How to identify Lazy ass designers?
Thank you all for wishing me happy birthday on the first place. Well, I got a client who wanted me to do few editions on their design. And I came to realize the simple job was so hard just because the original designer was freaking lazy. So I was very pissed. Well therefore I decided to write this post.
There are two types of designers. One that are lazy (often very cheap) and one that are good (often more expensive). Most designers who are just in for a quick buck, or people who sell psds online do this very often. They don’t make any effort in making the design organized.
Identifications of a Lazy Designer
- They don’t name their layers / folders – You have to name the layers and the folders. If your folder is about header, then name it header. If the layer is for header bg then don’t let it be Shape24 name it to be header bg. It makes it a pain in the ass for another designer to edit. Even if you try to edit yourself later on… It will be tough.
- Compatibility with Coding – Most Designers don’t take notice of how the design will be coded. Specially ones who don’t know how to code, so they just design and sometimes it is impossible to convert those designs into html.
- Separate Files – Separate files for different designs are not the way to go. It is much easier for editing if all aspects of the design is in one file.
These are the three things that points out a lazy / unexperienced designer. When you are working with others, you must be aware of that. I try to label all of my folders. I admit that I get lazy on naming the layers, but people who don’t name layers and don’t have any folders are just crazy.
Hey, I am Syed Balkhi, The guy who is behind Balkhis Inc. I entered the industry back in 2002 not knowing a single thing. I barely spoke English at that time. In the past six years, my language barrier has been eliminated. Aside from English, now I also speak html, and php. Along with the languages I have also managed to master a few arts. Art of web-designing started when I first entered. Messing around with photoshop, I learned how to create my first web design. Now I founded a web designing firm Uzzz Productions. After running numerous amount of websites in various niche, I have mastered the art of web-development. Now I am compiling a resource of what I already know, and what I am learning on this blog. This resource is to help me if I ever need a guide to look back to, and it is help my fellow webmasters.
Guilty… but I only play around with designing and try to teach myself, so it doesn’t really matter.
Still trying to figure out how to convert a PSD into WP…
It’s pretty simple you just need basic knowledge of HTML/CSS and then read up on wordpress documentation.
I have a pretty good understanding of HTML, just not so good with CSS (but I am slowly learning)
I’m pretty lazy, I never label my layers or organise them into folders.
Syed, When you talked about single file approache, did you mean CSS files?
Cheers,
Ajith
I am talking about designers … not coders … But with coders it would be nice to take that approach and just use tags inside css file.
When you say tags are you referring to comments within code?
Yes, I am referring to comments within the codes..
I find the same issues sometimes with coders in that there are some that get very messy with the code. It makes it very difficult for others to work on it as I am sure you have run into also.
Yes I have ran into them …
Glad to say I’m the total opposite of what you described. I’m familiar with WordPress, so I know how to design the themes so they’ll be easy to code. I also am very picky about naming my layers and placing them into the correct folders, just for organizations sake.
Same with the actual coding, I break my CSS stylesheet into seperate categories, separated by comments, and I’m sure that my code is always valid.
I have OCD like that.
That is very good. I actually admire designers like that. I do get lazy sometimes, and I am working on it that is why it was one of the things that I wrote about. Every time I see this post, I will stop being lazy eh
And hope other designers don’t get lazy …
BTW Balkhis did you choose a winner for Septembers Free Design?
Not yet, the winner from last month is still working on uploading the design. I am not going to wait anymore. I will just put up the video and choose the new winner
Ok cool, I’m really interested in the results!
I understand where you’re coming from Syed. I don’t like it either when a job is completed sloppily.
Yeah. Sometimes I feel as if it would be better that I do the job myself.
Even if you’re a cheap designer, all of this doesn’t take much effort to do and it also leaves a great impression on your clients. Thanks for pointing this out Syed! This will serve as a great example to other designers who come here.
I have taught myself a lot of CSS, it is not difficult just takes practice and memorization, all though it’s a pain.
The problem with some web “professionals” is they don’t know what they don’t know. Unfortunately, some of them know only slightly more than the client they’ve been hired to help!
Thanks for venting. I now know that you’re not one of the “pretenders” thanks to this blog post!
Yes it is very true that these people don’t know a heck a lot more than the client, but I have seen companies ripping their clients off who don’t know a lot, and after charging a heavy amount, only delivering a product that is not worth that much…
The first thing I do when I’m showing a potential client why they should work with me is to run a W3C validation check on their existing website. 99% of the time, the site fails this basic check, that’s a seriously lazy designer.
A little extra work is always going to pay rich dividends. After all hard work never goes unrewarded.
[...] Resources » How to be a Kick ass designer in 24 hours? Couple weeks ago I wrote about how to identify lazy ass designers. Well I am sure none of the designers really want to be considered in that category. So I got this [...]