} ?>

5. Difference between single and double quotes

In PHP there is a difference when using either single or double quotes, either ‘ or “. If you use double quotes ” then you are telling the code to check for a variable. If you are using single quotes ‘ then you are telling it to print whatever is between them. This might seem a bit trivial, but if you use the double quotes instead of the single quotes, it will still output correctly, but you will be wasting processer time.

So that’s it, 5 useful and hopefully time-saving tips for you. I’d love to hear any feedback you have on these solutions, whether they worked for you, or whether you have another useful tip to share with others.

You can view more of Darren’s work at Online Selling where he provides website design and eCommerce websites.

Links: Mark’s Blog | Work | Twitter

Can you tell us a little bit about how you first got into the web design and development industry?

I did my first sort-of-programming at Uni – I studied Oceanography but we used a piece of software called Matlab that it has it’s own programming language for sorting and visualising large data sets. That gave me a taste for the development side of things I guess. After Uni I started teaching myself how to make websites whilst I was working at a windsurf centre in Egypt – don’t ask me why, I just wanted to do something constructive in the evenings and somehow I stumbled onto making websites! A mobile dialup connection in the middle of nowhere made it more painful than it needed to be – but I didn’t know much else so it seemed ok at the time.

After that I co-founded a small non-profit organisation called the EcoSurf Project and became it’s ‘webmaster’, creating and managing the main site, online store and a few mini sites. We won an award for our work but couldn’t figure out how to make it pay the bills so eventually we had to close it down. As there were more opportunities for web designers/developers than Oceanographers around I started looking for agency work and got into the industry properly then.

Do you consider yourself to be mainly a designer or developer (or a bit of both?)

I think I am definitely more of a developer – I love the problem solving aspect of writing code, and (contrary to what a lot of non-developers think) I believe that writing good code requires a good dose of creativity as well.

I currently do a lot of backend development (mostly PHP/MySQL), although JavaScript and frontend development is really my one true love!

I do love the design side of things, but I always feel a bit inadequate without any formal design training, and whilst I think I have a reasonable eye for layouts I’m definitely not a talented designer by any stretch of the imagination. However, I believe some understanding of basic design principles is crucial to good frontend development work and I have tried to educate myself a little on grid layouts, colour theory, typography etc as I have gone along.

Are you currently working full time or freelance? Which do you prefer?

I’m currently freelancing, trading under the name of Medium. I’ve only just taken the plunge full time into freelancing so I’m still finding my feet with it all a little!

What is your normal workflow for creating a website from start to finish?

The first thing I will try and do is to work with the client to get a loose first version of the sitemap together. Even if this changes a bit later on I find it really useful to have at least a rough overview of the structure of the site before starting any design or development work.

Then I will often have a good browse through sites like Ember or some of the CSS galleries to get some general ideas and inspiration. I’ll also tend to use sites like Kuler or ColorSchemer to help me try and put together a nice palette for the site. When I’m done with that I’ll start with sketching out lots of little thumbnails of layout ideas until I find something that I think will be suitable for the site I’m working on. I will probably then sketch out one or two larger versions of the layout until I have crystallised the idea in my head. None of these are meant for client consumption – they are just very quick sketches for my own benefit.

Next step would be putting together a rough wireframe for the client, including the basic building blocks and IA ideas for the site. This might be done using something like Omnigraffle, but more and more I am doing rough HTML wireframes/prototypes early on as I find the client engages much better with them when they can actually interact with the prototype. If the site will need a CMS I frequently hook the wireframe up to the CMS we’ll be using to make things easy to move around and to put in dummy content, and later just update the templates when the design has been done.

Once the wireframe has been signed off, I’ll pick up Photoshop and start putting together the design. Once the key pages of the site have been signed off I will start turning the design into HTML/CSS/JS templates, fleshing out the other pages as I go. I rarely design everypage as a flat visual – mostly I will do two or three pages at most and then put the others together as I go along.

If the site has any complex functionality I will generally be working on this whenever something is with the client for feedback – that way by the time the design is finally signed off I will often have got a fair way through the development side which speeds things up a little.

Once all the templates are done, I’ll hook them up to the CMS (if required) before doing the bulk of my cross browser testing (I primarily develop in Firefox) so I can see how things will work when there is some real content in there and if things are affected by any CMS quirks that there may be. And then it’s off to the client for approval, although I will often have a working dev site up for them to check and feed back on as I go along so there are no nasty surprises at the end!

