Contractor or special software?
If you want a very basic web site, you can buy software that enables you to design a website with no more skill than you need for middle level word processing. Learn more, and the software can be more sophisticated and you can produce work, which really looks professional. Move up again and you come to web site production companies who use that sort of software and probably many templates. As long as your requirements are not too unusual, they will give you a modest web site for £200. But if you are serious about e-commerce then it is just as important that your web site does not look like one you have written yourself as it would be to avoid a high street shop front giving a similar impression. How to find the contractor?
There are literally thousands of businesses waiting for your customer in every level of cost and competence. It is beyond the scope of this page to assist in your choice. However, past work of web designers is invariably on show. Ask for a list of web addresses and look over the sites. Do not assess only the look of them. Try them out and see how easy is the site to navigate and use. Who will do the work?
There are three types of skill involved:
- Coders,
- Html writers and
- Graphic designers.
Work done on the pages that you see is referred to as "front end" work. Coding the database and dynamic elements in "back end" work. Some people prefer the first work to be done by the coder, some prefer to have the design work first, so that the coders and html people know how to present the finished work. Coding html is a low level skill you could easily learn yourself, so that you can make changes to your site easily in future. It will be done by the coder on a small site. Graphic designers are "arty types". They sort out colours, shapes, style, layout and so on. These things are often referred to as the "look-and-feel" of the website. Graphic designers may also be expert at creating fancy icons and drawings to enhance the pages. But do not assume that all Graphic designers are good artists! How long will it take?
The work may take longer than you think. To convert a page of text to html might take 30 to 60 minutes, depending on length. That is the easiest part. Then you should add for embedding the links to other pages, graphic images and so on. The greatest time however is taken in dealing with "dynamic" functions such as a search facility or e-mail response, or money-taking facility, and with the planning and writing of a database. As a very rough rule of thumb, you should get a 20 page e-commerce enabled website designed and written in 100 hours. What do I have to learn and do?
There are areas of your responsibility. The designer might help with these, but you will not be covered unless you make sure they are included precisely in the contract. Examples are:
- Search engine optimisation;
- Search engine submission;
- Setting up a merchant service account to receive your payments;
- E-mail system for customer contact
- Web site hosting
- Registering your domain names
- Buying in essential software
If you do not know whether you can handle these items, then the answer is that you cannot. Each requires about as much time and effort as a GCSE in Mongolian, not that needed to learn to ride a bicycle! We suggest you use a web site design contractor.
Use a Net Lawman website design contract and the answers will be clear to you. It is all about asking the right questions and communicating clearly.
The Net Lawman 'Web Site Design Agreement' ECM004:
- Is very comprehensive;
- Suitable for any size of web site;
- Provides a framework for meaningful discussion with your website designer;
- Covers technical as well as legal issues;
- Provides a complete framework;
- Helps take the stress out of web site procurement;
- Protects your project, your intellectual property and your money.
Why use this document:
Use it if you struggle with the intricacies of web site design and other issues, and if your proposed contractor knows absolutely nothing about your business.
The managing of a web writing contract requires knowledge outside the day-to-day experience of both client and web writer. This document provides help not merely in legal provisions but in all aspects of promoting a framework within which both sides will feel comfortable; all the right questions will have been asked and satisfactorily answered, and you, the client, will ultimately be reaping the rewards of your decision to start or enlarge your e-commerce presence.
The 'Web Site Design Agreement ECM004' includes at no extra cost, a skeleton "Detailed Specification", setting out some of the technical and practical information that the parties will have to consider, as well as example items in the schedules. It opens up issues such as "just how far can the web writers provide a search engine optimisation strategy?"
The website design contract as drawn is designed to protect you, the client, while providing a framework acceptable to your website designer. ECM04 includes provision for:
- A template for the detailed specification;
- Separating the design element, so that a separate design contract could be drawn;
- Provisions for customer to approve design but pay for additional work if multiple choice required;
- Writing of a "Detailed Specification" covering all elements of the work and to be amended on completion to provide the customer with a complete record of the work done;
- Regulating customer changes to the specification;
- Lists excluded matters for customer's separate attention - e.g. names, hosting; merchant service;
- Provides concisely for responsibility for search engine strategy;
- Testing and acceptance;
- Alternative payment arrangements;
- Training option;
- Who owns the software created?
- Appropriate legal provisions - warranties, exclusions, indemnities, etc.
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