I was directed to a CSSZenGarden design created by Outline2Design that is rather beautiful… I was really impressed, so I looked at their homepage.

Their designs are extremely artistic, and valid XHTML, so I was even more impressed; I wanted to know more about their work and where they manage an office, (mostly to determine if they were a small shop, a front for a larger shop or just “a person.”)  I noticed a copyright link to Zertle, LLC.  Clicking that, I saw that Zertle owns two shop fronts, Outline2Design and PSD2HTML.

That’s when I was absolutely disgusted by the pricing strategy at PSD2HTML.

Deciding How to Charge is Hard

I realize it’s difficult to decide how to price web work; I’ve had that problem before. You kind of have to divide the effort into the creative and the technical – creating HTML, (at least, in my opinion) is the easiest of the two. Creating a brand identity and graphical assets are far more subjective tasks, therefore requiring much more work.

Converting a design to HTML, however, is much easier. You can almost feel how the document flows. Sure, there are elegant and thought-provoking approaches to noodle through, and reusability and accessibility concerns… but the process goes very quickly. Oftentimes, you use tools from your toolbox, like Microformats or common libraries.

At Cerner, when I’m handed a design, it takes me roughly two hours per layout to complete, less if the following location follows a cohesive style, (and they do). So this company promises an 8 hour turnaround time, which I think is respectful, if not aggressive if they have a large workload.

What I find appalling is their package rates and “options.”

You Want to Charge Me For WHAT?!?

Here are a few examples, and an explanation as to why they are shady… I mean, “Used-car Salesman” shady. Throughout the following examples, I’m going to draw an analogy to someone coming to paint your house: you know what color you want, and how you want textures to look, but you don’t really have the time, nor the expertise, to paint it yourself.

How Good a Job are You Willing to Pay For?

Ok, we’re all set to start. Pick a package and price range for them to convert your image into a web page.

Screenshot from PSD2HTML.com

Figure 1 – So… do you want your page done professionally or not?

Asking someone to quantify exactly how professional they want their page is like asking if they’re willing to pay more to get things that a professional should already do. You’re telling me you won’t “pay special attention to Load Speed” if I don’t shell out the extra hundred?

The trouble is, someone who doesn’t really understand the web may not understand what they’re paying for… besides, the developer should do this anyway.

The painters show up with the crew, the paint and the brushes. They’re ready to paint your house, but before they start, they ask:

“Do you want us to tape off non-painted surfaces?  Then you’ll want our Professional Painter’s Package. Do you want us to avoid getting paint splatters on your concrete and bushes?  In that case, you’ll need to upgrade to our Hi-End Painter’s Package. You see, it’s all about what you’re willing to spend.”

These aren’t options: they’re the mark of a professional job.  Cross-browser compatibility, Search Engine Optimization, semantic code, prez-layer separation… these are professional, industry standards. You could get away with asking for more time, but more money?!? C’mon…

Flex Your CSS Muscles

This one, I kind of understand.

Flexible, or “fluid” layouts can be difficult, depending on the style.  You have to decide the widths of each column, how text wraps, and even when items start to drop.  Again, asking for more time is one thing, almost expected… charging more, I could almost condone.

But isn’t this on a case-by-case basis?  Don’t you have to ask some directed, consultative questions about intent and purpose?  And how did you arrive at $29?  It just seems nonsensical to me.

After shelling out more cash, your painting crew has another question:

“Would you like us to hand-paint your house, or can we go ahead and use our sprayers for the larger walls?  You see, when we got your address, we weren’t sure about the texture or composition of your walls, so we can’t tell you right now without looking which would be better, per-se… but we’ll knock $20 off if you let us spray.”

Maybe they’re encouraging a fixed width by offering a $29 discount?  At any rate, it’s a client call, and I just don’t think it can be programmatically determined.

Moving on… because the next one is my favorite.

Nickels and Dimes Add Up to Big Bucks

I’m curious about Advanced Markup Options.

“This option gives you the guarantee…”  Are you kidding me?

You know, in my office, hack-less cross-browser compatibility is a point of pride.  Sometimes, when we do a demo, we like to give the people in the room the choice of which browser we use to demo… no-holds-barred.  We also give the option of a JavaScript-disabled or CSS-disabled configuration.  It’s cool to be challenged, to be able to show our stakeholders that no mainstream browser was ignored, no detail was overlooked.

“I’m sorry, but which side of your house faces the most people?  I mean, people who live next door to the east can’t really see the house wall… their window on that side is pretty tiny.  And most people don’t drive east on the street, so most wouldn’t see the east side.”

“Oh… and should we avoid painting the exterior window fixtures?”

To ask a client to pay more for cross-browser compatibility, or to offer a discount to let it slide, encourages the very attitudes web professionals hate: that only the majority matters… that it’s too hard to code (and test) for 99.9%.  That attitude is what allows Microsoft to continue including proprietary features, (and oftentimes, tolerating omissions): they’re the majority, make your site work in their browser.  It’s unacceptable for a professional web shop to not work in these browsers out-of-the-box.

