Freelance Web Designer

Different image compression formats have different purposes with different compression methods.

☛ JPEG compression reduces the image size by finding areas of a similar color; the higher the compression level, the more aggressively it looks for such areas leading to a loss of visual information and the generation of artefacts at the edges of the compressed areas. This compression is effective for photos, drawings, gradients, most illustrations and other colorful, rich images. JPEG doesn't work as well for screenshots, simple UI elements, flat icons, schematics, and it is especially bad for text.

☛ PNG compression works by reducing the number of used colors. Depending on the level of compression this could lead to slight loss of color shades. PNG is great for logos, icons, signs, images containing text, for simple illustrations, UI elements and screenshots. Unlike JPEG, it also allows images to have transparent areas. PNG files are usually larger than JPEGs and don't provide good compression for photos and complex, colorful images and gradients.

☛ What graphic design software are you most comfortable working with?

☛ What graphic design software do you know best? Which one could you improve?

☛ What do you think are the most important qualities in a graphic designer?

☛ How comfortable are you being told what to design?

☛ How well do you take criticism?

☛ You are asked to design a new logo for our company. What would it look like?

☛ Do you sketch your designs first before converting them to digital format?

☛ How many designs do you usually sketch before choosing one?

☛ Do you have a tablet at home? What is it and why do you like it?

☛ How long would it take you to plan, design, and complete a 300×400 banner?

☛ How familiar are you designing graphics for [online marketing, newspapers, etc.]?

☛ You may be given strict parameters for your designs. Will that stifle your creativity?

☛ You are told to create a design without any instructions. What do you do?

☛ How do you plan your designs before you start drafting them?

☛ Tell me about some of the designs you have created, and their success.

☛ What is the purpose of this project?

☛ What sort of background do you expect a freelancer working on this project to have?

☛ How technical is this project?

☛ Describe how you envision the finished project?

☛ How many (words/pages/screens) are needed? (Modify this question for your own specific field.)

☛ What are the specific project instructions?

☛ Do your customers have any special requirements or needs to be met by this project?

☛ Can you show me an example something like what you have in mind?

☛ Who will be my contact for this project?

☛ How available are you (or the contact) to answer questions during the course of the project?

☛ If necessary, will I have access to (your website/company-specific information/etc.)? (Choose one.)

☛ Is it necessary to have any special (equipment/software) to complete this project? (Choose one.)

☛ Do you envision any potential problems with this project?

☛ How do you think the project went?

☛ Do you have any suggestions?

☛ Do you anticipate having any other projects based on this one?

☛ Will this project need to be updated or revised at some point?

☛ If the project needs updating, do you consider the updating or revisions to be a separate project?

☛ Are there any other projects that I can do for you?

☛ How often do you need the services of a (writer/web designer/programmer/consultant)? (Choose one.)

☛ Can I use this project as an example on my portfolio? (If the project has gone well.)

☛ Would you be willing to give a testimonial on my work for my web page? (If the client is pleased.)

If you have accolades, awards, academic achievements or other lofty accomplishments in your past, then this question is likely going to be easy for you to answer. This is your chance to blow them away with all the great stuff you've been able to accomplish in the design field so far.

However, many people may have difficulties answering this question for a number of different reasons. Maybe you don't feel as if you've accomplished much of anything, maybe you're actively working towards something big but haven't quite made it yet, or maybe your big life accomplishment has nothing to do with graphic design.

Remember why employers ask this question in the first place-they want to work with people who have ambition, because ambitious people tend to put in the work to accomplish their goals. Employers also want to understand what inspires you; what do you consider an accomplishment in the first place?

...they want to work with people who have ambition, because ambitious people tend to put in the work to accomplish their goals.

Your job in this scenario is to show them why your greatest accomplishments make you the best candidate for the job, even if they don't seem that great or have much to do with graphic design at first glance.

Tell a story about how you achieved this accomplishment and what obstacles you had to overcome to do so. Also, be sure to let the interviewer know why this accomplishment means so much to you. This way, no matter what your achievement might be, the interviewer knows more about what motivates you and how you utilize that motivation to get stuff done.

There are many ways to improve the performance of a website and developers may have ideas specific to the nature of each project. A few of the more common and easy to implement optimizations are:

☛ Minimize CSS and JS code to save a few hundred kilobytes of each page load.

