Honestly I'm sick of Web Design.

Been doing it for some years now and I'm sick of it. It is in no way my passion (which I cannot find anyway) but was okay to do as a thing on the side but meh, I'm bored!

I'm sick of dealing with clients, 90% of which are stupid . I'm sick of working on projects which don't interest me in the slightest. Old Folk's home website anyone? And I've lost most of my motivation in the field, almost all of it.

I still enjoy it for stuff that interests me like MY websites or websites for people with interesting sites or those 10% of people who don't suck, but the majority of the time I just can't stand it anymore!

Time to move on. It's going from a side job for a few extra bucks to an only me hobby and the occasional job if I have interest or the person isn't stupid. XP

 

hi im josh i own an old folkes home will u make a site?

 

Show us your old folks' site!

 

A lot of people reach a point like this whatever job they are doing. They have a lot of experience and are good at what they do but they need a new challenge. For me, I chose to develop my own products rather than provide a service to other people. It was difficult and my income dropped to begin with but I got more satisfaction from the job. Is there an opportunity for you to do something similar?

 

I can sympathize with this. Sometimes things do get on top of us and we get frustrated. Usually this passes, but if it doesn't then maybe its time to call it a day. I do however disagree with your comment about customers being stupid, yes you get the odd nutcase here and there but generally I find most customers to be okay.

 

I've got to the point where I'm vetting my clients to make sure they aren't losers. And if it sounds uber dull, like the drain cleaner guy that phoned the other day who said he wanted 3 pages copied from Word, I tell them it will cost at least 2000, which usually gets rid of them quick sharp.

P.S. I still want to see that old folks' site!

 

I've hit the same place as you, I come at design from a graphic design background, so it's my escape and I love it.

In the past I've gotten where you are before, and the reason why had nothing to do wthi the design that I was doing, but rather the fact that although I was being creative outewardly, I had stopped talking inspiration in.

Think of it like hydration.....you've been pissing out great web stuff, but if you don't keep drinking water, you're eventually going to run dry - that's where you are now.

For me, the solution was simple, I check designfloat.com, smashingmagazine.com and digg.com daily and stay inspired so I make sure I never run out of "creative juice"

I recommend you hang in there, find some MUCH-NEEDED inspiration, and then slowly recover and continue on.

Web design can be addictive and rewarding - trust me, I can't stay away from it, but it's the creative problem solving that keeps me at it - try to implement some crazy jQuery javascript, or use wordpress or some PHP scripts and play around with it - make it a challenge and create even better sites than you're currently doing!

I hope this helps, it certainly helped me, and it's a part of daily routine - if it ever came down to it and I had to choose between inspiration or showing, I'd take inspiration because I'd be useless without it (where if I just missed showing I'd be inspired and stinky )

Good luck buddy!

 

You easily get exhausted when you work honestly. I personally don't code or design for other people as prices are ridiculous.

If you are going to do it don't do it yourself. Push the envelope with pre-made scripts, templates and pretend as if you did the hard work. If you are good at ripping people off for nothing you have a chance to succeed.

 

What a load of crap, I hope I don't ever have the misfortune of doing business with someone like you!

 

Talking about misfortune? I've been providing support for a $50 script I did for a client 1 year ago. Whenever they're doing something to their site, they are still calling me although I clearly stated what code I changed at their script.

'We did this to our site and your code stopped working. Can you come and take a look at it?' This is what I call crap. Everything you do for a client keeps coming after you like zombies.

 

Well if they want you to change stuff you should charge them.

 

If it is not your passion, then accept it for what it is... a way to get money, no more. Then do it to sustain your life, and get out and find your passion. If you do not, happiness will elude you.


/*tom*/

 

its quite obious... if you are in one field for some years then you tend to get bored of it...

 

When your doing something to earn money i dont think its realistic to expect to enjoy all of it, your meant to take the crap jobs that may lead to better and much bigger work.

Much like actors start off doing some terrible stuff.

Its probably wrong to say that the clients are stupid, if they knew how to acheive certain things then they wouldn't even need to approach you in the first place.

Your offering a service so its not about you, its about serving the client, i offer services, not in design and the work is not whats enjoyable and best for me but whats most suitable for the customers.

Im pretty sure that coders of various types dont get turned on by working their way through thousands of lines of the stuff but reaching the end and getting paid for it and gaining more knowledge on the journey must be quite rewarding.

 

Clients aren't stupid? You must live in SmartTown USA or something.

We've just finished up a website where the clients told us they were using a very specific hosting service. Then they told us we'd get the login and stuff on Sunday.
Two weeks later and like 12 hours before their deadline they finally get us the information. However it's a completely different service with different requirements and stuff. Basically half our site doesn't work with that service. On top of that there's a clear 24 hour wait for moving the domain name to another place. Basically it won't be done in time.

And this is after making a contract with no deadline (within reason of course). They said there wasn't one. Then suddenly "Oh we're having a website LAUNCH party on this date". Really? I didn't know that. And so soon when we have so many projects? You really should have told us this earlier. With the way you're working with us, not giving us much content until right beforehand don't expect anything.

And despite my best efforts there's no way it's going to be up for their Launch Party and I can safely say it's all their fault lol. It was built. We were waiting for their stupid server. They were too late and did it wrong.

That's half the clients I've dealt with. No matter how clear I try to be it doesn't get through. I tell them what needs to be done on both ends and it doesn't get through. I email them in plain English simple stuff like "we need the text for your About Me page" and they'll respond "OMG Bear is driving!" or something that makes no sense and cannot possibly be a response to what I've said.

Basically all stuff that makes me say "WTFudge?" and drop my jaw in disbelief.

It's not my communication skills. It's THEM lol. Maybe I've just been unlucky....

 

Sounds crappy.

 

Welcome to my breakdown.
I hope I didn't scare you.
That's just the way we are when we come down.
We sweat and laugh and scream here,
'cause life is just a dream here.
You know inside you feel right at home here.

Welcome to my nightmare.

Rule #1 - Clients know NOTHING about web design, servers or how to wipe their own ass, that's what they hire US to handle for them. This of course is also why so many scam artists are able to prey upon the ignorance of these clients, filling their heads with nonsense that legitimate developers have to struggle against constantly. From black hat SEO scam artists to flashtards bloating out websites for no good reason, as much blame goes on the development community as it does the people we struggle with as clients. Of course, it's amazing how many "professionals" handling IT at companies couldn't find their way out of a piss soaked paper bag with a hole in the bottom.

Rule #2 - Contracts. A well written contract explaining their responsabilities and yours, with a timeline clearly stated can save your backside, or at least make the effort worth it. Case in point, their playing games with the hosting would have tacked another $200 or so onto the bill, change in deadline from none to a specific date could have doubled the bill or more depending on how much lead time, etc, etc.

Rule #3 - downpayment. They have problems with the neccessary time, or make changes that are unreasonable without re-negotiation or just become impossible to work with, at least you get SOMETHING for when you have to tell them to **** off... Or as I actually would tell the client "I am sorry, but I believe it would be in both our interests to part ways as I do not believe we will be able to develop a working business relationship."

Rule #4 - People start e-mailing or IMing you nonsensical rubbish speaking in l33t when you are trying to carry on a business conversation, that's time to walk away. If a client cannot master the most basic of language skills, they likely cannot manage a business either and simply are not people I would trust to interact with on a professional level.

Which is when I go medivel on their kiester Samuel L. Jackson style. Englisc, mōdor wyrter! Gedōn ēow cweþan hit!?!

 

I think the last post sums it up well...
A contract clearly stating whats covered and for how long is essential...

 

Oh God this thread is funny! Yeah im kind of in that case also. Stopped doing the job a few years back, tried to forget all about it, but as soon as I see one of my ex clients (that live in my neighborhood-big mistake having clients in your neighborhood), all they wanna talk about is their site, their problem on the page, how they want to change this on this page, their webhosting. And i'm like "quit it, im finished with this! FINISHED!!" "Yeah, but..." I love the guy that talks about the clients zombies, always coming back, coming back. SOOOO true.

 

Oh yeah forgot to mention... doing a website for family. Forget about it. You will never be able to finish a family dinner without the "my website... that... and that...". Xmas is even worse when all the family gets together.