Designing pages using layers and CSS - the best way?

I supose it's such a useful term it get's used for anything and everything now.

But what's most important to me is the customer's preconceptions of what it means and what they think I as a "web designer" actually do.

I'd like to educate them on my definition of design, but most won't be interested.

In this industry, there's a lot of sites produced - and supposedly designed - by 'kid next door', or the need for a web site is met with the phrase "my brother's friend's nephew does computers in school, he can make a web site!" There's nothing wrong with that, until said kid realises he could do the same slap-dash job for other people and charge professional rates (or more).
( note: i'm not saying they all do a crap job or aren't pro's so don't get your knickers in a twist) .

Now how do customers know if they have received, or are requesting, the services of a professional or a 'kid next door'?

As far as I know, if they don't take the hints from the evidence, or are blinded by the flashy templates the kid next door downloaded to make his web sites, then the customers won't know untill their site turns out to be a flop. Even then they might blame other factors for the flop.

If you were a small business, (potential client of mine), how could you tell the difference between me and the proverbial 'kid next door'? And would you care?

and back on topic, I have not seen any indication of what screen readers do actually read. I havn't looked very hard for the facts, nor have I tried a screen reader, or mobile device, to access a web page.

I have heard that many screen readers are actually not troubled by the odd layout table here and there. I still don't use <table> layouts, (I like my HTML to have semantic meaning as much as possible), but I would like to know more about these accesss devices, for example, do they all do as the W3C recommends? (Now I have to check up on what the W3C recommends too! )

Truthfully if it has a black background...that throws it all away.

But I am that "kid next door" designer you talk about. Except I actualy EARN my work and make it look good. I do custom templates and don't "just download" them.

I guess one way to tell would be comparison to other similar topic sites. If it has the same general layout, template, and color scheme as another page, that's a dead give away.

Personally I wouldn't judge the "kid next door" by the cover...or something like that. I'd imagine countless "professional" webdesigners do a worse job then I. Not to sound arrogant of course, but, for instance, one said "professional" used to frequent here and he pirated much of his work. His website could easily be confused as a die hard veteran of web design, but his portfolio spoke otherwise.

I've gave up on the customers MISconceptions years ago. I'm usually working with corporate people, or government people all of whom suffer from the same desire to stand out as a leader without actually exerting themseleves. "What I do" is done to please me. If I did it better than the last time, I'm pleased.



Why? I don't want to teach them jack about my job, and I don't want to learn squat about theirs. I think it works better that way.




In principle, I could not agree more.



No. As a small business, I wouldn't care. I would want the biggest bang for my buck. It would have to be proven to me, unequivocally, that the more expensive website was a better deal than the kid-next-door's. Otherwise the price tag will be the only thing seen.

b_heyer - I've no doubt your better than a lot of 'professional' designers, this is because you are spending a lot of time and dedicating time to learning how to be better, so good for you!

dM -


That's why I want to educate them on my idea of the word 'design' - I want to differentiate myself from what I call 'cowboy designers'
So they can see when someone like me is charging a professional fee for a professional service, and see when a 'cowboy designer' or 'kid next door' is charging a professional fee for an amateur (or worse) service full of gaps.

(Another note: I'm only starting out so I probably should class myself as amateur too, but I've spent so many years in education on design (not graphics at all) and computing that I recognise a 'design service' with gaps when I see one! And compared to those with no such education, I'm a damn lot more professional!)

I also get pissed of with they way people view the term 'fashion designers'. Their job is to draw clothes that look good on people, but the are celebrated as "world's best designers" and all that!
(see http://www.alistapart.com/articles/bathingape/ for someone who agrees)