That news probably warmed the cockles of the hearts of web designers everywhere. Thus, it seems designers and developers now have even more incentive to stop supporting IE6, following the pattern set by Google, notably with regards to YouTube.

The stats in the Mashable article are based on StatCounter Global Stats. In this article, I’ll provide some food for thought by way of some alternative statistics that in many ways contradict the sources for the article published by Mashable.

These stats should drive home the point that every website is different, and that in some cases it may still be necessary to provide a fairly decent experience in IE6, while progressively enhancing design and functionality for newer browsers.

Below is a screenshot from the June browser version report for Europe, with IE6’s share indicated:

But developers should not be so quick to jump on this bandwagon. The statistics that the Mashable article were based on are specific to Europe and the U.S. (which are obviously huge markets), so the advice given in so many areas of web design likewise applies here: Design for your audience, and don’t be swayed by trends.

What are the Worldwide Stats?

Let’s look at the same statistics from StatCounter, but with the broader worldwide filter applied:

Now the IE6 usage stats are just about doubled, up to just under 10%. Already we can see the importance of considering your own audience and your own analytics reports before hastily disregarding IE6 support.

Another browser version report, this one by Net Applications provides significantly higher statistics for IE6:

Net Applications explain on their home page how their stats are compiled, for those who are curious as to why their stats for IE6 differ so much. Even if we don’t accept these as the most relevant stats, they do offer an alternative report that encourages developers and site owners to pay close attention to their own analytics.

Another very significant set of stats for worldwide browser usage is provided by W3schools. Generally speaking, web developers should not rely on reports from W3schools, because their usage stats are based on W3school’s analytics. Their website is visited by web professionals and programmers who are very unlikely to use IE6 in their day-to-day tasks. Nonetheless, their browser version stats are interesting to consider:

Even in this niche area, the usage for IE6 is almost 3% higher than the reports for the U.S. and Europe. So again, while the stats for Europe and the U.S. are encouraging for the demise of IE6, we should still be careful.

It should also be noted that the W3schools browser stats page is (and has long been) at the top of Google search results for the phrase “browser usage statistics“. This is misleading because those stats are specific to the tech and programming industry, and should not be considered for final analytics.

What About Individual Country Reports?

This is where the reports get very interesting. Below, you’ll find screenshots displaying browser version stats for some of the most populous nations in the world, with the IE6 stats indicated:

Browser Usage Stats for China

The stats shown above for China alone are hard to believe. IE6 dominates usage in that market. But encouragingly, the stats are much lower for Asia overall, as shown below:

Browser Usage Stats for Asia

Browser Usage Stats for India

Browser Usage Stats for Pakistan

Of course, just because these are some of the most populated parts of the world, does not necessarily mean those are large or lucrative markets. In fact, due to the dense population numbers, the opposite could be true.

So, the stats above will obviously only be pertinent to those who are developing websites and web apps targeted at those specific geographic markets.

At the very least, reviewing some of these country-specific reports reminds us why the usage stats have remained so high for so long.

What Does This all Mean?

The reasonable thing to conclude from these reports is that each project is different, and no single set of stats should be the determining factor for support of IE6.

If you’re developing a brand new site that doesn’t have any analytics trends, then you should carefully study the demographics of your intended audience, and then adjust your support requirements as new analytics statistics are gathered after launch.

On the other hand, if you’re redeveloping or realigning an already established property, past analytics reports should prove invaluable to your development efforts to ensure you’re reaching as many people as possible.

As an epilogue to this discussion, it would certainly be wise to also consider usage for IE7 and IE8 — both of which, according to many of the charts shown above, have significant market shares.

This post was written exclusively for Webdesigner Depot by Louis Lazaris, a freelance writer and web developer. Louis runs Impressive Webs where he posts articles and tutorials on web design. You can follow Louis on Twitter or get in touch with him through his website.

Do you still notice significant usage stats for IE6 in your site’s analytics? Please comment below and let us know.

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And for a lot of designers, that’s just not something they want to do. But with the dozens of frameworks available out there, why not look at it the other way around: why not find the framework that fits within your design projects?

To that end, we’ve compiled 30 of the best design frameworks out there. These frameworks are purely for design (you won’t find JavaScript or Ajax frameworks here, which, for the most part, fall more under development frameworks).

There’s almost certainly a framework listed here that can be adapted to your particular project, rather than the other way around.

General CSS Frameworks

The CSS frameworks here offer designers a structure going into their projects, so they aren’t starting entirely from scratch. Some offer layout guidance, mostly through the use of grids, while others only focus on things like typography, leaving the layout entirely up to you.

1KB CSS Grid
The 1KB CSS Grid is an adaptable grid that can be configured in a number of ways before downloading. You choose the number of columns, the column width, and the gutter width before downloading the files. It’s an incredibly easy to understand grid, even for those not familiar with CSS frameworks. It’s also a very bare-bones framework, with only the CSS necessary to build the layouts (no extra formatting is included).

YAML
YAML (”Yet Another Multicolumn Layout”) is a CSS framework for creating flexible, floated layouts. It includes design patterns for typography, microformats, forms, and more, as well as full accessibility and web standards compliance. It’s also a very stable framework, with most browser bugs patched by YAML. There’s also the YAML Builder, which lets you create YAML-based layouts visually.

One of the sample YAML layouts with basic styling options.

Simpl
Simpl is a modular, flexible CSS framework that aims to fill in the gaps of some other CSS frameworks. It’s fluid (with the option of static side columns), simple to learn and use, and is nestable (but doesn’t require nesting). It includes styles for forms, tables, and other common elements.

The Golden Grid
The Golden Grid is a CSS framework built on the principle of the golden ration or the divine proportion. It’s 970px wide, uses a 6/12 grid system, and when compressed is less than 1kb. There are a bunch of great demos, both of the grid and of sample pages built on the grid. There’s also a mini tutorial available to help you get started.

An example of a layout created with The Golden Grid.

SenCSs
SenCSs is a framework that offers sensible styling for all the repetitive parts of your CSS files. It doesn’t include any kind of layout system, unlike many CSS frameworks, which makes it more versatile for non-standard website designs. It includes styles for a lot of other things though: baseline, fonts, margins, blockquotes, padding, and more.

Elements
Elements includes a variety of folders and files that help speed up your web design process. It’s a lightweight framework that’s easy to use, includes a number of preset classes, a mass reset, and adds icons to external links (which improves both style and usability).

Blueprint CSS
Blueprint is a free CSS framework that includes a CSS reset, a grid that supports complex layouts, styled typography and forms, and plugins for buttons, tabs and sprites. There’s also plenty of documentation to get you started, as well as a discussion group and mailing list.

Tripoli
Tripoli is a generic CSS framework that resets all default browser settings. It’s made to work with HTML 4 and separates typography from layout styles. It also aims to increase the readability of your websites through better typography. It also works with a number of plugins to extend the generic defaults of the framework.

Content with Style CSS Framework
The Content With Style CSS framework offers half a dozen layouts, including vertical navigation with one content column, horizontal navigation with one content column, vertical navigation with two columns of content, and horizontal navigation with local navigation and one column of content. It orders the source code logically, with the main content coming immediately after the header within the code, regardless of the visual layout of the page.

960 Grid System
The 960 Grid System is probably the most famous CSS framework that’s come out in recent years, and has been the inspiration for a number of other frameworks. There are two grids available: a 12-column grid with columns that are 60 pixels wide and a 16-column grid with 40-pixel-wide columns. One big advantage is that these basic grid configurations can be used separately or in tandem. 960 pays focuses on site layout and pays little attention to things like typography (though there are basic provisions in place for them).

Typogridphy
Typogridphy is a CSS framework that focuses heavily on typography within the layout. It’s based on the 960 Grid System and has standards-compliant, semantic code. The typography is based on the principle of vertical rhythm, but uses ems rather than pixels.

Emastic
Emastic is a lightweight CSS framework that lets you customize the width of the page using ems, pixels, or percentages. It works in either a fixed or fluid layout, and includes baseline grid typography styles. There’s a tutorial available that will teach you how to create layouts with Emastic, too.

Malo
The Malo CSS framework consists of only 8 lines of CSS code. It’s flexible and easy to use, with a customizable page width. Malo lets you create layouts made up of two, three, four, or five parts. Nested columns are also allowed.

BlueTrip
BlueTrip is a CSS framework based on a 24-column grid. It includes typography styles, an empty starter stylesheet, a print stylesheet, form styles, and more. There’s extensive documentation available, as well as a showcase of sites built on BlueTrip.

1 Line CSS Grid Framework
This is a bit of a different CSS framework, in that it only uses a single line of CSS. Using this single line of CSS, which works on the principles of dividing columns in half, you can create grids with 2, 4, 8, or 16 columns. It’s cross-browser compatible, even as far back as IE5.5.

