Biggest Challenge I Face as a Web Designer
July 29th, 2008
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A recent commenter, posed the following question to me: What is the biggest challenge you face as a web designer?
Rather than respond in the comment, I felt this question deserved and actual post. First, I want to give you a brief background on me. I’ve been freelancing full-time since 2002 and have gone through various victories and struggles along the way. I’m self-learned and through a lot of trial and error I’ve gotten to the point where I feel like I’m good at what I do. A lot of that has to do with commitment, dedication, perseverance and character. All of which I constantly work to improve on.
Now to the question…
I’m going to have to answer the question from the perspective of a freelance web designer, as the major challenges I face are in many ways different from challenges faced by in-house designers.
There are a number of challenges that I face as a freelance web designer, but the biggest and most consistent challenge that I face is the challenge of time.
This wasn’t always the case when I just started out. If I was asked this question a several years ago, I would have answered that my biggest challenge was getting a working knowledge of PHP and MySQL so that I could expand my development base and broaden my expertise.
That was then, this is now
Unfortunately, time is a beast no man can control. However, it is something you can mold to get more use out of.
As a freelance web designer, I am limited in some ways to the number of projects that I can work on at a single time.
There have been projects that I’ve had to turn down simply because I didn’t have the extra time to fit the project in to my schedule within the client’s timeline.
Finding ways to manage time better is one way that I’m working to overcome this challenge.
Two methods - from one time draining source - that I’ve implemented that have yielded results are:
- E-mail Scheduling
I work with dual-systems, side-by-side, and have always had my e-mail open all the time. E-mail is a drain on time and efficiency. Not only in the web design world, but in every industry that makes use of it. I’ve scheduled three points throughout the day where I manage e-mail correspondence. First thing in the morning, mid-day, and early evening. Surprisingly, this is not easy. But it is efficient and I’ve seen an increase in production. - E-mail Flagging
Over the past month or so I’ve instituted an e-mail flagging routine that allows me to better organize my e-mails. This way I can look directly at my e-mail and see how many replies I need to make, phone calls I need to make, and actual work tasks that need to be done. Again, this has been a great help in increasing my efficiency and making my time more valuable.
Post your comments, I’d be happy to continue this type of posting for a bit if readers are interested.