Where do you find inspiration on the web?

Well, as I mentioned above I find sites like Ember and one or two of the CSS galleries like Design Shack useful for keeping up with current web trends and ideas. Design pattern collections like those at PatternTap and Chris Messina’s Design Patterns Flickr collection are also really useful sources of ideas and best-practice solutions to common problems.

I’m always looking for more off-line inspiration, and certainly looking through print design books and magazines with one eye on how the ideas in them could translate to the web is something I have found useful in the past.

Are there any other designers in the industry producing work that you really admire?

There are plenty! I love the work done by Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain at 31three, Jason Santa Maria, Tim Van Damme, Douglas Bowman and by agencies such as Happy Cog and Clearleft – to be honest there are to many to mention here but those are a few that spring to mind immediately.

Do you subscribe to any blogs, podcasts or magazines to help stay on top of the web design world?

Yes indeed – I have far too many RSS feeds in my reader to list here! I don’t really read any magazines regularly anymore, but I do listen to a lot of podcasts like Boagworld, Shot of Jaq, yayquery amongst many others (including most of the shows on the Twit Network – but they are more tech than web really).

Do you have a particular web design conference or event that you never miss?

Well I’ve been to dConstruct for the last two years running, and really enjoyed it. I was gutted not to be able to go to the Full Frontal JS conference last year and will definitely be booking into that one for 2010. I’d love to go to more to be honest but if you need to travel to them the costs soon add up – and with two little daughters I’ve got a lot of mouths to feed!

What hobbies do you have and do they help you ’switch off’ from the internet?

I do a fair bit of medium to long distance running, a bit of windsurfing and I also love doing a bit of cooking when I get the chance – although out of all of them running is really the best way to clear out my head after a long day in front of the computer. And of course playing with my kids is a great way to get back a bit of perspective on the world.

Finally, do you have any tips for people starting in the industry?

Don’t cut corners. Write code by hand, take the time to learn not just how things work but also why, and make sure you pay attention to all the little details as it’s these that separate good developers (and websites!) from the really great ones.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions, Mark!

Links: Mark’s Blog | Work | Twitter

About Heart Internet Reseller Professional:

Heart Internet’s Reseller Professional account has been specially tailored for web designers, Internet integrators, web hosting resellers and developers.

The Reseller package includes unlimited web space, unlimited bandwidth and the ability to host unlimited domains at no extra charge plus many features that other hosting companies charge for, such as generic secure server access; free use of our generic name servers; and branding of your control panel with your own logo, company name and look and feel. You can add as many Linux or Windows hosting accounts as you like at no extra charge.

At just £29.99 per month the Heart Internet Reseller Professional is outstanding value for money and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, real-time account activation and the ability to cancel anytime.

Question:

How many domain names can you host with the Heart Internet Reseller Professional account?

A. 10
B. 100
C. Unlimited

WINNERS! Congratulations to Levi Ripley and Markus Holmroos who were chosen at random by Heart Internet to win the competition. Heart Internet will be in touch with you soon with more information.

My Review of Heart Internet

When Heart Internet approached me about running a competition on my website I was delighted because I’ve been a very satisfied reseller with them for nearly 3 years.

I first opened an account with Heart Internet in March 2007 mainly because my previous hosting company had made it very difficult to allow my web design clients to access their own FTP or e-mail accounts. This was fine in the early days but more and more of my clients wanted full control of their accounts so I knew I had to change.

I researched several reseller packages but decided on Heart Internet after reading several positive reviews and trying out their free hosting package to test the water. After a few days of testing their control panel and being very impressed with the technical support (support tickets have always been dealt with promptly) I decided to upgrade to the full reseller package.

I had quite a few websites to transfer over from my old host but it was more than worth doing. Now my clients all have their own control panel to setup e-mail addresses, install software (Heart Internet provide a wide selection of regularly updated software that can be installed with one click) and can manage their hosting account themselves if they want to. It is so much more flexible than what I was used to and a breath of fresh air.

At the end of 2007 Heart Internet introduced HostPay which is an automated shopping cart system to allow your customers to order domains, web hosting and administer all parts of their account (view invoices, change contact details etc…)

HostPay connects with several payment systems and you can choose to have everything automated or you can process orders manually if you prefer.

HostPay has been great and has allowed me to offer hosting to new clients rather than just my existing web design clients which is great for earning residual income alongside normal work. There are several templates included but it is quite straightforward to build your own design round the HostPay tags. In fact, pretty all parts of the reseller system are white label and give you complete control of branding!

