

Dreaded Favors Asked of Web Designers - ecaron
http://webdesignledger.com/tips/top-8-dreaded-favors-asked-of-web-designers

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gruseom
This "ew, people keep asking me for help" genre has been around for a long
time, and I greatly dislike it. It's _perfectly natural_ for people to turn to
someone they know who knows about a topic. My father-in-law has answered my
questions about cars for years. If there's something he can help with, he
does; otherwise he tells me where I need to take it. Maybe I sometimes ask him
for help that's actually a lot of work: that's not me being importunate,
that's _me not knowing about cars_. Somehow he's never had any trouble helping
me when he can and explaining when he can't. And when someone asks me about
computers -- which they do all the time -- I'm delighted to return the favour.
It's just not very hard to be a nice person who helps others.

What can sometimes be hard is setting boundaries in the relatively rare case
of someone insisting that you help them to an inappropriate degree. Many of us
admittedly need to learn how to do that better. But, a hint: whining in public
about others' failure to respect the professional glory of your web
designerness is no way to work on it. (Not picking on web designers here;
programmers are worse.)

Edit: in fairness, the OP does offer some sensible hints (amid much self-
centered snark) about polite ways to handle situations.

~~~
mlLK
I agree; I hate these 'social faux pas' posts for web/graphic designers. I'm
also increasingly beginning to hate this model of 'designer playing publisher'
and abusing wordpress as a CMS for 'premium content' and buying/selling ad
space. 1/10 times you end up with posts like, [insert quantity]
things(outbound links) for [something].

The result is usually just a list of outbound links with some useless
editorial commentary. Some sites (psdtuts, hongkiat) can pull it off, but
others can not, which is easily discernible in how valueless each post is for
who ever they're targeting (usually designers).

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blhack
This sort of complaint is common to both web designers and programmers. The
problem is that most people don't know anything about design/programming, and
so they don't understand that it takes a lot of time to do.

Show somebody a patio that you built. They'll be able to see all the pieces,
and how heavy they are, and how they all have to fit together _just so_ ;
they'll be able to comprehend that it takes a lot of time to move all of those
pieces around and make them fit together.

Show somebody the black box that is a website, or a computer program, however,
and they can't even _see_ the pieces, much less understand how they fit
together, or how complicated they are.

~~~
jeroen
Start explaining about the structure of the html document, how the css styles
the document, how this part of javascript has that effect, and in no time
people will have a better idea of the complexity of our work (and not a bit
more understanding of it).

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patio11
Somewhere there has to be a forum of lawyers who don't charge enough or
exercise sufficient professional discretion where they regale each other with
tales of how Cousin Vinny wants free legal representation again.

~~~
theconsultant
It's a problem for lawyers, accountants and doctors.

Except they don't have any of my sympathy because they have officially-
recognized bars, certifications, and boards to ensure they are paid what they
are actually worth. Because of this, the advice they get solicited for comes
from respect, not because what they do "must be easy".

~~~
gabrielroth
_they have officially-recognized bars, certifications, and boards to ensure
they are paid what they are actually worth._

Or to put it another way, to artificially erect barriers to entry that ensure
they get paid more than they would in a freer market.

~~~
pavel_lishin
You know how sometimes you hire a guy from a hemisphere you've never even
heard of for a project, and when he delivers, it's nothing at all like you
requested, riddled with bugs, and randomly crashes?

Now imagine that guy representing you at a murder trial.

I like the barriers.

~~~
gabrielroth
Yes, licensing regulations also serve a useful purpose. But having the details
of those regulations determined by the guilds themselves (rather than external
authorities) is a lousy way to achieve that purpose. Why do I have to visit a
dentist to have my teeth cleaned, rather than a dental hygenist? Why can't
registered nurses or nurse practitioners provide basic medical care except
under the auspices of a doctor? Because the rules are set by groups that
represent the doctors and dentists.

It's also worth remembering that plenty of indigent people in this country
_are_ effectively represented by 'that guy,' including in murder trials. Look
at the cases of Calvin Burdine or George McFarland, both of whose court-
appointed attorneys slept through their trials. Are those barriers really
doing what you want them to do?

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theconsultant
You're not a professional until you learn how to say No.

It's the closest thing digital practitioners have got to a Bar Association,
and that's not about to change any time soon.

~~~
wyclif
True. It even happens to priests and pastors. You wouldn't believe how many
people you've never seen or heard of before will look you up and call you,
saying how much they'd love a nice little wedding in your congregation's stone
chapel. When you inform these people that you don't consider yourself a
justice of the peace, the waters are deeply stirred.

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scorpioxy
A lot of these items also apply to programmers. Although, I bet the list would
be much longer than this since no one knows what programmers actually do.

Like when somebody asks you to do a certain task and say "it shouldn't take
more than [x]", even though he has absolutely no idea what he's talking about!

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SandB0x
Pertinent: <http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell>

~~~
FluidDjango
In his right-hand sidebar he has some image-links to other comics about
"roads-to-hell-for-freelancers."

One of them was titled, "create FREE Flash websites" ... except, on further
examination it was _not_ another spoof - it was an ad from Google: life
imitates art!

------
bartl
The best way I can think of to get out of this situation quickly, and
relatively painlessly, is asking this question:

 _"I get paid to do this kind of work. Why would I do this for you for free?"_

