I recently published a post entitled “How to finish a web project”. In it I wrote:
To my mind delivering a website is only half of a web designers job. It is also our responsibility to ensure the client knows everything they need in order to successfully run their site.
That is a pretty bold statement and I could understand if people disagreed with me. After all, you are rarely being specifically paid for this kind of consultancy. Also, clients don’t always recognise their need for this kind of advice. Why then attempt to provide a service that some clients do not want and are not paying you for?
One reason might be that a client is paying you to create them a successful website, and that is only possible if they do their part and maintain the site over the long term. But is that a good enough reason?
I would really love to discuss this on the podcast and so am proposing the following debate topic.
This house proposes that it is the responsibility of a web designer to educate clients about how to run their website.
If you are a web designer, I would be interested to hear what you do? Do you provide this service, and if so are you paid for that work? If not, where do you think your responsibility ends? As a client, do you expect these kinds of extra services from your web designer? Are you willing to pay for this or do you consider it part of the service? Let’s discuss in the comments:
