Web Design Contests - Job description issues

[eximius]

Dear DC community,

In spite of the fact that we have many talented and professional graphic designers here who do really good job by creating very cool logos and print products, only few of them have decent experience in web development. I’d like to talk here about the web design contests. I don’t want to educate anyone here but just to point out some very important issues here to the DC developers and admins. Maybe this will improve the general performance of the designers, CH’s expectation and general workflow at DC.

First, I’d like to start with important notions: web design, HTML/CSS markup and template development.

Web design – design of the web page (mock-up) in raster or vector format. The industry standard is the Photoshop files, but if design requires some vector pieces/illustrations they should be transferred from vector files to raster as a final piece.

HTML(XHTML)/CSS markup - PSD to XHTML conversion job converts all the Photoshop or any other designed images to XHTML and CSS codes to be suitable for the web. The process involves both slicing (provide each element of the design as an individual piece) and coding.

Template development – technically it is a skin, mostly for the open source Content Management Systems (CMS), such as Drupal, Joomla, Typo, Magento, etc.. Of course there are lots of commercial CMSs which also have their own template systems. So, to develop a template a web master has to combine XHML/CSS job and a coding for the template’s API.

So these three notions CH has to know before opening a contest. So my vision of this is that in the Brief there should be posted MANDATORY fields, (input boxes, checkboxes, radio buttons) to fill out WITH DETAILED EXPLANATIONS, something like this:

• COMPANY NAME
• INDUSTRY ()
• COMPANY DESCRIPTION ()
• WEBSITE TYPE ([XHTML/CSS], [ENTIRE FLASH],[FLASH INTRO], [FLASH ELEMENTS => if selected, additional fields appear below])

NUMBER OF FLASH ELEMENTS + DESCRIPTION FOR EACH

• NUMBER OF PAGES TO DESIGN ([select box => HOME PAGE], [+ description field of which pages are needed])
• ONLY WEB DESIGN MOCK-UP NEEDED (PSD file)
• XHTML/CSS MARKUP (PSD file conversion to the XHTML and CSS coding. This involves slicing images from the PSD mock-up and actual CSS coding. NO JAVASCRIPT work)
• TEMPLATE DEVELOPMENT (WEB DESIGN + XHTML/CSS MARKUP + CODING FOR THE TEMPLATE API)

[DRUPAL] [JOOMLA] [WORDPRESS] [TYPO][etc…]

• PREFERRED STYLE ([clean], [corporate], [social], [gaming], [adult], [personal], [promotional], [E-commerce store]etc) /IF E-commerce selected => see the E-commerce part below/
• E-COMMERCE POWERED?([])

---> E-COMMERCE FRONT WEB DESIGN (PSD FILE ONLY)
---> E-COMMERCE FRONT WEB DESIGN XHTML/CSS JOB (PSD file conversion to the XHTML and CSS coding. This evolves slicing images from the PSD mock-up and actual CSS coding. NO JAVASCRIPT work)
---> TEMPLATE FOR E-COMMERCE (WEB DESIGN + XHTML/CSS + CODING FOR THE TEMPLATE API)

• PREFERRED COLORS ([])
• LAYOUT PREFERENCES ([content + right column], [left column + content], [left column + content + right column], [ANY], etc)
• MAIN MENU LAYOUT ([Vertical],[Horizontal], [ANY])
• NO STOCK IMAGES (use of original graphics)
• USE OF VECTOR ILLUSTRATION ([YES],[NO], [ANY])
• USE OF PHOTO MATERIAL ([IF YES – CH HAVE TO UPLOAD THEM, a page will add additional fields for this below in supporting files])
• ORIGINAL ICONS ([YES],[NO], [ANY])
• ADDITIONAL COMMENTS AND JOB DESCRIPTION
• WEBSITES YOU LIKE /3 minimum/ ([competitors], etc)
• SUPPORTING MATERIALS ([TIFF/AI/PNG logotype], [PHOTOS], [IMAGES])

AND THE MOST IMPORTANT THING: Participating designers (who already posted designs) have to receive notifications from DC if CH has updated the brief. The main idea of all this is that CH has to understand what he is paying for and what he gets once he has selected the winner.

Again, these are just some suggestions that I thought could make everyone’s lives easier if implemented.

Let’s discuss!
Thank you

[Axl]

hi eximius, and congrats for your great designs!
I think it could be really complicated to work with some applications via on-line if a CH don't have notions about these applications.

[anantasteyr]

actually, i still learning about webdesign, i do agree with you eximius of what the CH has to know about a notion in the brief. the CH should give a better explanation about what they need. and maybe... some of the Web Master here in DC could make a blog or tutorial about website... share a knowledge and experience maybe.

[Axl]

Hi all,
I'm not sure if this is the best place to ask this question but...
I'm not familiar with web design contests, so have a doubt about size you can upload your designs, I mean, in logo contest you have to upload 640x480px but I think this is too small for a web design...wich is the maximum size can we upload a design for a web contest?
Thanks in advance!!!

[sharie]

640x480 is logo contests. I took a look at several uploads and it looks like the average size is 960x2000 on up ... normal web res of 72. Maybe some other web designers will chime in on the upload size they use.