Free WordPress Theme Frameworks

There are a lot of great WP frameworks out there available for free. Some are very basic, with only the most general structure. Others are minimalist themes in themselves, but easily adaptable to other projects. What they all do, though, is simplify the coding process in WP theme development, effectively eliminating a designer’s need to deal with PHP or other code.

Reptile
Reptile is a theme framework from WP Bandit that works with child themes (skins). WP Bandit uses it for all of their themes and have made it available for free download. There isn’t a whole lot of information on their website other than that it includes a number of helper functions to make it easier for your theme to interact with WP.

Vanilla Theme
Vanilla was built to combine Carrington’s “atomic” templates, PHPTAL templates and YUI CSS. It also includes full widgetization, including custom widget controls. Vanilla is used with child themes, so you never need to touch the basic code. It also includes an HTML “minifier” that compresses output to speed up your site.

Whiteboard
Whiteboard is a free WP framework. It includes all the theme files one needs to create a WP theme, including: 404.php, archives.php, categories.php, comments.php, footer.php, functions.php, header.php, index.php, page.php, search.php, searchform.php, sidebar.php and style.css. It also includes pagination for posts and socialization links, and is only 72KB unzipped.

Sandbox
Sandbox is a very basic theme that contains a basic two-column layout with minimal styling. It’s fully widget-compatible and has plenty of selectors so it’s fully customizable with CSS.

The Buffet Framework
The Buffet Framework uses child themes for customization, and also uses theme extensions for further customization. It’s search engine optimized, has support for microformats, is powered by jQuery, and is even packaged with 960gs and Blueprint CSS frameworks. It’s released under the GPL v3.

Carrington
Carrington is a free WP theme framework released under the GNU GPL v2. One of Carrington’s biggest benefits is the extensive documentation available on the website. There are four basic themes available within the framework: Blog (a traditional blog-style theme), Text (a simple, text-based theme), Mobile (for mobile browsers) and JAM (Just Add Markup, a bare-bones framework). Depending on the level of customization you want, there’s almost certainly an option that will work for you.

The Carrington Text theme.

Hybrid
Hybrid is a free theme that includes 8 widgetized areas and 15 custom page templates. It’s free and open source and can be used for both personal and commercial projects. It’s available in a variety of languages (just download the language pack), including Arabic, Chinese, French, Italian, German, Russian, Spanish and Turkish. Basic documentation is available for free, but for more extensive documentation you’ll need to join their Theme Club ($25/year).

Thematic
Thematic is an open source, extensible WP framework with 13 widgetized areas, grid-based layout samples, and styling for popular plugins. Thematic has enough style out of the box to use without developing it any further, but it also makes a perfect parent theme (there are both free and commercial child themes already available for it). It includes a sample Child Theme to speed up your theme development. It’s also ready for a number of popular WP plugins, and has a number of easy-to-implement layout options for both two and three column designs.

Premium WordPress Theme Frameworks

Premium WP theme frameworks are much like the free frameworks available, though most have additional functions that aren’t available in the free versions. Many of the frameworks below offer option panels that give non-coders almost complete control over the design of their blog, while also being developer-friendly for those who do want to dive into the code.

Ashford
The Ashford WP theme framework is a simple, easy to use framework that includes eight page templates (gallery, blog, topic, author, codex, detail, and tab among them). There are more than 250 possible page variations you can create, and there are four options for how to display your posts (thumbnail, blurb, excerpt, and full). There’s a limited free version (that’s still pretty powerful) or you can purchase the pro version for $49.

Elemental
Elemental is a premium theme framework from Pro Theme Design. Right out of the box, Elemental has a clean, elegant design that can be used as-is by just setting options in the custom control panel (for things like typography, column size, navigation, etc.) or you can customize it to your heart’s content. There are four widgetized areas, custom widgets, animated multi-level dropdown menus, support for Gravatars, image thumbnail resizing and a lot more. The Basic Copy (for one site) is $59.99 and the Multi Copy (for developers) is $149.99.

Thesis
Thesis is a premium WP framework that focuses on flexibility, built-in search engine optimization and fast loading times. The options panels offers a lot of flexibility without having to dive into the code. There’s even a layout generator that lets you automatically create 1, 2, and 3-column layouts. The Personal Option (a single site license) is $87 and the Developer’s Option (which allows multiple site deployments) is $164.

Nerdist is just one of the popular blogs running on the Thesis framework.

Genesis
Genesis is a premium WP framework from StudioPress. Genesis works on the basis of using child themes to style content without changing the parent theme/framework. It includes a few custom widgets (including one for Twitter, for user profiles, and featured posts), as well as a choice of layout options. It also includes a number of Hooks for further customizations. Genesis is $59.95.

Headway
Headway is a framework specifically for those who don’t want to deal with coding. It has a visual editor that claims to let you create all sorts of sites, from standard blogs to ecommerce sites. The configuration panel for Headway is extensive and lets you do everything from inserting scripts without coding to setting permissions and adjusting settings for posts and comments. It’s a great theme for anyone who just wants to design and doesn’t want to deal with all the back-end stuff. There are two options available: Personal for $87 and Developer for $164.

WP Unlimited
WP Unlimited is another premium WP theme framework that lets you make pretty substantial customizations from right within the options panel. WP Unlimited includes an AdSense Generator for customizing the look and feel or your AdSense ads and for arranging them on your site. It also lets you completely customize the design, and has built-in SEO features. A personal license is $59 and the developer license is $150.

Frugal Theme
Frugal is a highly customizable premium theme framework with more than 600 custom options you can change right from your WP dashboard. You can customize virtually every aspect of Frugal within the options panel. Developers will also find Frugal useful, as there’s plenty of room for custom CSS, functions, widgets, and more. Frugal has a variety of license options: Personal Basic for $89, Developer Basic for $169, Frugal MU (Multi-User) for $299, Frugal Unlimited for $399 and Frugal Complete for $499.

Written exclusively for WDD by Cameron Chapman

Do you have a favorite framework that isn’t mentioned above? Please let us know in the comments below…

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Many designers are still approaching website changes as redesigns, with little thought to whether they should be redesigning or realigning the site for their clients.

In fact, many designers are still a bit confused about which one is appropriate for which projects, or even what the difference really is.

Understanding the difference between redesigning and realigning can result in happier clients who are better reaching their website goals.

There are times when redesigns are appropriate, and there are other times when realignments are appropriate. It all depends on how the client’s current site is working for them, and what their goals are.

Read on to find out more about the differences between redesigning and realigning, and how to determine which one fits your current and future projects.

What’s the Difference?

The difference between redesigning a website and realigning a website isn’t always 100% clear cut. But the main thing that sets them apart is that redesigns are primarily focused on aesthetic changes: color schemes, graphics, typography, etc.; whereas realignments are more focused on purpose and function.

The White House’s website underwent a major realignment when President Obama took office. Screenshots from iterasiarchive and whitehouse.gov.

A realignment will look at what parts of a site are working and what parts aren’t, and will then work around those strengths and weaknesses. A redesign, on the other hand, will focus more on design trends and how the site looks.

Many designers think that every website revision should be a realignment rather than a redesign, but the truth is that both have their place. Below we’ll cover the strengths and weaknesses of both redesigns and realignments, and how to decide which one is appropriate for your projects.

Redesigning

As already mentioned, redesigning focuses on the aesthetics of the site. A redesign will likely consist of changing the graphics, color scheme, and other visual elements of the site’s design. Little or no attention is usually paid to the structure and functionality of the site. Content usually stays the same, too.

When is a Redesign Appropriate?
Sometimes the structure of your site is just the way you want it. Your users are happy, your site is achieving what you want it to achieve. The only problem is that your site has been completely the same for the past five years. While it’s perfectly functional and does what it needs to do, it looks like a throwback and you’re worried it might be costing you new business.

This is a case where a redesign is perfect. You don’t need to change the functionality, content, or structure of your site. You just need to give it a facelift to make it appear fresh and new.

Things to Remember When Redesigning
When you’re redesigning, you shouldn’t be doing much with the structure or function of the site. Look only at the visual elements and how they can be updated or otherwise improved upon.

Most redesigned sites will bear a heavy resemblance to the original design, at least in terms of the way it works and the general content. You might move things around, but with an eye toward working better visually. The new design will leave the structure of the site much the same as it was prior to the redesign.

Redesigns are generally much faster to complete than realignments. If the original site was built on a CMS, it’s just creating a new theme or template. One thing you might want to consider if the site wasn’t built on a CMS is to switch it over to one during a redesign. While this might be closer to a realignment, it’s worth the time and effort if the client will be updating their site’s design on a regular basis.

Make sure your clients are prepared for the impact a redesign can have on their site visitors. They will almost inevitably get some long-time visitors who will complain about the new design, and (hopefully) a lot of visitors who love the new design. A client who’s never been through a redesign may be surprised when a visitor complains about the new site if they’re not prepared for that eventuality.

Remember that redesigns are often instinct-driven and rely more on your intuition as a designer than on hard data. Because functionality is left intact, you can proceed more on gut instinct than you can with a realignment.

Screenshots from Archive.org and HighriseHQ.com.

Realigning

Realignment, as compared to redesign, has a much greater focus on user experience and usability. With a realignment, you’re addressing specific issues with the structure or functionality of the site, in addition to design changes.

You’ll need to spend a lot more time on the fact-finding portion of a realignment. Figuring out what’s working on the site and what isn’t is as important (or even more important) than nailing down what the final site will look like and what features need to be added.

In many cases, a realignment will include a redesign portion. The client may want to update how the site looks if they’re spending money to update the way it works. Realize that many clients may focus more on the visual aspects of the site than the functional ones, but it’s your job as the designer to get an idea from them of what non-design elements are and aren’t working in their current website.

When is a Realignment Appropriate?
If there are fundamental problems with the way a website is working, whether it’s actual issues with the code or just a poor implementation, then a redesign isn’t going to do much for your client. This is when a realignment is necessary.

A realignment may also be necessary if a client is embarking on a new business venture. If they’re adding an online store, for example, they’ll likely need to do more than just install some shopping cart software. Changes to their home page and other areas of the site to entice visitors to purchase online will probably be needed, and other areas of the site may need to be de-emphasized or removed all together.

As far as exactly when a client should realign their site, the answer is as often as necessary. It should become a regular habit to review what’s working on their site and what isn’t, and to make adjustments as necessary. If goals aren’t being met, continuous tweaks to the functions, structure, content, and design of the site can move your clients closer to them. Stress to your clients that realignments to the site should be part of regular maintenance, not just something that’s done every few years.

Because functionality is often changed in a realignment, ideally it should be done during the client’s slow season. The last thing you want to happen is for a bug to crop up during the holiday shopping season (or whatever is the busiest time of year for your client’s business). It’s almost inevitable that there will be some bugs in the new site, and while you can hope that pre-launch testing will reveal them all, sometimes they don’t present themselves until well after the site has launched. If a client wants to embark on a realignment during their peak season, attempt to convince them they should put it off until after their peak season is over. If they refuse, reconsider accepting the project.

The Realignment Process
Realignment should start with a pretty in-depth discovery phase. You need to talk to the client about what they perceive as working and what isn’t, as well as taking some time to explore the site yourself to get your own idea of what should be kept and what should be replaced.

One of the main things you should find out during the discovery phase is the purpose of the realignment. The client should have clear goals for making changes to their site, and a concrete idea of what they hope to achieve when the site is complete. Keep asking your client questions until you find out what their main objective is.

The process of realignment falls somewhere between a completely new website and a redesign. You’ll be creating some elements of the site from scratch and reusing other parts. How much of each is done will be largely dependent on the individual project.

A/B testing is something that should be more heavily used in a realignment. Test not only new options, but also the new options against the existing feature. You need to be sure that what you’re doing is actually a functional improvement over the existing site, and not just a prettier design.

Things to Remember When Realigning
Just like with a redesign, there are a number of things you need to keep in mind when embarking on a realignment project. First of all, be sure you have a clear set of objectives in mind before you get started with the actual changes. Without this, you’ll have no focus in the project, and it will run the risk of just becoming a redesign.

Not all realignments are huge projects. In some cases, you may only be making minor changes to the way the site works and looks. In other cases, though, you may be basically starting from the ground up. With a realignment, make sure you aren’t doing unnecessary work. The point is to keep what works and change what doesn’t. If 90% of the current site works well as-is, then make sure you’re only changing the 10% that doesn’t.

You’ll want to be sure that the site you’re realigning has a solid foundation to build on. This means making sure the code is well-structured and standards-compliant, as well as making sure it’s built on a suitable CMS that can handle the site’s size and traffic. If any of these things are lacking, take advantage of the realignment process to remedy the back-end issues that may be present. It will pay off in the future with reduced costs in future redesigns and realignments.

Remember, too, that realignments are done based on hard data about what works on the current site and what doesn’t. While your gut instincts on certain aspects of the realignment will be important, so will be established usability patterns and information the client has collected about what’s working on their site and what isn’t. Don’t lose sight of that.

Final Considerations

During the discovery portion of a project, you, as the designer, need to determine whether the client is looking for a redesign or a realignment.

The client will often be unfamiliar with the term “realignment”, and in all honesty, there’s no reason to educate them about it. But you need to know in your head which type of project you’re embarking on.

If major changes to functionality, structure or content are necessary, then you’re looking at a realignment. On the other hand, if all the client wants is an updated look, then it’s probably a redesign. Again, it’s your job as the designer to determine which type of project the client needs.

Remember, whether you’re doing a redesign or a realignment, make sure you back up the original site as well as make regular backups throughout the project so you can rollback if necessary.

Further Resources

• Good Designers Redesign, Great Designers Realign
  The original article by Cameron Moll discussing the difference between redesigning and realigning, from A List Apart.
• Redesign or Realign Your Website?
  From Tunnel 7.
• Redesign Vs. Tweaked Design: What’s Best for Your Website
  From Visual Swirl.
• Redesign: When To Relaunch The Site and Best Practices
  From Smashing Magazine.

Written exclusively for WDD by Cameron Chapman.

When do you use redesign vs realign on your sites? How do the two compare?

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What kind of designer are you? What is your philosophy? How do you contribute to the design community? Designers from different walks of life might have similar answers to these questions, and yet we are all different.

Some designers take it upon themselves to educate those who have not yet developed an appreciation for Web design and art. Some designers aim to improve the overall quality of design on the Internet.

And of course, some designers strive primarily to make a good living from their talents so that they can live a comfortable life.

Whatever your reason for being a designer, you are unique.

• If you want to be a well-paid designer, please the client.
• If you want to be an award-winning designer, please yourself.
• If you want to be a great designer, please the audience.

Spotting the 7 Different Designers

Human beings constantly wear masks to hide their true feelings, thoughts and personality quirks. Designers wear masks of their own: one to attend to clients, another to handle a project’s details, another to collaborate with colleagues and yet another to communicate with family and friends. Human nature is to wear a different mask according to the role one is playing.

Despite these masks, our true personality still shines through. There are seven different personality types of designers. Which one best describes you?

1. The Pablo Picasso Designer

A perfectionist, the Pablo Picasso designer does not stand for any pixel to be out of place or unsightly. Egotistical, he does not care about other people’s opinions, and he belittles them for their ignorance and lack of appreciation of design and the arts.

Principled, the Pablo Picasso designer has a strong mind and set beliefs that cannot be swayed by any amount of money. His only concern is for the ingenuity of ideas.

A man out to change the world of design, he does not succumb to the whims of clients, and he believes it is their loss if they do not heed his advice. Believing he is a cut above the rest, he admits to only a few other designers in the world being his peers. The Pablo Picasso designer sees himself, above all else, as an artist.

2. The Albert Einstein Designer

A smart man with an excellent work ethic, the Albert Einstein designer has the motto “No pain, no gain.” Unafraid of ridicule, he dares to be different.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again. Failure is the mother of all success, and the Albert Einstein designer has a never-give-up attitude that pushes him to continually reach his goals despite countless failures.

The Albert Einstein designer continues to create his own designs, putting them to the test in various design competitions. He may not get it right each time or win every competition, but he believes his hard work will eventually pay off and that he will be recognized for his talents and effort.

His strong faith and his belief in himself enable him to patiently wait for the day when he is praised for his contributions. To him, the question is not if he will be successful, but rather when will he attain his goals and be successful.

3. The David Copperfield Designer

The David Copperfield designer is a great storyteller and illusionist. Capable of anything, regardless of how seemingly impossible it is, he conjures the best designs for his clients.

Convincing his clients to hire him and only him to do everything is a simple task. Given everything he delivers to clients, he does not come cheap. After all, he gives them everything they want, which amounts to a cleverly constructed illusion. Using his great storytelling skills, he leads clients to believe that he is the only person they need to achieve their goals.

Behind the scenes, the David Copperfield designer orchestrates his illusions down to the second. Appearances can be misleading; outsourcing his tasks, he packages the result as his own work.

The client doesn’t realize who are the hard-working talents who support him. He manages the project and delegates work to others but claims credit in the end.

4. The Captain Hook Designer

Why create when you can steal? The Captain Hook designer is cunning and sly. He scouts for the most innovative and successful designs and makes them his own—not by blatantly duplicating, mind you, but by cleverly working in his own ideas and inspiration.

Craftily avoiding outright plagiarism, the Captain Hook designer mashes up several successful ideas to create a fresh “new” concept.