☛ Have all assets compressed in the most appropriate format and at optimal settings (a good balance between quality loss and speed gain in important).

☛ Enable server side caching mechanisms (Memcached, Redis, gzip compression, APC, etc.).

☛ Serve responsive images according to device screen size and pixel density and only load the appropriate ones for the user's case.

☛ Write clean and concise HTML, don't include compiled frameworks, stop loading unused scripts or CSS modules.

► ► Mobile First is a methodology for creating responsive CSS code where the styles for mobile devices are written first, without media queries, and for each screen size step up, a new media query is added extending, modifying and overriding the existing styles of the previous (smaller) step.

☛ Advantages - Easiest to optimise load times on smaller devices as no extra assets and styles apply (the assets linked in the following media queries don't get loaded). Very effective for simpler designs where larger screen styles are an upgraded version of the smaller ones, for example, when decoration or new elements are added for richer experience on larger screens.

☛ Disadvantages - This technique is not as effective if the mobile and the desktop versions of the layout have significant differences, or for complex layouts and for most web apps. In such cases, the Mobile First code gets more complex than necessary with too many overrides.

► ► Desktop First is the classic way of writing CSS; the desktop version of the styles is either not in media queries or starts with a minimum width requirement, and for each screen size smaller than the initial one, a new media query is added starting from the largest to the smallest. With each consequent media query, elements are hidden, rearranged or re-styled.

☛ Advantages - As opposed to the Mobile First approach, Desktop First excels at designs that significantly differ between screen sizes, such as when elements are removed as the screen gets smaller. This is also the only way to add responsive capabilities to an existing older website without rewriting its code.

☛ Disadvantages - If not implemented correctly, it could lead to unused or overridden code and assets being loaded on smaller devices thus making the website heavier on smartphones. This leads to unnecessary overriding of styles and writing extra code for simpler designs where Mobile First could be implemented more easily.

For websites where the mobile and desktop versions are slightly different, it's generally a better practice to serve separate stylesheets based on screen size, or to isolate the two layouts in non-overlapping media queries, each strongly specific to its target devices.

Time is money, and the more time you take on a project, the more money it will cost your employers in the long run. However, this can be a problematic question to answer, because you also need to look out for your own interests. Many designers make the mistake of underselling how long it actually takes them to finish a project, which can create a whole heap of problems down the road.

After all, if you say it takes you one hour to do a project that actually takes three, your employer is going to hold you to that statement and you'll find yourself overwhelmed with deadlines you just can't meet. It's almost better in this instance to overestimate how much time you take, just to give yourself a buffer in case you're hit with a particularly difficult assignment. However, that can also be a dangerous game to play, because it may make you look less attractive than other candidates who can work faster than you.

...if you say it takes you one hour to do a project that actually takes three, your employer is going to hold you to that statement and you'll find yourself overwhelmed with deadlines you just can't meet.

What's important here is to give the interviewer a sense of how you manage your time. If it takes you longer than others to get a job done, then you need to be able to show why that extra time makes for a better final product. Break down your workflow into blocks of time so they know exactly how you work and what you use your time for.

This way, if your estimation seems too high, the employer has more information to go on and it just might help your chances. For example, if you spend a lot of your work time coming up with ideas, it might not be an issue at your new job if some of those ideas will be provided for you by a creative director.

Plus, you may find that the employer has no idea how long the project should take and are legitimately asking you because they need to know what to expect. They may be just trying to figure out how to work you into their workflow based on their own timetable.

☛ Advantages: Frameworks allow for fast prototyping of layouts, elements and pages, and promote reusability of consistent elements across the whole project. This often eliminates the need of dead end deliverables such as Photoshop mockups or other high-fidelity static sketches. In contrast, the HTML prototypes powered by a framework later evolve into the actual production templates code used by the new site. Another advantage is the myriad of development tools that come with the better frameworks: LESS/SASS preprocessors, variables for key values in the design, builder tools like Grunt/Gulp, ready to use JS scripts for commonly used interactions (modals, carousels and collapsing boxes, among others). Finally, frameworks come with good practices and commonly used pieces of standardized, well documented code built-in, and a large community to turn to when issues arise.

