Been too busy with assignment and not posted any research here but been putting it all in my assignment. This post has excerpts from assignment research:

1. One of the problems I have with becoming a web designer is building a portfolio and I found this guy on the net http://www.briterwebdesign.com/ who is giving away free websites in order to build a name for himself. Could be an idea!

2. Questionnaire results are in and below (from assignment) summarises them:

I received 10 responses 7 from business providers and 3 from other organisations. Two of the business’ providers had websites, only 1 had a site for other reasons, the main reason to have a business site was to attract more work, most were in the market for some of the services listed, most want the site updated for them but quite a lot would update themselves if they felt able to. I was expecting people to think a website would be expensive as a general misconception but the responses here were as varied as the market itself, nearly all have no idea how much internet advertising would cost and when looking for a web designer the main criteria is experience, know what they are doing with quality of previous work. Two of the respondents with non-business sites required the designer to be local as their sites (which they already have) need constant updates.

I noticed I could offer update services along with the added value of training the site owner to update the site themselves, and also marketing an advertising service with a dollar value attached might motive some people to purchase the product as they would go from having no idea of the price to gaining product knowledge that may or may not appeal to them. Advertising is not something I had planned to provide but it may be a viable service to provide if businesses are in the market for it, definitely something I would need to research and consider offering.

I did not ask any usability style questions like “how often do you use the internet” as I conducted one earlier in the unit and realised how varied users are some people can use the internet fluently others cannot and I need to design with the assumption people know very little and even if they do I still need to design with the motto “don’t make me think” (Krug, 2006). I plan on a simple site anyway, no flash to download or sounds, nothing complicated just a good basic site that is easy to use.Most businesses did not have websites and I noticed they might purchase a site if they believed it would increase sales and I assume a business would weigh up site cost against the sales it generates. I would need to give a potential business a good idea of what a site could do for their business.

3. Besides primary research secondary advice is available in, for example, statistical forms; some for purchase (others free) at the Australian government business site (http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/b06660592430724fca2568b5007b8619/9c7742890adec989ca2568a900139423!OpenDocument which can help getting the business environment surrounding business' currently. Other issues here would be how consumer spending, for example, can affect your line of business.

4. I researched the three competition sites mentioned in previous post, I found 'hardweb' and 'arteffect' had many usability issues and the site style I want to emulate 'emotionlive' also had a few usability issues. I will know more about the sites after testing video is completed and at the moment I can only list what I do and don't like about them, the issues I found in regards to usabilty were about navigation, pointless graphics, links not obvious, don't know what page you are on and being unable to change font size in some browsers.

5. With copyright I only researched in the OZnet law website ( http://www.oznetlaw.net/) and found issues around work agreements between a web designer and the client:

Without a written agreement:

(a) the third party developer (and not the customer) will own the intellectual property in the website and:

* the customer may have limited future control over the development and hosting of the website;
* the website developer may be able to reproduce the customer's website design for another customer if the customer is not the intellectual property owner; or
* the continuing use of artwork or other copyright works by customer will be dependent upon the copyright owner granting it a licence to do so.

(b) owning the intellectual property and not having possession of the source code can be a very frustrating and potentially disastrous situation. Escrow should be considered when the developer is not prepared to supply the source code;

(c) the customer is exposed to significant liability arsing from programming and other errors with the website;

(d) the customer and developer can have different interpretations of delivery dates, the development timetable and the liability of the parties for delay;

(e) the unsuccessful developer is potentially exposed in the case where a pre-contractual development proposal is put forward but not accepted and that proposal is used in a future site created by another developer.

You should maintain records such as minutes of meetings to document the fact that you have relied upon the knowledge and expertise of the developer. Such evidence makes it difficult for a developer to defend a claim of misleading and deceptive conduct made against the developer. (Oznetlaw, 2006)

Also stated in site how it is best (not necessary) to place a copyright symbol on your work and also mentions how every site should have a disclaimer to limit liability.

5. After a fellow student mentioned that she could not find 'emotionlive' displayed sites (they are posted as screenshots without links on the site) on the internet as 'real websites' I searched the net and only found one of the sites but the site looked different to the 'emotionlive' version. I think they(emotionlive) are creating mock up of sites to display on there website as part of the portfolio. Not a bad idea but I think this should be mentioned on their site; else we are left with the impression that they are real sites the devloper created for clients. A bit deceptive but it would help a new designer to have some work to showcase by re vamping existing sites as before and after shots, I just feel this should be stated on the site.

real version: emotionlive version: