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Web design as an IT consultant

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LeftStep

Beside You In Time
I recently found myself in one of those "bite off more than you can chew" situations..

I created a basic web page in high school a thousand moons ago, and that's about it. I have been working as an IT consultant up until the end of last year, when I got laid off. Now I have a gig for this wholesale company that wants me to re-do their entire website, and in all my efforts, I have been found lacking..

They are using Squarespace 5 for their site, and while I've made great strides in learning the interface and options, I have pretty much hit the wall, as my CSS skills are nearly non-existent...

I need some help. Some resources. A crash course in CSS, if you will; and I need to become master of pixels very quickly.. I'm too ashamed to link the project in it's current state, but I can get into more detail if you ask the right questions?
 
LeftStep said:
I recently found myself in one of those "bite off more than you can chew" situations..

I created a basic web page in high school a thousand moons ago, and that's about it. I have been working as an IT consultant up until the end of last year, when I got laid off. Now I have a gig for this wholesale company that wants me to re-do their entire website, and in all my efforts, I have been found lacking..

They are using Squarespace 5 for their site, and while I've made great strides in learning the interface and options, I have pretty much hit the wall, as my CSS skills are nearly non-existent...

I need some help. Some resources. A crash course in CSS, if you will; and I need to become master of pixels very quickly.. I'm too ashamed to link the project in it's current state, but I can get into more detail if you ask the right questions?
Click to expand...

How much are they paying you? Hardforums has a lot of designers you can hire cheaply :) Keep you in the green and still get your project done :)
 
That's way over my head lol all i know is some simple HTML stuff. Hopefully Tristan, Katie or Kismet sees this so they can give some advice. Those are the ones i would go to for advice on this stuff. I mean look at the great website they built for us now.

Edit: Lol damn Tristan beat me to the punch
 
tr1age said:
How much are they paying you? Hardforums has a lot of designers you can hire cheaply :) Keep you in the green and still get your project done :)
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Well, they are paying me hourly, which adds to the pressure... I've been going home to work for free all night with decent internet (it's 1.5Mbps down, 0.5Mbps up here) as I try to pick things up. Really cuts into my GW2 time haha.

I don't think sub-contracting is an option for me :( I need to pull a couple miracles out of my brain. (or yours)
 
I'm happy to throw in my two cents, but as Tristan said, we need to know where you were, where you are, and where you want to go.
 
Well, let's see.. When I started out, the previous employee had chosen a pre-made template, added galleries of product pictures into the sidebar, and that was about the extent of it. I took a bunch more pictures, uploaded them into these galleries, and they told me to "change the site". They sell products mostly to carnivals and smoke shops. Lots of novelty items. The owner said he would like to see the site split into two sections: carnival and smoke shop. Now, there is a problem right there, as there are some items that belong in both places, and some items that belong in neither, but I digress.

Here is the current monstrosity: http://veekaywholesale.com/. It is butchered quite heavily as I am trying different things... *psycho*

I am willing to start over from scratch, in an effort to make the site function somewhere between http://www.iacintl.com/ and http://www.orientaltrading.com/.

From what I understand, they do want to move from being a gallery of sorts to a bona fied e-commerce website, so I need to start with a layout that actually makes sense. (and I haven't yet learned how to implement squarespace's e-commerce solution)

Methinks there will be a lot of photoshopping ahead, and a lot of throwing bits of CSS around to make it look snazzy.. They have their elements all made up; I can't find any HTML except for in any HTML "pages" I add to the sections, So i don't know where I would go to say, add the phone number right up there on the header, which I've decided to keep fixed, for easy navigation.. Or maybe something completely different.

It used to be all brown and blocky and simple - now it is a white mess of lulz. I am going for simple elegance, with a flash of color from India..
 
I am at work right now, but I can poke around on the site later tonight (after 11pm EST). Will post some thoughts after perusing it. Fortunately there are a lot of plug-n-play elements, code, etc. out there to save you time and having to re-create the wheel. e-Commerce security is important, especially if you don't want your customer to risk liability for exposure of personal information, credit card details, and the like so keep that in mind to. A lot of small mom & pop businesses will integrate with PayPal as an option if they cannot afford a larger scale solution. PayPal allows you to manipulate code and it can be as easy as copy/paste buttons that link to their site for each item, or a fully integrated seamless shopping cart.

Anyway... talk more later. I'm sure Tristan & Katie have input as well. A lot of talented people in our community who I am sure have good suggestions/experience.
 
Now the question is why can't you use a template software like wordpress shopping cart or Zen Cart. or Open Cart . They are highly customizable and secure as well they have amazing templates available for less than 100 $.

Second, squarespace also has awesome templates: http://www.squarespace.com/templates/

Why not use a premade one. Dock your pay by a hundred bucks. Also did they hire you to CREATE A NEW website or maintain theirs? Because you also might be able to negotiate the price of the template with just minor tweaks needing to be made (don't tell them that) on your end for logos etc.

There really is no such thing as throwing around bits of CSS. You either have a template and then add pieces here and there or you start from scratch. Unfortunately your current place is a cluster fuck that needs a complete overhall.

I.E.

http://www.heartinternet.co.uk/blog/2012/11/25-of-the-best-free-ecommerce-templates/
 
Looks like Veekay is using GoDaddy.com as their web hosting provider. They have some built-in ecommerce tools that would be the way to go if they plan to continue hosting there. Just have them build that in to the web hosting fee, not your fee, unless you are charging them for that as a referral vendor.

http://www.godaddy.com/ecommerce/shopping-cart-new.aspx

Then you can check out some CSS Templates, as Tristan suggested above... or:
http://www.freecsstemplates.org/

Just keep in mind that if you go with a template, you'll have a look that can (and most likely is) being used by other businesses out there. That is fine, and you can make it more unique by adding your own photoshop elements or tweaking color schemes, etc.
 