Money being his sole interest, the Captain Hook designer tries to squeeze as much as he can out of his designs. By making small, simple changes to the color, font and layout, he passes off designs as new creations.

Unfazed by whether he loses some clients, he simply finds new ones who are unaware of his tricks. His lives by the pirate code that dictates, “A good designer copies, but a great designer steals.”

5. The Mahatma Gandhi Designer

Believing he is obliged to right wrongs, the Mahatma Gandhi designer takes it upon himself to effect change through peaceful means. He feels an obligation to improve Web design standards, regardless of any difficulties or opposition he might face. If he has to achieve his goal one client at a time, he will gladly do so.

Sharing his design philosophy with whomever will listen, the Mahatma Gandhi designer tries to persuade others—designers, clients and the general public alike—to help him make the design industry a better place.

A forward-thinking man who sets trends, he advocates for what he believes is necessary to improve and sustain the design industry. Willing to sacrifice himself for the benefit of other designers, the Mahatma Gandhi designer does whatever he can to improve the world of design through peaceful and lasting change.

6. The Bashful Dwarf Designer

Shunning the spotlight, the Bashful Dwarf designer always feels like he could have done a better job. When praised, he is quick to share the credit with colleagues. Insecure about his talents, he is content to work behind the scenes and let others take the honor.

The Bashful Dwarf designer doesn’t think much of fame or fortune, and he prefers not to show his name or face. Lack of confidence is the cause: he believes many other designers out there deserve more recognition.

As long as he makes enough money to put a roof over his head and not go hungry, he remains content with his lot in life.

7. The Ella of Frell Designer

The real Ella of Frell fell under a spell and couldn’t say no to anyone. Slightly different, the Ella of Frell designer actually has a choice and does not have to do everything she is told.

Instead, she chooses not to decline her clients’ every wish. Believing the customer is always right, she goes out of her way to please clients. Clients never find fault with her because she is ever willing to make whatever changes they ask for. “No” is not in her vocabulary.

Often ignoring her better judgment, the Ella of Frell designer subjugates her design sense to the clients’ will in order to avoid displeasing them. She is at the client’s beck and call, night and day.

We Are All Different

Each designer has their own personality type. Whatever yours is, the important thing is to be true to yourself and honorable. Any one of the seven types covered here could be an extreme version of you. or you may see a little of yourself in each.

The only constant is change, and perhaps we have all been more than one of these seven at different times in our lives. We are, after all, always growing and hopefully wiser.

Written exclusively for Webdesigner Depot by Aidan Huang, a freelance developer and designer. He is also an editor at Onextrapixel.

Do you see yourself in any one of these personality types? Which best describes you? Share your thoughts on any Picassos, Einsteins, Hooks, Bashfuls, Copperfields, Gandhis and Ellas you may have encountered in this competitive industry.

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These super cool cards feature world renowned designers such as Veerle Pieters, Jeffrey Zeldman and Jason Santa Maria, among many others.

The official Typefaces site also carries wallpapers for each of the designers which you can download for free.

All winners were chosen at random and the results appear after the jump. Typefaces will contact all winners via email with details as to how to receive their prizes.

Read on to see if you won…

The 10 winners are:

#177 – Amie
#118 – Ankit
#63 – Klara
#65 – Oliver
#183 – Aura
#342 – Lucretiu
#109 – Aimee
#84 – Piotr
#356 – Mikki T
#33 – Enrique G.

For those of you that didn’t win, TypeFaces has generously provided us with a coupon code to get 20% off your purchase, simply use this coupon code when placing your order: WDD20

Thanks to Typefaces for this wonderful giveaway and thanks to all of you for participating…. Stay tuned for more great contests soon…

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For each designer, a typeface was selected to match their overall vibe. Each card has also been individually designed to reflect their vibe, supported typographically with the selected typeface.

The official site also carries wallpapers for each of the TypeFaces characters which you can download for free right away.

And today, we have 10 great sets of these cards ready to be shipped to you. The contest is open to WDD readers worldwide. Only one entry per person.

Read on for more details and information on how to participate and win one of these awesome sets of cards.

The cards are super cool and make for great gifts as well. They include world renowned designers such as Veerle Pieters, Jeffrey Zeldman and Jason Santa Maria among many other great ones. Check out some of these previews:

You can find out more about “Typefaces” at their cool URL: Typefac.es

To participate, simply leave a comment below and come back to WDD next Wednesday, May 12th, to find out if you have won.

Good luck to everyone!

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The idea was that there are already a ton of articles out there talking about how great it is to be a freelancer, and all the benefits, but there are very few posts that talk about the flip side of all that.

Freelancing is not for everyone. It’s an important decision that not only affects your career, but can also affect your personal life and financial well-being. Of course, a lot of readers thought we were being way too negative about it all.

So here’s a follow-up to that article, covering ways you can overcome the potential pitfalls of freelancing if you’re still sure it’s a career move that’s right for you.

The good news is that virtually all of these things are manageable if you’re willing to put in the time and effort it takes to deal with them.

1. You Think It Will Be Easier Than a Corporate Job

Image by ste3ve

This one requires a change in your mindset. For the most part, freelancing isn’t going to be easier than a corporate job (though it doesn’t necessarily need to be harder). If you go into it knowing it’s going to be hard work, just like any other job, then you’re going to set yourself up for success and you’ll already be ahead of many other freelancers.

2. You Don’t Have Much Experience

It’s not too hard to figure out how to overcome this one: get more experience! And there are some relatively simple ways to do so. Start a couple of personal projects. Get in touch with a local community group or non-profit about designing a website for them on a spec basis and in exchange for a testimonial. Don’t forget about any projects you completed in school. Those can all be used to bolster your portfolio.

Experience doesn’t necessarily have to mean paid experience. Any project that you complete for a satisfied client (even if that client is yourself) can be used as an example of your work.

3. You Have No Business Sense

There’s a difference between having no business sense and having no business knowledge. Some people, no matter how hard they try, just suck at making business decisions. In those cases, find a partner who does have a mind for business. Or a mentor who will help guide you if you don’t want to take on a partner (or can’t find one).

In the case that you just lack business knowledge, then head to the library or the local bookstore. There are tons of business books out there. Pick up a few on being an entrepreneur or starting a small business (particularly small, service-based businesses) and start reading. Also check out business- and freelance-related blogs, like these:

• FreelanceSwitch – Freelancing advice
• Freelance Folder – More freelancing guidance
• Seth Godin – Marketing guru

There are plenty of other business and freelancing blogs out there, so feel free to share your favorites in the comments. The point is that there are plenty of ways out there to gain the knowledge you need to be successful in business. It just takes some time and effort to learn.

4. You Need Benefits

Image by foxypar4

This can often be one of the scariest things for freelancers who are used to having paid holidays, paid sick days, and things like retirement plans and health insurance (in countries where employers often provide insurance).

For sick days and paid holidays, simply figure out how many of these days off you want or are likely to need. Let’s say you’re going to take five holidays a year, and that you think you’ll need five sick days. If you’re average weekly pay needs to be $1,000 (we’re going to use that number because it’s easy to figure things based on, but adjust according to your own needs), then that’s $200/day based on a five-day workweek. So for ten paid days off each year, you’ll need to come up with two weeks worth of pay. If we break that down over the remaining 50 weeks in the year, that’s only $40/week that you need to put into savings to cover your own paid sick days and holidays.

Other benefits like health insurance and retirement plans are a bit trickier. You’re going to lose out on things like employer-matching of retirement contributions. That’s just a sacrifice you’ll have to make if you want to freelance. But you can still set up private retirement plans. You’ll want to work with a qualified financial planner on these things to figure out the best plan for your particular situation and goals. It’s way too much to cover here. But be assured there are plenty of options out there.

As far as health insurance goes, check with professional organizations both locally and nationally, especially Chambers of Commerce. It’s common for these organizations to have group health insurance available for members. You’ll still have to pay for it out of your own pocket, but the group rates can make it much more affordable. Depending on your health, you may want to set up a high-deductible plan and a health-savings account to cover costs until you actually reach your deductible. Again, those are things you’ll have to consider based on your own situation and your own needs. Call local insurance agents and get a quote for health insurance and then compare that to the group plans available to you. Many health insurers also provide rate quotes on their websites.

The main difference in regard to benefits between being employed in a corporate environment and being a freelancer is that as a freelancer you’ll need to pay for your benefits out of your own pocket. But with some advance planning, it’s completely within the grasp of most freelancers to continue to enjoy the same benefits they did when employed by someone else.

5. You Think the Pay Will Be Better

This is another one where you’ll need to adjust your perceptions going into freelancing. In all likelihood, the pay will not be as good, at least in the beginning. And even if you’re earning a similar amount, remember that you’ll be paying for more things out of pocket, too. Things like insurance, utulities, software upgrades, and taxes will all come out of your own personal income.

One way to combat this is to cut back on your expenses as much as possible before making the switch. If you need less money to live on, earning less won’t be such a big deal. And the less money you’re spending on living, the more you can reinvest in your business, which can often translate into being more successful in the long run.

6. You Have No Self-Discipline

This is probably one of the most difficult things on this list to overcome. The truth is, there’s no easy way to learn self-discipline. Sometimes you can develop it out of necessity, but oftentimes things need to get really bad (like being evicted or having your car repossessed) before you actually develop it.

The best advice here is to set goals for yourself on a daily basis and make sure you meet them before you finish work for the day. If you set goals that are too big, you’ll come up with excuses not to complete them. Set goals that you know you can accomplish during the day. And set consequences for yourself if you don’t meet them.

Another option is to get someone else to hold you accountable. A significant other or friend is one option, as are other freelancers. Find someone you can email each day with a list of what you have to accomplish or what you have accomplished, who will hold you accountable if you don’t do your work. Sometimes just having someone to report to is enough to keep you motivated. Offer to do the same for them.

Again, learning self-discipline isn’t easy. And it’s one of the few things on this list that a lot of people might not be able to overcome well enough to become successful freelancers. If this is an issue for you, think long and hard before giving up a corporate job.

7. You Don’t Love Your Work

If you don’t love your work, or at least enjoy it, you’re going to find it hard to stay motivated to complete things, even if you’re normally a very motivated person. The best advice here is to find something you do love and then start freelancing in that field instead.

8. You Think the Hours Are Better

Image by PresleyJesus

A shift in perception is needed here, too. You’ll likely work longer hours as a freelancer, especially when you’re starting out. It won’t be uncommon to work 10, 12, or even 16 hour days sometimes. And you might find yourself working 6 or 7 days a week.

Be careful about not taking on too much work. Sometimes we feel as if we need to take on any work that comes our way in the beginning for fear of not having any work later. But if you take on too much, you’ll just burn yourself out and produce inferior work. Carefully think out how much you can work without overdoing it and then be aware of how much time the different projects you accept are going to take. You’ll still have to work a lot of hours in the beginning unless you’re very, very lucky, but you need to balance it with your own well-being. Remember that a few very happy clients is going to beget more work than a whole bunch of dissatisfied ones.

9. You Have No Space for an Office

The good news here is that there’s almost always room for an office unless you live in a closet (and even then there might be a way). A dedicated desk is the simplest form of an office. Your desk doesn’t have to be large, and you can tuck it into the corner of your bedroom, living room, or kitchen. If you have an unused room in your house, or even an unused closet, consider locating your office there. It’s nice to have a space where you can close the doors at the end of the day to shut out your work.

Think of unconventional spaces where you might be able to locate your office. Do you really need a dining room? Or a guest room? Don’t worry about what you think your house or apartment should have for rooms. Instead, worry about how you can best utilize the space you have.

As a last resort, if you absolutely can’t find a dedicated workspace, consider renting a space or finding a coworking space. See if you know someone who would be willing to rent you their extra bedroom for use as an office. Or even their garden shed. Basic, one-room offices in smaller towns and cities can often be rented for only a few hundred dollars a month. It might be worth it if you’re finding you absolutely can’t set up a dedicated workspace in your own home.

10. You Don’t Know Where to Find Clients

There are a few answers to this one. First of all, you can check online job boards for clients who are looking for designers. Realize, though, that often you’ll be competing with overseas vendors who can often compete a lot better on price. The good news is that there are also often clients who only want to deal with vendors in their home country.

Another option is to network locally. Carry business cards with you everywhere. Join your local chamber of commerce or other professional organizations. Don’t be afraid to approach local businesses and offer your services. You might be surprised at how many people are receptive to listening to a proposal, or who know someone who’s been looking for design work.

In the beginning, your best bet for getting clients is to put yourself out there. Make sure everyone you know is aware that you’re now freelancing and taking on new clients. Personal referrals are often going to be your best source of business. Take the time to thank those who send business your way and you’re likely to see even more business from them.

11. You Have No Project Management Skills or Experience

Image by koalazymonkey

There are plenty of blogs and books out there on project management. A few hours spent online can at least give you some basic information on how to manage simple projects.

There’s also a lot of great project management software out there. While these apps aren’t going to do the job of project manager for you, they will make it a lot easier to keep everything organized and on track.

Take the time to learn how to effectively manage projects and make sure you don’t take on projects that exceed your skills, both as a designer/developer and as a project manager. You’ll get better at it with practice.

12. You Don’t Want to Deal with People

The bad news here is that you’re going to have to deal with people as a freelancer. The good news is that you can often choose how you deal with them. You might opt to only work with clients who are outside of your local area so you don’t have any face-to-face meetings. Or you might try to direct all your clients to only communicate with you via email. It’s likely you’ll have to talk on the phone every once in awhile, but you can minimize it by letting people know you prefer email.

13. You Can’t Stand Up for Yourself

This is probably one of the hardest things to overcome on this list. It’s often deeply rooted in one’s personality, and therefore not something you can simply read a book to overcome.

There are a few options here. You can take an assertiveness training course. You can pick up books on how to be more assertive and then put into practice what they tell you to do. Or you can just practice standing up for yourself more often. Start small. Don’t get defensive. And don’t let people walk all over you.

Being able to stand up for yourself to clients is something you really need to learn if you want to be a successful freelancer. While many clients wouldn’t take advantage of you, there are plenty out there who will realize you never say no or fight back and will use that to their advantage. They’ll fight with you over deadlines, over price, over when to pay you, and over getting you to do work for free. And if you don’t know how to stand up for yourself, you’ll probably let them win and end up having to do all sorts of things that undercut your business.

So learn to say no and learn to stand up for yourself if a client is giving you grief about something.

14. You Have No Time-Management Skills

Time management is a tough one for a lot of people, whether they’re freelancers or employees. Figuring out how much time to spend on different aspects of a project, or on different projects, as well as managing the distractions that invariably creep into our workday is challenging.

But there are plenty of ways to more effectively manage your time. There are tons of apps that can help by both tracking your time and by helping you to track what you need to get done. There are paper-based systems, too. Something as simple as scheduling regular breaks in which to check your Facebook and Twitter, or working on things in one-hour blocks and then reassessing how much time you’re spending at the end of those hours can go a long way toward making sure you’re effectively using your time.

Spend some time reading up on time management and then explore the available tools to find something that works for you.

15. You Can’t Self-Motivate

Image by pink_fish13

This is right up there with a lack of self-discipline as far as dealbreakers go. If you can’t get yourself to start (or finish) a project, to go look for clients, or to otherwise build your business, then you’re going to have a very hard time becoming a successful freelancer.

One trick that might work for a lot of people is setting up a goal/reward system. When you reach a particular goal, treat yourself to something. This could be taking a break and going for a walk, going out to dinner, taking a mini-vacation, or buying something you’ve been wanting for awhile. Make sure the reward matches up to the importance of the goal (taking a mini-vacation just for sending out a proposal probably isn’t the best idea). Using a reward system is a great way to motivate yourself if you’re finding you lack motivation otherwise.

16. You Don’t Want to Maintain a Professional Image

This is a tough one. If you’re going to have your name tied directly to your work, as is almost always the case when it comes to freelancing, then you need to maintain some professionalism online. But there are ways around this.

First of all, take advantage of privacy settings online. Then make sure you’re not friending your clients on Facebook if your profile is littered with drunken photos or other compromising materials.

Don’t be afraid to delete things that friends post on your profile if they’re potentially offensive to clients or other professional contacts, or otherwise inappropriate. This includes untagging yourself from photos or asking people to remove them altogether.

Use an alias for some things online. Don’t want your clients knowing about your passion for stamp collecting (or mud wrestling)? Then make sure your real name isn’t associated with any of your activities surrounding those things online. That doesn’t mean they’ll never figure out the association, but it makes it less likely that a casual Google search will turn up anything incriminating.

Basically, use common sense. If you wouldn’t want your mother (or grandmother, or first-grade teacher, etc.) to see something online, then you probably don’t want your clients or prospects seeing it either. So don’t put it out there.

17. You Want Paid Vacations

Image by Tomas Fano

This one is actually easier to overcome than a lot of freelancers think. If you want to have a paid vacation, then you need to set aside money to pay yourself for it. Let’s say you want to take two weeks off every year and your average weekly income is $1,000 (to use the example from earlier). You need to set aside $40 every week to replace the income from those two weeks off. Then, when you take the time off, tap into that savings to pay your bills.

18. You’re a Workaholic

This is one of the most difficult things to overcome when it comes to freelancing. It’s easier if you have a significant other to remind you to take time off or to call it quits for the day. But if you live alone or are single, it’s tougher.

There are a few tricks you can employ, though, to keep yourself from working too much. First, get out of the house/office. Take a walk, go for a drive, go visit a friend or relative. Remove yourself from your work environment.

Turn your cell phone off and disconnect from the internet at the end of the day. Try not to check your email and other messages when you’re done work for the day. It’s only going to entice you to go back to work.

Take a day off every week. Try to disconnect completely. Don’t even check your email. Let people know that you’re taking the day off so they don’t contact you, or at least are understanding when you don’t answer your phone or email.

Have office doors you can close. Even if this is just an armoire in your living room that contains your “office”, having doors you can physically close is a great way to mentally finish work for the day.

Find a hobby. Preferably one with regular meetings or events that will get you to stop work for a little while. The best part about a hobby or activity is that it often gets your mind off of work, in addition to physically removing you from your work environment.

19. You Don’t Want to Keep Regular Hours

There’s no good way around this one. You’ll need to at least be accessible during somewhat-normal business hours in most cases, especially if you deal with clients in your local area or in your time zone. While international clients are likely to be less concerned about this, in many cases you’ll be working with people who at least live in the same country as you, if not nearby.

But being accessible doesn’t necessarily mean you need to be working during those hours. It means you need to be answering phone calls and emails, but you can probably do that from almost anywhere with a good cell phone. If you work better at 2am, then do you actual work then. Just make sure clients can get in touch with you during the day if they need to.

20. You Don’t Like Being Alone

Freelancing is often a solitary business. But there are a number of ways you can get around this. First of all, seek out clients in your local area where you can have actual meetings on occasion. Find another friend who works from home who might want to get together for lunch once a week.

Volunteer in your community one or two days a week and work it around your regular work schedule. Most community organizations are desperate for volunteers and it’s a great way to get out of the house a couple times a week.

Join a club or organization. It could be a book club, a sports team, or some other organization related to one of your interests. You can find plenty of these kinds of things through sites like Meetup.com if you don’t know of any.

Take a class at your local community college or adult learning center. It doesn’t need to be related to your career. Just pick something that sounds interesting or that you’ve always wanted to learn about. Most classes aimed at adults meet only once or twice a week, often in the evenings, so it’s easy enough to fit them around your schedule.

In the End…

If you really want to freelance, you can find ways around any obstacles that stand in your way. The important thing is to go into freelancing with your eyes open to the potential pitfalls that can stand in the way of your success. If you have plans ready to deal with the things above, then your chances of success are much greater than if you just dive in with rose-colored glasses.

Written exclusively for WDD by Cameron Chapman.

Please feel free to share any additional tips or insight in the comments.

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If you added up all those wasted seconds and minutes, you might be surprised at the percentage of your day that it takes up.

Taking the time to set up an optimal workspace can save you hours or even days over the course of a year.

It’s worth taking a day or two to set up your desk and work area to better suit the way you work to save time later on. And the process isn’t difficult.

It just takes a lot of planning and delving into how you work best, and then setting up both your physical and virtual workspaces to better cater to your work methods.

As mentioned, it’s a good idea to set aside a day or so to optimize your workspace. You’ll likely see the positive effects on your time almost immediately, and may notice a lot less frustration right away, too.

Not exactly an optimal work environment. Image by cybrgrl.

How Do You Work?

Let’s assume that the majority of people reading this post are web designers and/or developers. That cuts out a lot of possibilities in the “how do you work” arena. But there are still plenty of differences in how individual web designers and developers work. If you want to set up your optimal workspace, you’ll need to figure out exactly how you work best.

Think about how you work now and how you might improve your productivity if you had other tools and systems in place.

Don’t try to completely overhaul your work methods, though, as you’re unlikely to stick to new systems if they don’t integrate with the way you’re used to working. Baby steps will often get you better results than changing everything at once.

Make a list of the things you normally do in a workday and how you complete those tasks. Your routine might be fairly similar from day to day, or you might do completely different things on certain days of the week. Include all the tasks you regularly complete, whether on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

What Kind of Organizer Are You?

The next thing to consider is how you stay organized. Do you use a paper organizer or filing system? Post-it notes? A computer-based to-do list or project manager?

Image by Adam UXB Smith

If you use a paper-based system, think about how that needs to be accommodated within your workspace. Do you have a big organizer that needs space within easy reach on your desk? Or do you use post-it notes that you need to be able to stick to your desktop or the walls surrounding your desk? Would you be better served by something like a whiteboard?

Think through how you stay organized and make a list of the things that are necessary for it. You’ll need to incorporate these things into your workspace, but that comes a bit later.

What Materials Are Important to Your Work?

Obviously a computer and likely a printer are going to be on this list. But what other tools do you need? You might have external speakers, a flatbed scanner, a desk lamp, paper, pens, an iPod dock, or countless other tools that you need and/or want to work.

Image by William Hook

Again, make a list of what’s important to you. Then you’ll need to weed out all the other stuff that’s on your desk that isn’t necessary.

Removing the clutter is important, as it will make it much easier for you to keep everything organized. Remember: clutter is the enemy of an optimal workspace. Every time you have to stop what you’re doing to look for something, you’re being less efficient and less productive.

Spheres of Importance

Now that you’ve figured out how you work and what’s important to your workflow, it’s time to get down to actually rearranging your workspace. Since most of you reading this are web designers or developers, let’s make your computer the centerpiece of your layout. For most of you, it’s where you do the vast majority of your work.

From there, figure out what else you use most often. This could be your organizer, graph paper, scratch paper, or anything else. Put this within arm’s reach of your computer. Another thing that should always be within arm’s reach is your trash and recycling bins. It’s important to keep your desk clean, which means throwing things away before they have a chance to accumulate.

Think about other things you like to keep within easy reach of your workspace. This could be client files, reference books you use often, your printer or scanner, or anything else that you use on a daily basis. These things should be located within arm’s reach or just beyond.

Then think of the other things you need to keep in your office, but maybe only use once or twice a week or less. It’s not as important where you put these, though you’ll still want them easily accessible. They can go on a bookshelf, or in a drawer, or wherever else you have space for them where you can keep everything organized.

The goal here is to make sure the things you use most often are closest to you, while things you use less often are further away. It’s going to vary a bit for everyone.

For me, the things that need to be front-and-center on my desk are my computer, a notebook or two (or six), pens, and my cell phone and dock. For someone else, a graphics tablet or organizer might be more important and need to be in that immediate sphere. Others might want their printer within arm’s reach if they’re constantly printing things out.

Everything in Its Place

Within each sphere of importance, it’s necessary to make sure everything has a place where it belongs. That means having some kind of holder for your pens, a specific place to keep your planner or organizer, and a designated spot for those reference books you want to keep within easy reach.

Image by AdamSelwood

Think about the way you organize. For some people, you might want to keep things like pens in your top desk drawer. For others, you might want a cup or a box right on your desk for them. The same goes for books or notebooks. Some people might want a shelf to keep them on, while others will be happy with a stack on their desk. There’s no right or wrong here.

Once everything has its own place, make sure everything gets returned to that place at the end of each day, or even better: as soon as you’re done with it. This will keep your desk clutter-free and make it easy to find things when you need them, making you more productive.

You may decide you need things to help keep your desk organized. This is fine, but don’t go overboard. The simplest solutions are often the best. But consider purchasing things like desk drawer organizers, some kind of container for holding pens and pencils, and possibly an inbox or desktop file holders.

Again, make sure you only buy things that are going to fit into the way you work, and aren’t going to cause you more problems or contribute to clutter.

Get Rid of Distractions

Distractions on your desktop will interfere with how productively you can work. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to keep your desk entirely Spartan, but it does mean anything that potentially distracts you should be removed.

Image by mkosut

Differentiate between distractions and creative aids. If something actually helps you in the creative process, then keep it. But if you use it as an excuse not to work, then put it elsewhere.

Maintaining Your Optimal Workspace

Once you have your workspace set up, you need to maintain it in order for it to continue to be an optimal workspace.

Most of these things should be done daily, either at the beginning or end of your workday (which one is completely up to you and depends on whether you prefer to organize at the end of the day or the beginning).

Personally, I recommend doing your maintenance stuff at the end of the day for a few reasons: First, because you’ll be more likely to do it quickly and without distractions when you’re done with your work (in the morning you might be more tempted to linger and procrastinate). Second, because it’s nice to come into work in the morning to a clean and organized desk.

First of all, make sure trash gets thrown away or recycled. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a bunch of discared hand-drawn sketches of a website or empty soda cans or anything else, if it’s trash, put it where it belongs. Places it doesn’t belong include the top of your desk, under your desk, or anywhere around your desk that isn’t a trash can. Honestly, this is one of those things that should be done as soon as you generate said trash, but at least once a day is vital. There’s little worse than starting your workday surrounded by garbage.

Make sure you put everything back in its place when you’re finished with it, or at least once a day. This way, when you need whatever it is, it’s where you can find it. If everything has its own designated place, this should only take a couple of minutes.

