Since hearing my partner Sarah sing that on a trip to London at the start of our now nearly 3 and a half year relationship I can’t get it out of my head. Some clever advertising that I clearly missed along the way.

So, London. Ive not actually been to London for a break for a long time, I’ve been a few times this year for business but it’s not quite the same.
This particular time is the first time since going with Sarah over 3 years ago, this time however I’m meeting up with my mother for, frankly, a stupendous amount of Christmas shopping and a gig – the first gig I’ve been to with my mum in over 15 years. We went to Wembley to see Texas. This time we’re seeing Caro Emerald at Shepherds Bush.

It’s our first girls trip together and I’m very much looking forward to spending a bit of time with her, shopping (she was a former shopaholic) and getting some culture, as well as seeing what comedy gem’s she can come out with while we’re away. She invariably will say something that will make me choke with laughter and turn red before asking “what?” rather naively.

I tweeted earlier on today that I still get excited about London, as a child I used to believe that I would see hordes of famous people walking around, like it was some celebrity ant farm and I was allowed to partake in it. I feel the same even now, on my way to the heart of celebrity-dom. I even get it when I go to the States, expecting to bump into Angelina or Brad when I’m walking around Macy’s.

I live in Manchester and have seen more “celebrities*” than I’ve ever seen in London or America.

The closest I got in London was sitting by Kate Winslet on the bus that takes you to the aeroplane at Gatwick, my mother was sitting next to her whispering loudly at me “that’s Kate Winslet, do you want to swap places with me?”… I was both excited (big fan of the Winslet) and very very embarrassed.

These days I’ve got a list the size of my arm of famous people I hope to bump into whilst in London, the top of the list being KT Tunstall, mostly to be a total fan girl and tell her that she changed my life and is the reason I started playing live gigs again and writing better music, but also to convince her that she should be my best friend.

Somewhere else on the list is Caitlin Moran, who admittedly is a new addition to the list but who, with the help of her book “how to be a woman” has inspired me to write down all the funny things that happen to me in day to day life. I doubt highly that anyone will read them, but as with the many diaries, brain books (my books of songs and poetry) it’ll be a nice reminder as I grow older and wiser.

* cast members of Hollyoaks & Corrie count right?

Those who know me will know that aside from being very passionate about my profession, I am prone to rant (the clue is in my surname Durrant), especially when something that could potentially damage my industry rears its ugly, badly thought out, head.

Most rants tend to be directed at cowboy web design companies or companies who mislead their clients into thinking that flash websites are great, or those who just design and run without educating their client about marketing their new site.

Up until this week, I assumed that it was mainly small companies that were taking advantage of clients who weren’t educated enough in the web to make the correct choice for their business. Many new companies go to a web design company and only realise that their site isn’t what it should be when it is too late and they have spent their marketing budget for that year.

So, if a government backed site were to say “this is how you should do this, because it is cost effective and will benefit your business”, you’d probably trust that as gospel. Right?

Well there is one that does just that; and not only does it offer opinions about what is best for your business both online and offline, it started out telling you to use non-UK companies to do it (they have now added some uk based companies after an onslaught of negativity from UK designers).

Since I believe the purpose of the site was to get businesses in Britain to start businesses and start generating money, thus decreasing unemployment and raising the spending within the UK, would it not make sense to keep the business transactions within the UK? Or even better, instead of pointing new businesses to sites that deal with low-cost low-quality services, would it not make more sense to point them in the direction of another UK startups, thus helping another company succeed?

I honestly don’t understand how these people can refer to themselves as “entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs” when there is nothing entrepreneurial about just passing the startup over to a crowdsourcing site (a site where designers bid for work, being undercut by students desperate for a bit of cash), who care more about just earning a quick £50 for a logo than actually working on a full brand identity for a client.

You may only have a shoestring budget, but speaking to a local startup can be beneficial for both of you, you not only could get a quality design at a lower rate than from a larger more established company, but the design company benefit from a: having something for their portfolio, b: the good words you’ll have to say about them to others that you meet and c: some income. Plus you just built yourself a business relationship, which is a useful thing for a startup.

New startups usually have the bonus of years within their industry so they often know as much as the longer running large companies, but are still finding their feet with regards to getting a reputation, which usually means that their overheads and fees will be significantly lower.

And it works both ways. Many companies have done work in exchange for products or services, especially at startup. You need to earn money, but what is 10 minutes of work creating a quick poster design for a cake shop in return for some very tasty cakes, and a business relationship that could, even if you don’t work together directly, get you a little work from other companies.

You just need to look at the big picture sometimes.

This week saw the launch of Simon Collison’s new pride and joy “New Adventures in Web Design” or NAConf if you find it a bit of a pain to write all the time.

