Redesigning A Home Page

Skills Covered
Sketching A Mockup
Charging For Your Work

This fun exercise is going to mimics some real-world work you might come across as a fledgling web designer! Imagine a small business owner requests you have a look at her web site. She designed it herself last year and suspects it might need a little updating to look more "current". Of course, she's right - the site does need a refresh!

Have a look at the home page

Your job is to offer a few simple tips for making the page better, present a redesigned home page to the "client", and offer to do the rest of the site - for a small fee. You are free to run with this! You do NOT need to include all the elements on the original home page (in fact, you may think "too much stuff" is part of the problem).

  1. Use a pencil and paper to sketch out what you think the home page should look like! Before you start hacking away at DreamWeaver, please have an idea of where you want to go with the site. You might have a look at this Adobe tutorial to get an idea of what a mockup sketch is.
  2. Study the client's old site. Come up with three simple web design tips you can present that would help her improve the site on her own (and give her the impression you are a professional that knows what you are doing). Write these three tips on the back of the sketch and drop off the paper on my desk when you finish.
  3. Prepare a real HTML version of the redesigned home page you sketched out in part one. When you are finished, send ME a professional-looking email (as if I were the client) that includes a link to your redesigned home page and an offer to redesign the entire site. Be sure to let the client know how much you are going to charge. Think hard about this - how much is your time worth? Perhaps you want to work for free in order to build a professional portfolio. Also, consider future updates - the client should be able to update the content herself once you provide the design, but how much are you going to charge if she needs help?