Once a week or so, review your system. Make sure everything is in the proper sphere or importance and move things around if you need to. As you get your system more refined, you might only need to review it monthly or even less. Don’t be afraid to change things around as your work methods change. And don’t be afraid to change things back if a new arrangement just isn’t working out for you.

Virtual Workspace

We’ve talked a lot about your physical workspace, but as designers and developers, it’s likely more of your work takes place in a virtual space. It’s important to arrange your virtual workspace for optimal productivity, too.

Image by Todd W Carpenter

So often, people try to create their virtual workspace based on what they think that workspace should be. They strive for a minimalist desktop, or they arrange their folders and files in a certain way because they heard that’s how some other designer or developer does it.

Forget about how you think your virtual workspace should look or work or be arranged. Set it up however it’s most efficient and effective for you. For me, I have a handful of folders on my desktop based on the different types of work I do. I have a folder for “work” that contains subfolders for every client I have, a folder for “websites” that has subfolders with all the files for my personal projects, and folders for “photos”, “new fonts” (where fonts go until I get a chance to install them), and even a “miscellaneous” folder where I put all those things I don’t have other homes for.

I tried to have a minimalist desktop, but it just doesn’t work for me. I save things to my desktop all the time, too, but try to clean everything up and put it where it belongs every couple of weeks. Don’t force yourself into some unnatural method of organizing your files and folders. Find the system that most seamlessly fits into your workflow.

The same thing goes for using tools like Spaces for keeping things organized. I keep saying that one of these days I’m going to start taking advantage of Spaces to keep all my various projects organized and separate, but so far I just haven’t found a real need to. Just because it’s available to you doesn’t mean you have to use it. Use it if it helps you, but otherwise disregard it.

One thing you might want to take the time to do, if you haven’t already, is to set up different workspaces in the programs you regularly use. You can set up different profiles in many of your programs (Adobe programs, specifically) for different kinds of projects. You may use a different set of tools depending on whether you’re doing photo retouching or original artwork, designing a website or working on a print advertisement.

Taking the time to set up workspaces for each of these (or other projects you regularly tackle) means you’ll have an optimal workspace no matter what you’re working on.

More Resources

There are tons of great articles out there for better refining both your workspace and your work methods to improve your efficiency and productivity. Here are a few excellent choices to get you started:

• What is the Optimal Work Environment? – from eComm Tips
• Set Up Your Desk to Maximize Productive Web Development – from Freelance Folder
• Declutter Your Desk with a General Reference Filing System – from Work Awesome
• Organize Your Workspace for Maximum Productivity – by Gina Trapani, from the Harvard Business Review
• How to Defeat Workspace Clutter – from Work Awesome
• Your Work Space is Killing Your Productivity – from FreelanceSwitch
• 10 Ways to Relaxify Your Workspace – from StevePavlina.com

Written exclusively for WDD by Cameron Chapman, a freelance writer and designer.

How do you organize your workspace? What things have worked best for you?

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That’s obviously a good thing, and it will certainly continue that way. But once in a while we need reminders on the things we do (or fail to do) that are negative.

That is, things that can have a detrimental impact on our progress as designers and developers — despite that these things may be temporarily helping us pay the bills and keep us afloat financially.

We all need to analyze our situation and assess whether or not we’re forming healthy design and coding habits, and whether those habits could be providing short-term gains that are not conducive to long-term success.

So, take this information with a grain of salt (because I know some of it is highly debatable) and consider whether or not you personally are doing anything that could prevent you from having a job in five years.

You Have No Intention of Ever Turning Down a Client

This is definitely one of those symptoms that not everyone understands at first. Some might even view it as a good thing. After all, every client you do work for puts money in your pocket, gives you more experience, and increases the size of your portfolio. But not every client project turns out that way.

I’ve worked on projects that I don’t want anyone to know about, because the client did what they wanted design-wise, and my advice on usability and best practices was mostly ignored.

Of course, we don’t all have the luxury of choosing our clients like some really big agencies do. But we have to at least be able to understand for ourselves what type of client we might be averse to working with. There may be circumstances where we simply can’t afford to turn a client down, so that’s understandable. That’s why this section addresses our motivations more than our actions (note the word “intention” in the sub-heading).

If we are able to identify some characteristics in clients or projects that we find undesirable, then it’s likely we’re making some progress as developers, and we’re not so much concerned about making money but are primarily focused on making the web a better place.

You’re the Proverbial “Jack of All Trades”

This is certainly one of the highly-debatable points I alluded to earlier. But consider this scenario: You’re a web developer who does it all: You can create a logo in Illustrator, design a website mockup in Photoshop, are able to work with a slew of back-end frameworks, can program in multiple back-end languages, can code valid XHTML and CSS, can create raw JavaScript, have learned to play around with 3 or 4 JavaScript libraries, can do copy writing, content strategy, IA, UX, and even dabble in SEO and SEM.

Are you trying to do too many things as a web designer, and as a result failing to excel at any one of them?

How realistic is it that you’ll be able to keep up to date and be on the cutting edge of all of those different technologies, concepts, and languages? It’s not realistic at all, so it’s best to pick a few areas that you can keep up with and focus on, and if a particular client requires other services beyond your focus, well, that brings us to the next item on this list.

You Don’t Do Any Networking

One great way to ensure you’re staying on the cutting edge and keeping up with standards and best practices is through networking, both online and in person.

Of course, some of us might be limited when it comes to personal networking, whether because of our location or some other factors. But we can all network and build relationships with quality developers online. Just keeping up with the blogs of some of the top developers in the world and joining in constructive discussions in the comments can help in this regard.

Successful networking can have a significant impact on your success as a web professional

Another fantastic way to make contacts and keep up with recent happenings in the community is to attend any events or conferences in your area. Many of these events are put on by some of the biggest names in the web design industry, and the information shared is always up to date and often ahead of the game.

Finally, besides the usual methods of networking done through various social networking sites, you could also offer to collaborate with some developers in the community on a web app, blog, or other website. Making connections in this way will help you focus on honing your skills in a few areas, while connecting with other developers and professionals who can do work in areas in which you aren’t as strong.

As mentioned, this goes back to the previous point about avoiding wearing too many hats. If you have a solid network of available professionals, you likely won’t need to be a “Jack of all trades” and can focus on becoming an expert in a few specific areas.

The only word of warning I would give when it comes to networking is to be prepared to give of yourself, and not just expect to gain from others. The only way an equal and long-lasting exchange can take place is if greed and selfishness is left behind and you’re willing to be just as helpful to those from whom you expect help.

You Can’t Justify Your Design Decisions

Everyone wants to be able to create beautiful websites that make an impression while at the same time serve a purpose and provide a usable and intuitive user experience. However, as designers we often try too hard in our efforts in this regard.

We may fall into the trap of imitation (which is fine, in general) but forget that all our design decisions should be based on careful analysis of a website’s purpose, structure, audience, and content. I don’t expect a designer to explain every pixel in a design (although I’m sure some designers can), but most major components in a design should have good justification.

Do the design elements in your portfolio make all your projects look overly similar to one another?

I find it interesting when I browse through the portfolio of a designer and see many similarities in their projects (and I’m sure people would see the same weaknesses in my own portfolio). But unless all your designs are for clients in the same niche industry, design patterns and elements should not be repeated too often across projects. If they are, this might be a symptom of laziness and lack of consideration for what should truly drive a design.

You’re A jQuery Ninja, But Can’t Code Raw JavaScript

The truth is, if you can’t code raw JavaScript, then you’re not a jQuery ninja; you just think you are.

I’m a firm believer that understanding a language from the ground up is the best way to really excel at it. Although developers and designers can accomplish great things with jQuery without knowing raw JavaScript, they can accomplish even greater things when they do know JavaScript.

A good book covering a JavaScript library will include sections discussing JavaScript concepts that should be understood in order to delve deeper into the library’s capabilities.

The book “jQuery in Action” includes an appendix discussing some important JavaScript concepts that will make your jQuery skills that much better

You Never Think About Progressive Enhancement

If a tree falls in the forest, and there’s no one there to hear it, does it make a sound? Even if it does, the sound is irrelevant, because it didn’t serve a purpose.

This can happen with a website that isn’t backwards compatible and lacks accessibility. This is where progressive enhancement comes in, and it needs to be considered during the planning stages, as it is more difficult (but not impossible) to implement in mid-project or after the fact.

Understanding the importance of progressive enhancement will make you a better web developer

Progressive enhancement (which is one of the key ingredients when implementing accessibility) ensures a website’s content is SEO-friendly and is available to all site visitors, including those with older browsers, assisted technology, or those browsing the web with JavaScript and/or Ajax capabilities disabled. If your site’s content is not accessible to search engine spiders, then it’s like that tree that falls and nobody is there to hear it.