There had been a lot of anticipation around the country (judging by all the tweeting) and it seemed the whole community was behind Simon and his quest for creating a different breed of design conference.

The night before

Erskine organised a hugely entertaining night of Bowling. Although I wasn’t playing I still had an incredibly fun time roaming around meeting people and taking photos.

I left earlyish in order to get a good nights sleep ready for…

The Big Day

Kicking off the day was…

Nice little break to get more coffee… very much needed. Then back in for a bit of…

End of the morning sessions, and at the beck and call of many on Twitter.

Lunchtime

I was so happy to find out that we all got lunch bags and not semi warm junk food or a queue in McDonalds (one and the same in some cases). Aside from the Cherry yoghurt I devoured the whole lot, hoping to get chatting with someone and potentially swap it. I read that I wasn’t alone in my distaste towards the yoghurt.

I had a few nice chats at lunch time and then we were on to the afternoon speakers, kicking off with…

All in all I had a very enjoyable day. I didn’t make it to the evening shenanigans as I was still tired from the night before and had a lot to process and felt very inspired and wanted to get back and make some notes.

Roll on New Adventures 2012!

I figure that most freelancers will have had this issue, in one way or another, not necessarily because they have several amazing projects dropped in their lap at once; but perhaps because times are hard and they can’t financially turn down work.

I write this from the other side of my pre-Christmas rush, the rush that I added to by taking on a new client and trying to finish several clients websites before stopping for the Christmas holidays on the 22nd of December.

I got ever so excited when a friend put me in touch with someone in her company who needed some work doing for Chevrolet. I jumped at the chance. Never mind the fact that I didn’t really have the time (or the equipment for that matter) to do the work (some storyboards for new adverts, which will be going on their Facebook page sometime soon). I admit, I got stars in my eyes, and thought “I can do this, it wont take too long and it’s a brand name, who could pass that up!”…

…I should have; but my inner artist got excited after looking at the scripts and just had to say yes.

So after the excited “thank you for thinking of me” email I ventured out to purchase a graphics tablet and started work.

A few late nights later, on around my 7th drawing of a sports car I was feeling less enthusiastic about my choices. I was shaking from drinking too much coffee and not having much sleep, working most of the day on client websites and then working solidly on the Chevvy work, I was feeling sick at myself (and not looking too pretty either).

The day I submitted the work was a good one but was laced with the worry of negative feedback and changes. I couldn’t have been happier when I received the following….

“Client loves the boards, thank you!”

Though short and sweet it meant I could now relax a little…

I then had to tackle the imminent deadline of one of our biggest client sites which also resulted in late nights, and Christmas inbetween (as well as travelling to Swansea to see my family in the snow).

We did it, the site is now live, the client is very happy with it and chuffed with all the hard work we have done on it.

I look forward to a good rest over new year and a fresh start to 2011!

What I set out to do:

1. Keep myself financially sound
Almost there on this one, 2011 should see me earning enough to live happily on.

2. Find some new clients
This was intended to mean “freelance clients”, since then I have opened up a company (more on that later) and have found several amazing clients.

3. Start a 365 on flickr finally
This, sadly fell by the wayside and I managed around 6 days before I forgot upload photos then forgot to take photos and then fell off the wagon completely. Must try harder.

4. Release 5 wordpress themes on themeforest
This was intended as a sideline and will happen if I ever get any downtime.

5. Work towards more business partnerships
I have managed to forge a few very good business partnerships this year and they have all paid off very well indeed.

6. Read and learn as much jQuery as possible
I have definitely learnt a whole lot more than I knew but there’s still a lot to learn.

7. Get myself known in the design community
I would like to say that I have managed this to some extent, I think that it now, perhaps, sounds a little fan-girl-esque and that what I should have said was that I wanted to get my work better known and find a group of friends online with whom I can chat and get to know. Which I have done with the aid of Dribbble and Twitter. Still a long way to go though.

8. Have a holiday
Epic fail on this one… again. I have made plans for 2011 though!

9. Learn as many new techniques as possible.
WordPress is becoming easier to code, and I have managed to learn enough about Magento and Prestashop to be able to build online shops. I will continue to learn more. My css is tighter and cleaner than before too.

On a more personal note I also am hoping to finish the recording of my first album and to lose weight and just become more healthy in general, I wouldn’t go so far as to say I want to start exercising but perhaps start walking more and getting the bus less…

I finished the album email me if you’d like a copy. The second part is a work in progress.

So on the whole, not too bad, but room for improvement.

My list for 2011:

1. Take home a decent salary from WildFire.

2. Find more clients, allowing me to achieve point 1.

3. To write more personal blogs

4. To write a few guest blogs

5. To attempt a barcamp gig

6. Attend more conferences – so far have New Adventures in Web Design and DIBI in the diary as well as (hopefully) Sage World again.

7. Get Married

8. Have a holiday, a proper one, where I get to turn my phone off and stuff.

9. Do a 365 or a project 52, especially now I have my new toy.

10. Learn to play an electric guitar properly (on account of begging my brother to do up my dilapidated “Faux” Les Paul)

So this topic tends to spark quite a lot of controversy among pretty much all businesses. In some businesses it is deemed fairly acceptable for the customer to get their way. I believe, and I am not alone in this, that in the web design world we should learn to put our foot down to a certain degree.

We’ve all been there; Client x has been sent the visual for their new website, you have slaved over it for days, making sure every detail is perfect and that the most suitable fonts, colours and imagery have been used to their best advantage. It truly is a wonder to behold and you cannot wait to get the thumbs up so that you can code this bad boy up and your client can skip along to all his peers telling them how the sun shines from your backside and that you are the lord and saviour of the internet… right…?

That’s the dream. The reality is usually something close to what is illustrated here

When a client asks you to “make the logo a little bigger”, and you believe that the size you have used is appropriate for that design, say so. That is what you have been brought in to do. I’m not saying be arrogant or rude, be nice about it. If someone is already on their site, chances are they now know what the company is called and so having a logo that is 500px by 250px at the top of their page is just using up space that could be better used to sell their product or service.

If they ask to use a colour palate that would be better suited to a fun fair, then I would explain that it may not be to their clients taste. The site should be aimed at pleasing their general audience and may not necessarily be to their own specific tastes.

The main thing that you need to get across to your client is that they hired you for a reason, you have the knowledge of the industry, trends and dos and don’ts of web design. What they need to understand is even if the colours are not to their tastes, they will work better for their audience. Having a colour palate that compliments their brand will help build trust among their customers. If their customers feel the site lacks a professional feel then they may well go elsewhere.

It’s your job as a designer to stand up for this. If you just do whatever your client wants then you are not only doing your client a disservice but yourself too. You won’t want to direct people to their site and you won’t want it on your portfolio either.

What are your thoughts on this?

As a kind of follow on to the last blog entry about being passionate about your work I thought that I would talk about the other side of loving what you do. The inability to step away from it.

Now don’t get me wrong (insert song into head now) I don’t do this every week, nor would I be able to. But now and then I find that I do it.

The week before last I worked a 7 day week, I worked from Saturday through to the following Saturday for around 12-16 hours a day depending on how awake I was feeling on that particular day.

In that week we had to:

• Travel to London for a meeting with a new client
• Write a big proposal for said customer.
• Finish one of our clients websites (which included a blog and an online shop)
• Start and finish a blog design for another company
• Do a logo design for another client
• A complete visual look and feel for a new client
• Various blogs including one for Sage UK

On top of our list we still had the usual phone calls, general correspondence and anything else the working week usually throws at us. On reflection, saying yes to it all and actually getting on with it and finishing it all off was going to take its toll and it did. On the second Sunday I crashed out all day and watched a lot of awful films, chilled out and slept like a baby, what I didn’t count on was that mentally I had worn myself out so much that by Monday morning I was good for nothing and my productivity hit an all time low.

I guess the thing to consider is that if you are going to do crazy hour weeks you need to have the balance and not expect to be able to keep it up for very long.

Hopefully it will be a while before I have to do a week like that again, I had fun but it’s important to have down time.

I am always blown away when I watch Gary Veynerchuk talk about his businesses. Fact. His love of what he does is very inspiring. His excitement and passion means that he is a very likeable personality. Set aside the bad language (naughty, naughty Gary), he has a real love of his work and it’s something that I think a lot of businesses lack.

Now I don’t mean business owners don’t love what they do, they obviously have passion for their companies, otherwise they wouldn’t have started up their business. What I refer to is the business owners who don’t go above and beyond to tell everyone they can about their business, what they do and how much they love it.

I personally believe that it is one of the most valuable things a business owner can do. To be passionate about what you do and to be able to convey that passion to your clients and prospective clients is, especially in what I do, one of the most important things that we have. How is your client supposed to get excited about the product or service you are providing for them, if you aren’t.

Over the last few days I have been at the Sage World 2010 conference in Telford meeting other business owners and listening to some amazing speakers (we’re writing a number of articles on this over at our WildFire Blog – go check it out). One point that came up several times over the two day conference, by several different speakers, was that to run a successful business you need to really love what you do and that your passion will be seen by your prospective clients and will help build trust in your brand.

Karren Brady said “If you don’t love what you do, then change it”, which seems like the easiest thing to do, but in practice is a big risk for some people to take. Will King of King of Shaves also made the point “You need to have passion and persistence to get ahead in business” in his talk about taking on the big boys, and Andy Lopata spoke about gaining trust in order to secure referrals.