If you ever need assistance you can contact Heart Internet via their very support ticket system which has proven to be very prompt and helpful. I’ve often got ticket responses within a few minutes (even in the middle of the night!) which is very reassuring that you are in safe hands.

Overall, I am delighted with the services Heart Internet have provided me over the last 3 years and I highly recommend them. If you are a web designer you’ll find their reseller package fantastic.

Good luck with the competition! If you want to try out Heart Internet please click here and click the free hosting option at the bottom of their home page.

http://www.dawghousedesignstudio.com | http://twitter.com/mj12982

Hi Jan. Can you tell our readers a little bit about yourself please?

I’m Jan Cavan, a freelance web and graphic designer who runs Dawghouse Design Studio, a design blog offering free tutorials and resources to the design community.

What made you want to start freelancing in the first place?

I’ve always wanted to freelance full time. I loved the idea of having the freedom and flexibility of being your own boss and having some work/life balance, however, I must admit that I was a bit skeptical at first as I understood how, when freelancing full time, there can be times when work seems scarce and all you have are nothing but inquiries. It took me months trying to weigh things out and I was never really able to make that decision until there were some intolerable circumstances that happened in my corporate job that frustrated me and just made me decide to quit. In hindsight, it may have been a mistake to quit my job without doing much preparation, but I could definitely say now that it was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

I thought then that when deciding to quit your full time job to go freelancing full time and money is one of the deciding factors, full time employment usually outweighs the other but I’ve realized now that that isn’t always the case.

How have you found the first few months as a freelancer?

Luckily, I never had a tough time during my first few months. I redesigned and launched my online portfolio/blog last year and I’m very happy that it was well received by the public. My site had been featured on several design blogs and printed publications which strengthened my web presence and had certainly made it easier for me to transition from having a full time job to freelancing full time as I didn’t really have to scour the web just to find work. However, I did have to learn how to do other stuff such as negotiating with potential clients, writing my own contracts, bookkeeping and a whole lot more but it’s been an enjoyable learning process.

What methods have you used to gain new clients in the early months?

I never really thought of coming up with any special method to gain new clients during my first few months of full time freelancing. Redesigning and launching my blog the previous year improved my web presence and that was the only thing that helped me get started.

Moving forward, I started to write tutorials for Six Revisions and other well-known design blogs. That helped me gain more exposure and more new clients as well.

How has social networking helped you start up your freelancing business?

Social Networking definitely aids in getting your name out there and helps you find new business leads without costing you lots of money. For instance, the first two tutorials I wrote for Six Revisions landed on the front page of Digg and that got me booked for projects in the coming months. I also got to work with clients who found me on Twitter and Facebook.

I really love the hand-drawn illustrations on your website! How would you describe your style of design?

Thanks, Phil! Although I always enjoy exploring other styles of design, I’ve always been fond of the grunge style.

What would your ideal client be like?

As much as I’d like to be flexible when it comes to dealing with different kinds of people, it’s always great to be working with people who have a fairly good idea of what they want. That usually helps them provide clearer instructions, thus, helping the designer understand which direction to go and makes the collaboration easier.

On another note, I’ve had one client who kept sending me many different emails, all with no subject. I’d have to say that was one thing I’m not very fond of.

What are your business plans for 2010?

I’d really like to devote more time on blogging and be able to take my blog to the next level.

Are there any other designers or agencies producing work that you admire?

I really love the works of Michael Heald of Fully Illustrated. He’s a really talented guy and never ceases to amaze me with his work. Another designer I admire is Chris Spooner. He’s a really nice guy and really talented as well. He’s one of the designers who inspired me to start blogging.

What one piece of advice would you give to people who are considering freelancing?

I would recommend them to not quit their full time jobs until they are ready to make that final jump. Full time freelancing isn’t as easy as it seems. It requires a lot of work and discipline. When you decide to go freelancing full time, bear in mind that you are not just a designer this time around. You are also now a project manager, salesperson, bookkeeper, tech support guy, secretary, etc. and you have to be ready to take on those jobs as well. While fully employed, begin building a small client base you can start off with and try creating a stronger web presence at the same time. This will help get you a nice security net while starting out and help get yourself ready to make that big switch.

Thanks for a great interview, Jan!

http://www.dawghousedesignstudio.com | http://twitter.com/mj12982

Our short questionnaire is completely anonymous and should only take a minute or two of your time. It is open to web designers of all levels of experience (including agencies)

Obviously, the more people that complete the questionnaire the more accurate the data will be so I’d really, really appreciate any links or tweets to help spread the word.

Thanks for taking part

The Results So Far…

We are pleased to publish our results based on the first batch of responses to our web design pricing questionnaire. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this post so far!

To ensure we can provide the most accurate feedback we will be leaving the questionnaire open and will be updating the results every couple of weeks based on new data so please feel free to complete the survey if you haven’t already done so.

Please note: All currency conversions are approximate and based on the correct rate on the date of publication.

Number of responses data is based on: 220

Date last updated: 17th December 2009

Thanks to everyone who has submitted their rates for this survey! Hopefully the results will grow and grow over time to provide an increasingly accurate indication of web design rates. If you haven’t already submitted your rates please feel free to do so at the top of this page.

If you have any additional reports you’d like to see please leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to arrange this for the next update.

Blog.SpoonGraphics | Line25 | twitter.com/ChrisSpooner

Can you tell us a little bit about how you first got into the world of design?

I’ve basically always wanted to be a designer, right from a fairly young age. I’m not exactly sure where the career idea came from! I went through school, college and University focusing on art and design subjects and eventually landed myself my first job as a designer at a local Graphic/Web Design studio straight after graduation. Along the way my idea of the type of design I fancied concentrating on did change slightly. Originally it was the idea of designing posters and book covers that caught my interest, then during my later education I became more interested in 3D design, before finding a passion in website design, logo design and illustration.

I still enjoy experimenting in new areas, and the knowledge of print design, web design, branding and illustration all combines to add variety to my working days!

What made you first want to start blogging and writing tutorials?

I learnt loads of handy tips and techniques by following tutorials in my early design days, and have actually found them extremely handy since. I pretty much learnt my whole XHTML and CSS knowledge, as well as my semi-basic jQuery knowledge entirely from free articles, tutorials and advice offered online. Knowing how much I’ve benefited from such tutorials gives me the incentive to offer my advice and share what I know to hopefully help others out in the same way.

Blogging wise, I remember enjoying reading topics on sites such as Bittbox and Smashing Magazine, and saw the odd design blog spring up at the time, most of which were based on the Wordpress platform. I simply jumped on the bandwagon and gave it a go as an excuse to experiment with Wordpress and give myself a playground to test out new techniques.

In your opinion, what makes a good design tutorial?

Any tutorial that shows you how to achieve a certain goal is a good tutorial. Sometimes this might be a huge website design walkthrough from sketches to coded concept, or it might just focus on a specific area, like how to add a background image in CSS. Each one will always offer something new to a reader and help someone out in some way.

Tutorials that use plenty of images are generally better. After all, we’re in the design industry so plenty of visual cues are always handy! A picture speaks a thousand words, so a screenshot of an options screen is much easier to follow than a three paragraph description!

Otherwise, writing about something that hasn’t otherwise been covered, or isn’t a popular topic always goes down well. I think my Illustrator tutorials helped develop my blog’s exposure as there was never many of them around. So it quickly became one of the popular destinations for that particular subject.

You’ve recently moved house which can be a chaotic time! Was it difficult to fit in client work and your blogging around this?

It was a little bit of a squeeze, but luckily I didn’t have any projects with pressing deadlines, and I’d been avoiding taking on too much work beforehand. Most of the work I had on at the time was pretty open ended, and in the slower middle stages of the project. This allowed me to work off a few jobs and fire out a few emails then spend the rest of the day painting, decorating and shifting boxes. I soon managed to setup my laptop in a corner and keep things up to date.

I also powered out a schedule of blog posts for the whole month before the move, so I didn’t have to worry about writing a new article every week. That’s the great thing about blogging – You can spend a whole day writing topics and set the post to go live according to the weekly schedule, then relax for a while!

I’ve really enjoyed your recent video blog series. What has the feedback been like and do you plan to continue them?

Thanks! It’s great to hear people have taken an interest. It has been excellent recording the process of decorating the house, both for nostalgic reasons and for family local and abroad to gain an insight into what we’re up to. The feedback from fellow designer people has been great, and I’ll definitely keep them up. I’m actually thinking of creating some design related content for my blog in video format.

Your Adobe Illustrator “Purple Lemon” logo tutorial first introduced me to your blog way back in 2007. Apart from logo design, what other things do you use Adobe Illustrator for?

