Here is an interview with William Byrd, the all round nice guy that designed this web site, which hopefully everyone agrees is an awesome improvement on my own attempt. Great job, Will! Hopefully, what Will has to say will help someone else considering their first web site, or a revamp.

Tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is William Byrd, I’m 31 and a “military brat” – my father was in the Marines for 14 years. Naturally, we travelled a lot. By age 5, I had lived in the Philippines, Okinawa, Guam, Hawaii, and Virginia. Unlike kids today, I did not grow up with technology. I never had video games, a cell phone, or a computer. Throughout high school, I actually typed every paper on a TYPEWRITER! Only at age 23, after a few years at Palomar College in San Diego, did I get my first computer, and it scared me! Instead, I decided to pursue my love of art and design at Platt College, and try to make a living out of something I truly enjoyed. Somewhere along the line, that evolved into my current career as a computer graphic artist and UI designer.

How long have you been doing UI? What are your skills?

I built my first “real” (professional) website in 2004, after my first year at Platt. The site is still up actually: h2odyssey.com, and I’m currently working on re-designing it! H2O was my employer for many years and is where I got my start in graphic and web design.

I feel my skills lie largely in design and usability. I enjoy coding clean XHTML & CSS, incorporating Javascript and other scripting languages to make a site more dynamic and intriguing for the user. That said, I really love the visual aspect. I don’t care how good the code is, or how great your marketing team, if the product looks like crap – no one is going to want to use it or buy it. I focus on quality rather than quantity. With each site, I try something new, or do something different. I push myself to keep learning, to better my skills so that my work speaks for itself.

What technology do you advise for an author blogging site?

WordPress is the way to go. It’s a robust application, easy for clients to understand and work with, and it has a great API and thousands of modules, many of which can be installed in a few clicks. Drupal is more geared towards developers, and I really don’t see hand coded sites as worth it any more, considering the CMS options out there.

Do you build WordPress themes from scratch or use existing ones?

To learn the “ins & outs” of WordPress, I started by building my own themes, while at the same time learning PHP and understanding how a CMS works. It’s much easier, and cheaper for my clients, for me to modify an existing theme. It helps if a client comes to me with some suggested themes that they like, but I’m happy to make recommendations.

What is the hardest part of building a site?

For me, the design phase – I get very meticulous about different aspects of a design. Over the years, I have gotten much better about letting certain things go, but I still want everything to be “perfect”.

What should a client expect when working with a site designer?

The most important thing to keep in mind is patience. Both sides will bring their vision to the table, but the final site may turn out quite different to what you both imagined. If the client and designer work closely together, good things will come. Be flexible and listen to your designer – that’s what you’re paying them for. If the designer doesn’t have a portfolio, I wouldn’t recommend hiring them.

Be prepared to go through a series of “comps”. Do not hide anything from your designer – be open and clear about what you like and don’t like. It is much easier for the designer to fix a move in the wrong direction at comp stage, than after he/she has built the template or Theme.

How much will a site cost?

When choosing a designer, keep in mind that good work is not inexpensive. If someone says they can do it for cheap, you’ll end up with a cheap looking site. Expect to pay $500 to $5000 or more. Good designers work their tail off, working long hours and late nights to realize your dream site.

Factors that affect price include:

• The scope of the project: Do you want a simple blog with a home page, or a dozen pages to showcase your books or projects, and reviews? What WordPress plugins do you need and do you want the designer to configure them, or will you? Do you need a shopping cart to sell your masterpieces?
• The pedigree/experience of the designer.
• Being too picky or wishy-washy during the comp stages, making your designer redo the design over and over, or asking for  variations.
• Scope creep: You keep adding things that were not previously agreed upon.
• Artwork: Do you need custom artwork, or can you get by using photoshopped stock images? Maybe you’re a minimalist and don’t need any graphics at all except for your bio photographs, but remember that images make a site richer and more interesting.

What are your opinions on site design?

Whole blogs have been written about this, but in essence, it boils down to making it interesting but clean and usable. Restrain yourself to two or three fonts, a limited color palette, and background imagery that doesn’t detract from your content. As the cliché says, “content is king”, so make sure that is what your users are drawn to.

I advise simple navigation that is available on all pages, and keep your most important information in a siderail that is accessible from anywhere on the site. The actual flow and placement of components varies from site to site, though it is typical to have your main nav in the header, and a secondary nav (like blog postings) in a left or right rail along with your social media components and links to your most valuable/popular content.

What should clients do before approaching a designer?

I send a questionnaire to my clients, steering them to give me what I’m looking for. It’s always a good idea to provide your designer with examples of sites you admire, and why – maybe you like the navigation, or the color scheme, etc. Even then, many clients have no idea what they are looking for other than “I need a site for myself, my business, etc.” A good designer can take it from there.

Any final tips you want to share?

When starting a blog, make sure that your home page introduces you and your blog, providing users with an incentive to dig deeper into your site. Avoid a cluttered site, or users will become bewildered and leave. Users shouldn’t feel overwhelmed by your content, such as being forced to read screens and screens on one page. Break it apart in logical sections and lead users with clear navigation. Back up your blog regularly (your hoster can usually help with this). Finally, always use WordPress’s preview mode before publishing a post or page – even the best of us can mess it up and lose the original content.

Thanks Will!  He can be contacted via will@william-byrd.com.

Here’s a related post I did a while ago: Redesigning your web site.