reflections

One of my hobbies is domaining. I buy and sell names on a regular basis, typically for profit - and I have what I consider to be a substantial portfolio. I’m not new to this game though - I’ve been trading names for almost a decade, and I’ve seen all sorts of scams being run around the domaining marketplace…

Imagine my surprise then when I got an email this evening, apparently from somebody interested in buying a domain name I recently snagged in an auction. I was quite excited by the prospect of a quick turnaround on the name - but felt that I should do a bit of Googling on the sender of the message.

The guy who sent me the email called himself Anthony Garringer - and he’s apparently the President of a company called TGNet Consulting. His email address is garringer@toughguy.net.

Here’s what I found out…

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One of my greatest pleasures as a web designer is getting the chance to refine my craft but, in contrast to that, one of my greatest burdens is the the number of ridiculous questions that clients have presented me with in the past! Given how long the Internet has been around, and considering the sheer number of sites on the web, you would think that everybody would have at least a basic knowledge of how it all works - but you’d be wrong!

Clients can’t always be expected to understand the complex stuff though - that’s why they pay a designer. But sometimes it would be so much easier if they’d just get a grip!

You’ll need a large spoonful of patience if you’re not going to start alienating your own clients though, because you’re the one with the knowledge. Treat them gently, especially if it’s the first time that they’ve had a web site built! If you know what to expect though, then it should help you deal with the questions when they come!

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One of my ongoing projects at the moment is Britster - a social networking site that will offer many of the popular features from sites like MySpace, YouTube and Date.com. What will make this site different to the rest though, is that fact that it’s aimed squarely at the British - including UK residents, ex-pats, and anybody else who wants to communicate with those living in Britain. My role in the project has been varied to date, and has included PHP development, online and offline marketing, corporate styling, and (of course) the design of the main website.

As research for the website design element of the project, I’ve looked at all the major existing social networking sites in a critical light, to see where I could make my own designs better. What I found really surprised me though - a general lack of quality, poor navigation and huge file downloads are common among both the leaders in the field and those vying for success

Please remember that these evaluations are purely my own opinion as a web designer. Just because I think a site sucks visually, it doesn’t necessarily mean the functionality is also lacking, as that isn’t what I’ve focused on.

I hope that any designer (web or otherwise) will find this roundup useful, as it highlights the pitfalls a designer may come across when creating a design for mass consumption - something we all have to tackle at some point in our careers. This may also be of interest to anyone else developing a site with social networking features.

Notes: clicking on any of the thumbnails will open up a full-size grab of the site in either a new tab or window. These are stored on my Flickr account, and I’ve grouped them into a set which you can view in full if you want to make comparisons! With this being a rather lengthy post, I’ve made use of a ‘read more’ break in the text, so you may need to click the title to read this article in its entirety.

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My good friend got married for the second time a few weeks ago. His first marriage, which was to a bizarre and slightly psychopathic young lady, ended in disaster when she walked out on him and their son.

I was Best Man at his first wedding, so when I discovered that he was planning on doing it again (admittedly with a much nicer young lady) I thought I should volunteer to do something more constructive, and ended up with the job of official photographer.

On my way to the ceremony (with Best Man v2’s Mother as a passenger) I managed to reverse into another car while bay parking. I won’t go into the great depth about how it happened, but let me just say that there was very minimal damage to the other car, and none to mine.

It occured to me later that day, as I told the story to others, that she could have orchestrated the whole incident - in order to get her already bashed-to-bits car replaced perhaps? Her reluctance to give me her insurance details at the time also bugged me that day.

A week later the other driver calls me, and tells me that she’s had the damaged assessed by a mechanic. She asks me if I’d like to pay the 500 pounds (!) for the work, to avoid going through my insurance. Well, I tell her politely that I think she should proceed with a proper claim, and let our insurance companies handle it.

For the last two weeks I’ve been wondering why she hadn’t made a claim immediately. I ended up concluding that perhaps she was driving without insurance?

Then today I get a call from my insurance company. The lady has (finally) made a claim, and has elected to deal directly with my insurers. So (out of curiosity) I ask the man on the phone whether her choice to do it that way could be an indicator that she was driving without insurance - and what does he reply?

“That’s irrelevant sir. It doesn’t matter to us if she’s driving without insurance, or without a tax, or without ever having passed her test. As you’ve damaged her car she is entitled to make a claim against you.”

Um… Excuse me? So let me get this straight… She could be breaking the law on three counts, and driving totally illegally - but she can still claim off my insurance?

“Yes,” says the insurance man, “that’s a matter for the Police - not us.”

So her claim is going through. It’s quite possible (although totally unproved) that she was driving with no insurance at the very least when I had the accident… And yet it’s still going to cost me a 150 pound excess charge. Sucky, huh?

However, the happy couple had a fantastic day - and they’re currently sunning it up somewhere in Cyprus - so I’m going to let the wedding be the memory from that day that I remember..!

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