I sometimes get told that I get too heated about the “cowboys” in my profession, about the clients who think that our prices are too high and about people who think that what we do is easy. I get told that I shouldn’t put forward my point of view or call a person out on things when they steal peoples work, or they tell me that their brother in law fixes computers and can make them a 10 page website for a hundred quid.

I say why not. Why shouldn’t I, I am only being political in my own profession, only trying to educate people who think that web design is an easy way of life.

I would love to hear your thoughts on why you love your job. Send me a comment

Something that has interested me (at least for the past couple of years) is user experience. Whether it be online or in “real life” I have found more and more that I find issues that make day to day tasks more difficult than they need to be. One “real life” example is supermarkets. Now I am not a big fan of shopping in supermarkets and I do prefer to do it online most of the time, but there are unfortunately times when one must pop in to get milk or bread or something that was left off the online shop. Anyway I’m getting off topic, when going to said supermarket, we assume that certain things will be grouped together, to make it easy to navigate yourself around the shop and find what you came for. Now the majority of supermarkets don’t mess this up too much. However one in particular, and I wont name and shame the supermarket in question (just hint that Bill Bailey wrote a song about them) who, no matter the store, seem to want to create the worst user experience and stress out their customers.

Now this gets right up my nose, and anyone who has been shopping with me in said shop knows about the ranting that ensues when I look for something, lets use orange squash (or is it cordial) as an example; you would assume that any normal shop would group all non-alcoholic, non-fresh beverages such as squash, juices and carbonated drinks together right? Not this shop, it puts them miles away, between aisles for completely unrelated products. It puts condiments and jams above the frozen section, but not things like gravy… It’s a very stressful experience for someone who just popped in for a few bits (and if they happen to be orange squash and gravy you’re screwed).

So how is this relevant to my online world of user experience? Simple, things should be where people expect them, information should be clear and you shouldn’t have to go around in circles finding what you came for.

So a quick list of my pet hates in web design and how they should be tackled:

1. Search – If you are going to have a search function on your site, make sure it works. You will frustrate your user no end when he/she knows something should be on your site but can’t find it. For example if you run a clothing shop and someone searches for “t-shirt” and finds nothing you more likely than not will lose a potential customer.

2. Links – In fact navigation as a whole should be absolutely faultless, if you have a lot of different parts to one page (such as a products page) then perhaps think of having a drop down navigation which illustrates that you have many different groups of products on that page. Also make use of link visited, hover, and active states, they help your customer know where they have been and prevent the aforementioned circles.

3. Uniformity – Possibly one of my earliest annoyances with the web was that people didn’t use style sheets and had about 8 different colours, multiple sizes and every different font possible used on their site. It quite frankly hurts your eyes, looks crap and doesn’t make your business look professional. Also I find the need to tell designers to embrace line-height, having a lot of info in a big block is not good user experience, unless your aim is to give them a headache.

4. Clear – If within the first 10 seconds of being on your site, your customer hasn’t been told who you are and what you do (even through imagery) they may well get bored and move on. There is no point in having a site that doesn’t instantly tell someone what it is about. Even search engines will ignore you, you should have specific text on your home page telling your user exactly what your company does, pack it with keywords and google too will know what you do.

This isn’t by any means all you should be doing, there are millions of articles out there about user experience, and I will always find new ways of improving user experience, both online and in real life.

Have you got any user experience stories to share?

One thing I have noticed over the past few months of starting up WildFire is that I seem to have more and more to do in what seems to be less and less time. I find myself waking up early to work, working for most of the day; designing, writing, networking and going to see clients and then doing the same in the evening. When it comes to weekends; when I should be shutting off and enjoying some down time, I find that I am actually spending it researching, writing more articles and blogs, checking up on stats and campaigns, working out marketing plans (add to that a new project that I am currently planning out – more on that soon!) and doing even more networking.

I even find that even when I’m out, without the distraction of my laptop, I am constantly writing down website url’s and handing out flyers (which I did today around the Northern Quarter in Manchester). I simply find that I can’t (and don’t really want to) switch off.

I wondered if perhaps there was just not enough hours in the day, that I have so much to do that I just don’t have time to squeeze it into 5 days. But I have actually come to the conclusion that I just really enjoy what I do and want to do it all the time, it doesn’t feel like work to me, and if it did then I probably would do less of it.

The main reason I am putting in so many hours now is because I know that as we get more work in and more of a name we’ll grow and take on staff, I won’t have to spend 50% of my time networking (I’m sure then it will be filled with design work and more client meetings) and will have a bit more of a reason to have some down time and get back to other pass times I have outside of the working day (9-5 is a thing of the past, I don’t know a single business owner who keeps these hours) like photography and music.