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by gotduped 2646 days ago
As a new freelancer, this is so good!

> "If a client gives you a design to implement, make your implementation pixel-perfect. It’s crazy how sloppy some developers are; the client put together that PSD for a reason."

Shamefully have to admit this was me when I started -- my mind says "the tool does the thing!" and the client says "it looks nothing like my design". Can't be afraid to charge for CSS.

2 comments

"If a client gives you a design to implement, make your implementation pixel-perfect. It’s crazy how sloppy some developers are; the client put together that PSD for a reason"

Even when the various mockups are in conflict with each other? Dealing with internally inconsistent state?

Building full web applications off of a PSD file is often a bad start. Things like menu/toggle state, hovering, accessibility, etc - these are - in about 95% of my experiences - ignored or broken in "designer-led" design stuff.

Yes, they had an idea that was translated to graphic state, but when things don't comport with reality (no, browsers can't actually represent everything you just in your PSD, or no, we can't make 9 point fonts usable in pulldowns with the same font your designer used, and no, we can't use that exact font because it's $1500, etc).... you have to use your judgement - and you can do it collaboratively with the client(s), but do not spend hours/days/weeks trying to chase down pixel-perfection based on PSDs that were likely based off $30 templates themselves. When chrome does an autoupdate and things are 3 pixels off... what do you do then?

> It’s crazy how sloppy some developers are

It's also crazy how un-aware of what browsers actually are and how they work some designers are.

I would first evaluate how much work would be involved with making their design pixel perfect. There are some platforms where making certain things pixel perfect is extremely difficult (Sharepoint customization for example).

I would also give my customer feedback on whether the UI helps them achieve their goals. Sometimes people zero in on a visual design that has poor usability, and all you're doing is taking them further down a bad road.

Yes! If you see a problem with the design, share your expertise (politics carefully navigated). This is how you become even more valuable to your client. But if you've settled on a design and you're the implementer, make it look like the specs you got!