Thank you for your input - I will be quitting my job now.

EDIT: That'd be silly. But trying to implement additional solutions to Squarespace seems far beyond my capabilities.. I will just have to tweak it as hard as I can to get close to the desired result... I feel like a plumber installing light fixtures.
*killme*
 
I don't understand the problem. Squarespace is paid software to handle templates like you are trying to do. Why are you designing from scratch when it is made to be used with templates?
 
I think the main problem here is that I am not a web designer haha.. I don't have access to the core HTML, so I am stuck with just editing the elements that are already provided. I can't find any Squarespace templates that make sense for the e-store they have in mind... I freakin love this template http://web-experiment.info/bluescale-magento-template.html but I can't find any way to use it other than scrapping Squarespace and using Magneto, which I also know nothing about.

They wanted me to upload pictures, that was all - then they wanted more. Then they wanted ME to be a photographer. LOL Used an 8 year old digital camera, a wrinkly linen, and an Ott Light I picked up at Goodwill... This website "rebuild" is a lot like that.. I know not how to code, or make shopping possible, let alone secure.. I'm getting paid 8 bucks an hour to poke at things with a stick. A very old Windows XP stick with a CRT connected to what I can only describe as really awesome dial-up..
 
LeftStep said:
I think the main problem here is that I am not a web designer haha.. I don't have access to the core HTML, so I am stuck with just editing the elements that are already provided. I can't find any Squarespace templates that make sense for the e-store they have in mind... I freakin love this template http://web-experiment.info/bluescale-magento-template.html but I can't find any way to use it other than scrapping Squarespace and using Magneto, which I also know nothing about.

They wanted me to upload pictures, that was all - then they wanted more. Then they wanted ME to be a photographer. LOL Used an 8 year old digital camera, a wrinkly linen, and an Ott Light I picked up at Goodwill... This website "rebuild" is a lot like that.. I know not how to code, or make shopping possible, let alone secure.. I'm getting paid 8 bucks an hour to poke at things with a stick. A very old Windows XP stick with a CRT connected to what I can only describe as really awesome dial-up..
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Ever thought of telling them you can't do it? :p
 
Do they realize that you are not a web designer? Not to sound insulting, but they should for $8 an hour... no matter where you live.
Can anyone design a website? Yes. But I would say at this point, if you truly want to save face and free yourself of the burden of not knowing how to do it, fess up to your client. Just say, I appreciate your business, but this a bit beyond my skill set and I would be happy to recommend some resources (see links above) that may be able to help you.

They are not paying you enough to sub-contract. That is obvious.

LeftStep said:
I don't have access to the core HTML, so I am stuck with just editing the elements that are already provided.
Click to expand...
Probably a good thing if you aren't a webmaster, but you can always right-click, choose VIEW SOURCE, copy/paste the code into an editing program (even Notepad) and work with a copy, which is better than altering the master until you make sure it is all working correctly. www.w3c.org to learn about HTML.

LeftStep said:
They wanted me to upload pictures, that was all - then they wanted more.
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Common with clients, especially when they feel they have sweat shop laborers. This is called 'stretching the scope'. Normally, you would contract in writing what you are doing for them... spell it out clearly, item by item, so they understand what you agree to do for them upfront and you aren't taken advantage of. A common saying in design & development is, "It is exactly what I asked for, but not what I want." <-- That stretches the scope.

LeftStep said:
Then they wanted ME to be a photographer. LOL Used an 8 year old digital camera, a wrinkly linen, and an Ott Light I picked up at Goodwill...
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I'm kind of jealous of the Goodwill Ott Light! Those things are expensive! Lucky find! :)

LeftStep said:
I'm getting paid 8 bucks an hour to poke at things with a stick.
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Correction. You are getting paid $8 hr. to develop a fully functioning e-commerce website that should cost way more than McDonald's burger-flipper wages even if you live in Podunksville, Kentucky. BUT, you are poking your stick in the fryer instead of flipping burgers and you are gonna get burned! Be careful!

You took a step in the right direction by asking for help. If you truly want to learn web design, go for it! But not at your client's expense or on their dime. Do some gratis work if you are so inclined, but you will be more respected as a consultant, imo, if you are honest about your ability to handle the project.

I admire your gumption Left! And who knows? If they do not have a pressing deadline to accomplish this, and they really like working with you, then they may allow for you to train-on-the-job to get it done. But do you want that kind of pressure? It doesn't seem like you do, just from what you've already posted.

*hugs*
Kizzy
 
tr1age said:
Ever thought of telling them you can't do it? :p
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I WILL get it done ~ and I WILL make Twilight!!

Kismet said:
If you truly want to learn web design, go for it! But not at your client's expense or on their dime.
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This whole family owes me their savings and/or virgin daughters - I won't get into it..

Kismet said:
Probably a good thing if you aren't a webmaster, but you can always right-click, choose VIEW SOURCE, copy/paste the code into an editing program (even Notepad) and work with a copy, which is better than altering the master until you make sure it is all working correctly. www.w3c.org to learn about HTML.
Click to expand...
I found they have some code injection points I can work with, so this is good..

Kismet said:
But do you want that kind of pressure?
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Pressure keeps us from exploding into space, silly.
 
I don't understand half of this thread lol. Logic says you are in way over your head and then your responses say either or lol
 
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