And, I’m sorry… but $4 for rollovers?!?  Are CSS hover implementations been deemed hard enough that the code to create them is worth $4?  Are you telling me I have to pay you the equivalent of your morning Starbucks Latte for the effort?

The following, though… is unacceptable.  That’s all I’ll say:

What else can I say?

Damn, I’m Sorry, but…

I don’t mean to pick on these guys; I don’t know them from Adam.  They’ve obviously put some thought into how they’re to be paid for their work.  But the strategy is flawed: what they’re charging more for should just be included. They should just state the job will cost between $150 and $300, depending.  As I’ve pointed out, they have more questions to ask once they get the design anyway.

Will they change their pricing “menu” because of this post: probably of course not. But then again, I don’t know how much of a market there is here.  Most web professionals like to be in control of the design.

For someone like me, I’d love it if the client provided me the visual they want; I suck at drawing.  But even if they did, I would still consult with them and provide them with a quality product that another web professional would be able to edit…

… but more importantly, respect.

Microformatted

I used the hResume microformat, which basically makes it readable by any microformat-parsing utility. Very slick. My microformat plugin for Firefox lit up as soon as I loaded it, telling the who, what, where and when of my resume.

Print / Screen stylesheets

Yes, it’s pretty. But if you’re printing it, you shouldn’t need a color printer, so I set up a print-only section of the sheet. Do a “print preview” to see what that looks like.

Portable

The HTML file is written to be portable, so you can save a copy locally, even from the web, without any external resources. Now I can send my resume in HTML format, instead of Word or Adobe PDF.

Why is that important, or thrilling?  Because I thought I’d lost those posts when I changed server providers.  Now, I was able to grab at least a few of them and post them back into my blog archives.

That’s why I now have a huge gap in my archive.

Here’s a list of the new… er, old?… posts:

Dear Google Maps

A feature recommendation to Google Maps.

You learn something new everyday…

A snippet of code that caught my attention.

Dear Dan Cederholm…

A question for the great Dan Cederholm after SxSW.

Real Clout…

A comment on the apparent overpowering clout of Google, (back when that could be surprising).

One last thing… you may be seeing some fluctuations in my CSS styles.  I’ve been adjusting them and I’m having a bit of difficulty concentrating with the conference going on…

One should remember not to change things if one doesn’t have 100% thought and time to devote to the changes… even if it seems “really simple”

*sigh* I need a drink.

I just finished restyling the site after several people (actually, just Samara) told me I needed more color on the site.  Thanks to groovy Semantic Markup, switching stylesheets was a snap!  I’m keeping the older one, though; I’ll re-implement my style switcher again and let you guys decide which you like best.

I’ll be posting a couple of blogs in the next couple of days regarding my loss of faith in Internet Explorer and my foray into Google Gadget development.  Until then, check out my Personal Blog if you like!

Check ‘em out… hit the ‘Albums’ link. Let me know if there are any collections you want to see!

Essentially I’m looking for some feedback on how the site looks.

Some things aren’t going to work. But here’s what does.

The Blogging Software: WordPress

I’ve jumped head-first into the WordPress blogging software. Interesting.

A few sample picture albums

Relax: I’ll post the albums all you guys want in the next few days. Just enjoy the fireworks for now.

Show and Hide ‘Introduction’

You can show or hide the introductory paragraph on the main page, and my site will remember your choice. Pretty cool, eh?

Zero Browser Hacks

My CSS design is not using a single CSS ‘hack’ for browser compatibility. Unfortunately, however, I am not sure how this looks in IE 5.5 Mac. I’ve managed to test it in IE6, Firefox and Opera.

Flexible Boundary Layout

This is a bit technical, but… basically I designed the CSS layout to flex between 800 and 1200 pixel widths. This means I can absolutely guarantee that my site will “look right” for 95% of browsers!

Microformats

This is even more technical. I’ve implemented MicroFormats for my identity and blog entries. Essentially, microformats allow browsers to identify blocks of content as being something, such as a person, address, calendar entry or blog entry. My site is now using the vCard and hAtom 0.1 spec, and I’ll be implementing others later.

I know, I know. It’s awesome… but keep in mind some links won’t work. Also, I haven’t really tweaked the sidebar or written the footer yet. It’s taking me some time to learn PHP and the WordPress API.
I’ll be posting more later. Right now, I’m exhausted. Let me know what you think of the new design!

… oh, and a hearty “welcome back” to you, too!

I’ve changed web hosting providers… for me, the process has kind of been like going from a Ford Pinto to a Mercedes Benz. Unfortunately, I lost my data in the switch. I guess that’s what I get for spontaneously changing providers in a fit of angry rage. Anyhoo…

People have been asking me lately when I’d be getting my website back up and running. Most just want access to my pictures! You should know I’ve been blogging my personal thoughts to my MySpace blog while the site was down.

So, what’s coming?

• Well, I’m implementing MicroFormats throughout. (It’s fun learning something new, eh?)
• I’m going to implement a second stylesheet, and the site will remember your choice. (old news)
• I’m lamenting the loss of my old blogs. Memorial service was held last week. awwwww..

So, here’s to a great new start. Keep your eyes peeled; the site will be up and running in just a few short days!