Accessible content will happen naturally on projects with limited use of client side enhancements, but it’s especially important in Ajax-driven sites and applications, or sites that use JavaScript to access important content.

Thinking about progressive enhancement in your web projects is a sure sign that you’re trying to maximize the reach of the site’s content and, by extension, maximizing the site’s ability to turn a sale or make conversions.

You Think “Specs” are Glasses

In no way am I implying here that web developers should know everything about the latest CSS and HTML specifications (i.e. “specs”) or other admittedly mundane topics, but you should have at least a passing interest in some of the goings-on in the world of web standards, since these are what will shape the web of the future. It also can’t hurt to be able to speak intelligently and practically on these topics in a job interview (or occasionally and tactfully in a client meeting).

Having some interest in the progress of web standards, while not the most exciting venture, is a necessary part of being a successful web developer

The majority of well-known web designers and developers are those who are known for being vocal about standards. Those same developers are the ones who have acquired book deals, have written ground-breaking articles on sites like A List Apart, and have gone on to speak at some of the biggest events and conferences in the world of web design.

Those designers and developers are who they are today because they unselfishly took the time to learn about and educate others on concepts and techniques that have contributed towards making the web a more accessible place. You can reach similar goals if you make it your aim to become educated on the progress being made in the world of web standards.

You’re Preparing to Post a Comment on This Article to Explain Why I’m Wrong

I’m sure there are some debatable points made in this article, as I’m sure there are also some significant things I’ve neglected to mention. But before you decide these topics are of little importance to a “successful” web professional, take the time to consider what your goals are in building web sites, and where you see yourself in a few years.

I’ve had the unfortunate experience of working with and for people whose only interest in web design was business-related (that is, their goals were mostly financially-driven). Because of the potentially far-reaching effects of what we do as web professionals, our goals should go beyond such superficialities and we should be constantly assessing our personal values to ensure that our progress as web professionals is helping making the web a friendlier place.

Focusing on reaching such goals, and not always on “making the sale”, is what will ultimately make you a successful web professional.

This post was written exclusively for Webdesigner Depot by Louis Lazaris, a freelance writer and web developer. Louis runs Impressive Webs, where he posts articles and tutorials on web design. You can follow Louis on Twitter or get in touch with him through his website.

Do you agree with these views? Why or why not? Please share below…

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In many of these cases the designers behind the sites are simply incompetent.

They’re often amateur designers or those who have little or no design training or people who design their own sites based on a book from their local library that’s ten years out of date.

But there are other times when the designer was perfectly capable of creating a better site.

So why would a perfectly competent designer create a site that isn’t very good? The answer is simple: they settled. It happens all the time.

Maybe the designer has hit a slump and they’re looking for any paying work. Maybe it’s a site for a friend and they just don’t have the heart to tell them their design ideas are horrible. Maybe they were overwhelmed with work and just didn’t have the time the needed to devote to a project.

In any case, the end result isn’t up to par. It reflects poorly on the designer and oftentimes is left out of their portfolio entirely.

Of course, design isn’t the only place designers shouldn’t settle; it’s also important to maintain high quality standards in their business, their blogging, and other aspects of their professional life.

Work Begets Work

It’s long been said that work begets work. But it’s more complicated than that.

In reality, high quality work begets high quality work, and low quality work begets low quality work.

If you take on high quality design projects and product high quality results, you’re more likely to get similar projects in the future. If you take on projects with low design standards, you’re likely to get similar projects offered to you in the future.

Think about it for a minute. If someone sees a great website and they’re looking for a web designer, they may try to find out who designed that website. Of course, “great” is a subjective term.

So if someone likes site designs that look like they’re from the mid-90s, they’ll contact designers who are still designing like that. If they like designs that are up-to-date, unique, and professionally designed, then they’ll be looking for designers whose work is similar.

So again, if you settle for lower design standards, then you’re likely to get more work along the same lines. Hold your work to the highest standards you can and you’ll not only attract more high-quality work, but you’re also likely to improve your own skills in the process.

Pushing Yourself Results in Improved Skills

If you always settle for the easiest way to do something, you’ll never improve your own designs skills.

If you push yourself to always do things in the best way possible, you’ll constantly expand your skills and your knowledge. New and better techniques for doing things are coming out all the time, and if you expand your knowledge enough, you may be able to create your own techniques that do things better and easier than other methods available.

If you improve your skillset, you’ll be able to take on more complicated projects in the future. You’ll also improve your efficiency, as you won’t have to spend as much time figuring out how to do some things. Both of these can lead to higher income from your design work.

Good Clients Will Respect You More

Good clients will respect a designer who holds fast to their own standards. If you’re willing to sacrifice quality for the whims of a client, you’ll almost surely create inferior work at least some of the time. But if you’re confident enough in your own skills and your own aesthetic ideals, stand up for them and good clients will respect you for it.

After all, a good client recognizes that you’re the designer, and that while it’s their business, you have more experience than they do when it comes to design particulars.

They’ll appreciate it when you say (tactfully) that the giant flashing banner on the home page and all that scrolling text just isn’t going to give the impression they’re after. While it’s important to listen to your clients, don’t be afraid to step up and tell them why something isn’t a good idea.

Sure, you might lose some clients if you refuse to bend to their every poorly-thought-out decision, but the clients you retain will be easier to work with and will likely give you more design freedom. These clients will also likely refer more work to you, both directly and indirectly.

If your portfolio is filled with projects that are high-quality and reflect both your aesthetic ideals and those of your clients, you’ll attract more business. And if your clients are happy with their websites and the results they’re getting, they’re more likely to refer others they know to you.

Other Designers Will Respect You More

Designers tend to respect other designers who do excellent work and have a clear aesthetic and style.

While adapting to what your clients want is important, it’s still possible to maintain your own signature in your work. In some cases, this can be recognizable to others trained in design and can make your work stand out.

Respect from other designers isn’t important to everyone. But then again, it can lead to a lot of opportunities that you might not otherwise have. If a designer has too much work coming in, they may start looking to refer that work elsehwere rather than just telling prospects they can’t help. If you’re respected in the design community, some of that work is likely to come your way.

Low Standards Will Eventually Kill Your Business

Low standards in your designs will bring you low-quality clients. And the thing about low-quality clients is that they are generally more of a hassle than they’re worth. These are the people who will request a million revisions, delay paying you for as long as possible, and wonder why you didn’t send them back the changes they requested within the hour.

Dealing with clients like these will drain your energy and enthusiasm for design, which will show through in your work. Eventually, you’ll likely give up on designing for other people all-together, or you’ll find that you just don’t have enough clients coming to you. In either case, your business will suffer and likely close.

The same is true for aspects of your business other than design. If you have low standards for your bookkeeping, for example, you’ll likely spend money where you don’t need to, or fail to pay certain bills (or your taxes, which can result in very high penalties).

If you don’t uphold high quality standards in blog posts you write, you can expect that you won’t be asked to guest blog for more popular blogs and your blog will likely stagnate and fail to gain many new readers.

Upholding high quality standards can improve every aspect of your business and make you more effective. You’ll also likely enjoy your work more if you’re challenging yourself on a regular basis and designing projects you can be passionate about.

How to Get Past Settling

If you’ve got a history of settling in your business, it may be hard to break out of the confines of that mindset. But in order to grow as a designer, freelancer, or blogger, you need to be mindful of what you’re capable of and what your personal expectations should be.

If your portfolio is currently filled with designs that aren’t as good as you could have made them, take on some projects that will really let your skills shine. These could be personal projects or even pro bono work, but it’s important to set a new level of quality for yourself.

Make sure you eliminate low-quality work from your portfolio. No one ever said you had to include every design you ever created in your portfolio. Only include the high-quality work that’s indicative of the kind of projects you want to work on in the future.

Once you establish the quality standards you want to uphold, it’s important not to settle again. Defend your position to clients who want you to settle. Explain to them why you’re not comfortable incorporating a design element or feature they’ve requested and then stick by your decision. As already mentioned, good clients will respect you more for this.

If it helps, keep a list of specific things you found yourself settling on so that you can avoid them in the future. Put them on a post-it note on your monitor or post them on the wall behind your desk. Think of it as a to-don’t list rather than a to-do list.

Don’t be afraid to cut some of your clients loose. If you have a client who always expects you to settle, tell them you feel like their needs would be better-served by another designer. If you eliminate some problem clients, you’ll have more time to devote to high-quality projects that come your way. Plus, your stress levels will be lower if you’re not dealing with difficult clients all the time.

In the end, what you consider “settling” is going to vary, based on both your own skill level and the project at hand. While doing your best for the project at hand is important, different projects require different quality levels. A four-page brochure-style site has different requirements than a full-fledged web app. Keep that in mind and don’t go overboard on projects that don’t require it.

Written exclusively for WDD by Cameron Chapman.

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