☛ Disadvantages: Although frameworks provide tons of built-in features and eliminate the need to write repetitive code, they also tend to generalize common elements and often lead to samey-looking designs. Another caveat is that when using a framework for a complex or unconventional design or a layout with a more complex grid, there's more effort involved in "fighting" the frameworks compared to simply writing the code from scratch. Sometimes, frameworks come with too much stuff that never gets used, or redundant styles that get overridden if not used correctly, leading to slower load times compared to a clean code written from scratch.

To properly utilise a CSS framework, developers should not include the compiled CSS of the framework and then write their own overrides. To take full advantage of the framework, the built-in development tools should be used: variables to be set, LESS/SASS mix-ins to be utilised, and the unused components to be excluded. Another frequent mistake is the heavy reliance on framework markup for layout and styling, which makes the separation of content and style harder and leads to design changes requiring editing HTML instead of CSS.

This is an interview minefield that can be tricky to cross, especially if your career goals don't necessarily include staying with a company for an extended period of time. You want to be honest, but you don't want to come off as someone who is simply using this job as a stepping stone to something bigger. Employers realize that their employees aren't always going to stay with the company for the entirety of their career, but they also want to work with people who are committed.

You want to be honest, but you don't want to come off as someone who is simply using this job as a stepping stone to something bigger.

Express your career goals as a designer in a way that makes you seem favorable to the employer. For example, saying that you want to eventually leave to work with bigger brands and hopefully gain larger recognition might sound like a good goal to strive for, but saying as much could hurt your chances of getting the job.

Instead you might say something like "One day, I want to create a logo that is as recognizable as the McDonald's golden arches." You're telling the employer that you have lofty goals, but you're framing them in a way where the employer might be able to benefit from them. In the employer's mind, it might be their logo that you make into a nationally recognized icon.

It's important that you have goals. Saying that your career goal is to do the exact job you're interviewing for is just going to make you look desperate and directionless. The company you're interviewing with wants to expand and grow, and they want to work with designers who also want to expand and grow.

Liking your job has never been a requirement of employment, but good employers know that happy workers do better work-especially if they like the work they're doing. Every designer has his or her own specialty, something they like to do above all else. If what you like to do just happens to be the same job you're applying for, then you're in good shape.

Liking your job has never been a requirement of employment, but good employers know that happy workers do better work-especially if they like the work they're doing.

If you're afraid that your interests and the job you're applying for aren't the best match for one another, then try to find the best answer that is not only honest, but makes you the best candidate for the job. You could mention that you would like to work your way up into a position that would let you work on your favorite types of projects, if that's a possibility.

Or you could always aim for an answer that is a little broader. You could say that you like projects that allow you to work with a team, or that you like working on challenging projects that everybody else has given up on.

In the end, you want to answer as truthfully as possible, because it gives future employers a sense of what you're good at and where you might fit the best. You never know, you could go in for an interview for one job and leave with a different job you didn't even know was available.

HTML5 provides many new element types so the more complex content may be properly marked up. This helps machines (such as search engines, parsers, screen readers, etc.) read a web page and understand its content structure.

☛ ARTICLE defines a piece of self-contained content with a heading of its own, which can exist outside the context of its web page. Useful for a news piece, an article, a product.

☛ FIGURE designates an image as a figure related to the content such as a schematic, blueprint or chart. With FIGCAPTION, a visual description of the image can be added too.

☛ ASIDE indicates information related to the main content on the page but is not a part of the actual content. An example usage would be a list of related articles on the same topic as the main article.

Make sure you understand how much collaboration your web designer expects, as well as when you will be expected to provide feedback. This will help you plan for and schedule the time required to review each stage of work and minimize delays.

I recommend making time to be actively involved in the design process. Why? It's your website and you have to be satisfied that it clearly reflects your company's brand and message. My best projects have been realized when the client has set aside time to closely review designs and drafts at each stage of development so that we were able to have a truly collaborative relationship with no surprises late in the game.

Obviously, budget, timing, and references will all be key elements of your decision process, but developing a positive, responsive relationship with your web designer is just as important. If you have a great rapport with your designer, are able to communicate well with them, and like their previous work, your odds are good for hiring a freelance web designer that will deliver a positive experience and outstanding results.