Topic: Design Question

[Steve]

A customer has designed his webpage using jpegs. Normally i would just use a map for each page, and i still might. Problem is the homepage has an "upcoming events" section, that i need to make easily updateable for him. There is also a pre-order form (i did in php) that i need to incorporate into the page. What might be the easiest way of doing this?

I was thinking maybe i can do a map for the majority of the page, and maybe some how "overlay" those two contents onto it? If that makes sense. I'm used to building pages from scratch or using maps/CMS's so this is new to me. Apparently he contracted someone else to do it and they dumped the project halfway through and took off with his money. So he contracted me to finish it since i have done work for him before.

[Steve]

TY ethic, that will make my issue easier to resolve :P

[Gametaku]

why can't you just split the jpeg up and use the sections that the  ''upcoming event" and form are on as a back-ground images.

[Steve]

I considered that too. The whole mainstream web design thing is fairly new to me, so i never know what kind of tricks you guys might have to make my life a little easier =]

[Steve]

Now that i think bout it cant i just make the page a static image using maps, and then for the form just create and position a scrolling div class?

[Steve]

thats what i did, woot

[Steve]

Normally for shopping carts i use something like oscommerce. This client wants some more like this one though

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/cart.aspx?p=41831

Basically you can search events, choose photos, then checkout using the cart system. I have no idea what cart system this is, so i have to assume its a custom job. How hard is it to design and code something like this? When he proposed the site it started out as a CMS with a gallery and a cart. We settled on SMF/TP + Gallery + oscommcerce. That was like 2 months ago, and he put the project off. Then tuesday he approaches me for the job and says he needs an order form incorporared into his new site but needs it done within a few hours. So i did it no problem, as he rings me a fair amount of work.

I'm telling you this so i can ask a question. Back when we designed the site, we negotiated at $75. I took it because i need the money, and doing a smf base cms with a oscommerce cart isnt anything difficult. We agreed to keep the same price on tuesday. But now this is becoming more work, should i re-negotiate? I need the cash, and he keeps work rolling my way, so i dont want to piss him off.

[webwhy]

don't know how everyone else does it...but my outfit always bills out by the hour...ALWAYS.

We'll estimate a project in man hours, and the client is required to buy "prepaid" chunks of developer time in various increments...e.g. we estimate a task will take 4 hours, you can buy 4 1 hour chunks at $x per hour or one 5 hour chunk at $y per hour.

if we miss our estimate, it's critical to inform the client as to why we're off as soon as possible.  If this happens, its usually the customer wanting additional features or functionality that were not present in the original bid request...They only thing we don't charge for is fixing our own bugs and mistakes.  Well, we sort of price that into the hourly charge...but it doesn't count against their time.

they can either use the rest of their time with us and leave...or buy more time.

We've been screwed so many times on the estimate/flat rate to "complete" a project crap...

[hans]

If the requirements changed, then you go back and negotiate a different price for the rest of the work. We call them "change requests". Sometimes they are a wash, but if the functionality is drastically different then the customer needs to pay more if that's what they really want.

You can't go to a car dealer and after you order the car, decide you want to do upgrades or get a different model without expecting to pay for it.

Sometime when you put money to it, the customer will decide the original way is just fine. To them it may not seem like much of a change so you have to inform them about what the implications of changes are.

[Steve]

@ webwhy: I charge per hour for everything but webdesign. Like comp repairs and such cost $25/hr with a minimum of one hour that way if i fix it in 5min its still 1 hr.

I mentioned it to him, and he was more then willing to pay the additional. I gave him a cost break, though. Mostly because he does ALOT of webdesigning but he cant code, at all. So he makes the look and contracts me to make them work so i get a fair amount from him. I was charging him 35.00 flat for myspace overlays, which is cheap but when u figure they take me 10min to code and i get about 10 of them a week it adds up. Over the last 2 months he has paid me over 900.00 in website work so tossing him a bone on price dont bother me much =]

thnx for the input guys