Top Ten Tips for if your Web Design Project goes wrong

It is a fact of life that not everything runs smoothly, including web design and development projects. Because Emerging Innovations are professional web consultants with over 15 years of experience in the industry we are often called upon by both web designers and their clients to help resolve web projects that have stalled or just can't be completed.

Below are the top ten factors that you should consider if you find that your own web design project doesn't seem to be getting anywhere.

Make sure you have access to your hosting

Before you go too far down the road of moving web designers make sure you have access to the work that has been done on your behalf. As a basic principle this means ensuring you have access to your files (via FTP most probably) and perhaps a database if there is one.

Additionally, if possible, see if you can obtain a complete backup of the website and its database. This is extremely valuable in ensuring a smooth transition to a new designer, should it come to that, should there be any problems.

It is also worth noting that some developers may use systems to obscure or encrypt their code to prevent this kind of unauthorized access. Providing you have kept your side of the contract there should be no problem with you obtaining the unencrypted copy of the website.

Check that you own the domain names

Some designers inadvertently (we'll give them the benefit of the doubt on this one!) register domain names that you have paid for in their own name instead of yours. Often overlooked at first this can later become a nightmare, particularly if the project derails.

Verify the domains that you own are in your own name by visiting websites such as WHOIS and checking it lists you/your company as the owner.

Give the current web designer opportunity to complete

You will do yourself no favours unless you have given the current web designer opportunity to make good on their failings. Switching to a new designer can at best be inconvenient so if at all possible try to work through your problems before considering a course of action

Put things in writing

Having a chat - friendly or otherwise - with a designer that is letting you down is a great first step because it can often bring to light issues on their side and give you an opportunity to get across your aggravations.

That said, however, make sure you follow up with an email and document significant project steps thereafter. Note any missed deadlines, incomplete work or work that is not as per the specification and save it for if it is needed later. A savvy designer will be doing the same thing at their end!

Review contracts - particularly if money is involved

Particularly important if you have monies outstanding or invoices that you have elected not to pay. Your web design contract should stipulate payment terms and, perhaps applicable in this situation, steps that need to be taken if there is a problem. Make sure you have kept your side of the contract. Simply throwing your hands up in the air and walking away leaving unpaid invoices may leave you liable.

Check outstanding ownership of IP

Another thing that it is incumbent upon you to check before you consider moving designers is what material could be claimed as copyrighted or as intellectual property. This is a particularly difficult area to give a general rule on but basically anything that you have not provided yourself or that has been provided by the designer and has not been paid for may fall under this category.

Having copyrighted or IP material may mean you would be unable to use it on your transferred site. This may or may not be a problem but it is one you need to consider before making any moves away from the current designer.

Consider timing and website downtime.

If the website transfer process goes well then there may be zero downtime for your website; but problems and other matters do get in the way sometimes so see what you can do to minimise the effect of any downtime of your website.

In particular it's worth mentioning that we dealt with one website transfer where the web designer's first action upon being told that they were being dumped was to take the site offline, even though it had been paid for in full! You can never tell what reaction you're going to get so let's plan for the worst!

Make sure your new web designer is going to make the grade

When you've completed the checks above and are ready to make the leap to a new web designer, you need to be sure that you don't fall fowl of the last bear-trap: You've spent so long anticipating and planning to move away from your current designer that you haven't properly analysed the ability of the new designer to deliver.

One thing you don't want is to be repeating this transfer process again in a couple of months so make sure you've thoroughly checked out the new web designer's ability, portfolio and skills before making the move.

Be open and transparent with your new designer

We would strongly recommend that you are open and transparent with the new designer and explain why the contract between you and your previous web designer didn't work out. Not only does this help the problems to be avoided in the future but it also ensures the new designer knows what level of commitment and expectation on your part that they are taking on.

Consider investing in a web consultant to assist

If this all makes the hair on the back of your neck stand on end or your stomach churn then you may want to engage a web consultant such as Emerging Innovations to support, assist or liaise with this process. With knowledge of the detail of web design, the technical aspects behind it and the processes involved the procedure should be much more straight forward.

If you feel as though you would like to talk through your current problems or to discuss anticipation of your project please don't hesitate to contact us.