No doubt some people feel “basic” coding is beneath them. They feel they should be focusing on Java, JavaScript, UI Design, UX, etc. etc. Coding that PSD to valid, cross browser XHTML? Complete with CSS styling? Dealing with whatever browsers you want to support?
Funk that, especially when we have dozens of businesses fighting to do this for us (for cheap!).
Prolific competition and cheap? How can I lose!
Yes, much like that extended warranty you bought, how could you lose? Very easily!
Generally speaking, it seems you get what you pay for. But sometimes you have to realize that doing research is the best ROI. In the age of the internet, one man shops quickly get bought out by the competition, so that we can go very quickly from “my friend runs this” to “he sold it for more than it’s worth, and now it’s a shit service.” It happens, as I had dug up old reviews and contacted people – which I suggest you do. Never rely on sites and written reviews (they could be paid reviews and not disclosed, and some people will rant and rave after one use, and quickly change their mind after two uses!).
In 2006 they were hot shit! So they still are…right?
No my friend, they are not. Like I said, any time you see a review for a service, research it. Their are prolific sites that offer up reviews but I’ve noticed a lot of them allow ballot stuffing (it seems all you need is an email address to post, and those are quite easy to get). So you can see they have some heavy negative reviews followed by dozens of similar “OMG, these guys saved me, they rock so hard!”
First thing you need to realize, you are outsourcing, and more than likely this work is going overseas – and generally outsourcing is a mixed bag of issues. From the services I checked out, they claimed to be “based” in the United States, but I noticed some of their class names held Russian words, another I noticed some Norwegian – and it’s most important that as I worked with some of these companies, I “figured out” how best to work with them – regardless of who they were.
The Secret to Working with Third Party PSD to XHTML Services
It’s simple, really:
- Do not rely on their order forms to tell them everything.
- Do not make assumptions on what they will/won’t do.
You combat this by:
- Giving them requirements if it’s not on the order form!
- If they offer money back guarantees and you aren’t happy – USE THEM.
Tell them exactly what you expect – if you think certain areas should have 10 pixels of padding around them (maybe *you* think it’s common sense) but they may not!
You may have selected CSS sprites – but do you want it done a certain way? Did you want certain headings to be clickable? TELL THEM.
I guess this ultimately falls down to communication skills as it often does – overcommunication is better than too little, and it’ll save you headaches in the long run!
How to Deliver your PSDs
No doubt, sometimes you may be working under deadlines so you may spread your work out into batches – this is a dangerous approach if you think “oh we can tweak certain fundamental aspects of our designs as we send them.” Bad, bad, bad.
If you are planning batch approach, communicate this before hand so your potential partner services understands, and make sure the basics of your templates are SOLID before you send them out!
I suggest having your templates done first (so you can reuse the code and maybe not need to have every PSD sent out to be done) and make sure your sidebar and navigation areas are solid (and this is where you describe how large the click areas are). Once these areas are solid, I’d make sure all future PSDs follow these pixel perfect hand-offs to insure an easy transition with the future PSDs sent off, and it’ll also save you a lot of pain.
Have you used any services like this? Got any tips or tricks? Let us know!