I remember the Purple Lemon logo gaining quite a bit of exposure for the blog, and links back into the point mentioned earlier about creating a tutorial that will help people out. Other logo tutorials at the time only focused on creating the visual graphic, whereas I wrote about the theory of logo design and pointers like making a logo that will work in a single colour. This extra info seemed to help people out and helped grow the blog.

Other than logo design, I use Illustrator for character creations, small print jobs such as business cards and leaflets and generally for random design stuff. There’s a range of shapes and effects that can be created in Illustrator, so I’ll often switch in and out of Illustrator and Photoshop depending on the nature of the project.

One of my favourite logos from 2009 was your Vivid Ways design and it was very interesting to read about the design process on your blog. Can you tell us a bit about the logo and the idea behind sharing the design process?

The Vivid Ways logo was a great example of the types of projects I enjoy – I had creative freedom on the job so I could really go to town and treat it as a project of my own. Scott from Vivid Ways and Jon from SpyreStudios also gave great feedback and were really happy with the design. Scott mentioned it captured everything he could have wished for in the design, so it was a job well done!

I’ll often put my favourite work in my design portfolio, and every now and again I’ll write a design process post for the blog. These posts tend to receive great feedback from readers as it gives an insight into how a design is developed from start to finish, as well as an overview of how the actual design was made. It also helps generate the extra bit of exposure! The post helps associate that particular style of design with my name, so it helped bring in a couple of jobs that had similar requirements.

It definitely seemed to do a good job of associating it with my name because when the Google Wave logo was released, I spotted a few comments on various websites saying ‘This looks like the Vivid Ways logo by Chris Spooner!’. I’m just glad I got mine in first!

Are there any logos or websites that have really caught your eye this year?

One web design blog I subscribed to earlier in the year is Build Internet. The guys have done a great job growing it with some fab content so far. Design wise, most of the website designs that have caught my eye have appeared in my Sites of the Week roundup on Line25.com. This series has been a great way of tracking my inspiration, and keeping an eye on new trends or styles.

What plans to you have for Blog.SpoonGraphics and Line25.com for 2010?

I’m planning on continuing to post new content each week in the form of a tutorial, an article or some kind of inspirational post. I have a design refresh planned for both sites, with Blog.SpoonGraphics being the first to see a new skin. I’ll be rebuilding the themes from scratch to give it a general update and introduce a couple of new features.

For Blog.SpoonGraphics I’m also currently contemplating a membership system, similar to a couple of other design tutorial related sites. Here I’d post some premium content, some discounts for some top design related products and services, and treat the members to some giveaways.

Your Line25.com ‘Sites of the Week’ feature is a wonderful source of inspiration. What RSS feeds or magazines do you subscribe to get inspired?

I have a feed reader packed full of a bunch of design feeds. Many of them are the usual big design sites, but I’m always adding new subscriptions. I tend to enjoy browsing the news aggregating sites such as DesignBump, DesignM.ag and CSSGlobe. All three can lead on to interesting posts and articles outside of my usual circle of feeds, and help me discover new and interesting blogs.

What hobbies do you have and do they help you ’switch off’ from designing and blogging?

Laura and I usually head off to the Cinema or the Gym in the evening. Otherwise we enjoy the odd day of adventure, often at the theme park! I have a couple of items on my wishlist for 2010, one of which is to take my motorcycle test and treat myself to a bike of some kind.

I’ve also been on an annual skiing trip the past two years with friends, so I’m currently trying to arrange a repeat venture for this year. This time my camcorder will be coming along, so keep an eye out on ChrisSpooner.com in the new year!

Finally, do you have any tips for people who want to start writing tutorials?

Don’t be afraid of giving away all your secrets, or thinking that if you show people how to do stuff for free you’ll never generate any paid client work. The effect is actually the opposite. Your tutorials help associate your name with the subject your talking about, and helps set you up as an expert. The tutorials on my blog soon generated more exposure and leads than my design portfolio, to the point that if on Monday I wrote a tutorial on how to design a skate deck, on Tuesday I’d have the opportunity to take on a skate deck design project. This is actually how I landed a job creating some merchandise for the band Fall Out Boy; that lead came directly from a related post on my blog.

With all this in mind the best tip I’d offer is to use tutorials as an incentive to try out new techniques yourself, then share your knowledge with others.

Thank you for a great interview, Chris. Wishing you all the best in your new home!

Blog.SpoonGraphics | Line25 | twitter.com/ChrisSpooner

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