What working with me looks like

If you've never hired a designer, the whole thing can feel like a black box. You don't know what to ask for, what it should cost, or what you'll have at the end. That alone is enough to make people put it off.

Here's how it works with me, step by step. No surprises is most of the point.

It starts with a free call

Every project starts with a 20-minute phone call. It's free. If you're picking from the menu on my site, you add the pieces you want to a request and send it. That books a call, not a charge. Nothing is charged online and no card is asked for.

On the call, you tell me where things stand. What's broken, who it's broken for, what you've tried. I ask a lot of questions. By the end we should agree on what's included, how long it should take and what it costs.

If you're not sure what you need, say so. I'll point you to the smallest useful piece of work, even if it isn't on my menu. Sometimes that's a review instead of a redesign. Sometimes it's one workshop.

One thing I'll be plain about: if the brief is built on dark patterns or attention traps, I'm not the right fit. I'll say so and point you to someone else.

Then a written estimate

After the call, you get the scope, the timeline and the price in writing. Nothing is binding until we've both signed, and if the agreement and my website ever disagree, the agreement wins.

Prices on my site are estimates, not quotes. They're based on an average of $80 to $100 an hour, and they're always negotiable. For nonprofits, local small businesses and tight budgets, I'd rather fit the scope to what you can spend than not do the work. Bigger projects are estimated in hours, by step or by two-week sprint, before anything starts.

Half up front, half on delivery

You're invoiced for half to start and the rest when the work is delivered. Card or bank transfer, by invoice.

Outside costs are passed through at cost. That means things like domains, hosting, templates, plugins, testing-platform fees and thank-you gifts for research participants. They aren't buried in my price and they aren't marked up.

While the work is happening

You work with me. I do the research, the design and the front-end code myself. On bigger projects I bring in contractors I trust, and they're credited on the work. The person on the first call is the person doing the work.

The work moves in steps, and every step ends with a decision. I show you what's done, we choose the next step, and we agree what to expect from it. Each step has a result you can use on its own, so you can stop after any of them.

Sometimes we find something the estimate didn't cover. A broken integration. Missing content. A bigger mess than it looked. When that happens, I stop, explain it, and only keep going with your written OK. You won't meet a new cost for the first time on the final invoice.

If the work involves research, what people tell me stays with you. Summaries travel. Recordings and transcripts don't.

One round of changes

Every piece of work comes with one round of changes. That's usually enough, because you've seen the work at each step, not just at the end. If you want more rounds, or want to add something, that's billed by the hour, and only after you say yes.

What you own at the end

Once the invoice is paid, the files and code are yours. Code goes in your repository, not mine.

On a small business website, that includes an hour-long handover so whoever keeps your site current knows how. On a larger build it can mean training. When I built a client portal for Pacific Clinics, I trained their team so they could run it.

A month after launch, I can come back and measure again, so you see what actually changed. That's a separate, small piece of work, and it's optional. I'll report what I find honestly, including what didn't move. Nobody can promise you a specific number, and I won't.

How to prepare

You don't need to have it all figured out. But three things make everything faster and cheaper.

Access. Logins for whatever we're working on: your website or its platform, your analytics, your Salesforce, your code repository. If someone else holds those, find out who before we start. Time spent chasing a password is time you're paying for.

Content. Your real words, photos, prices, hours and program names. I design with real content, never placeholder text, so the sooner I have it, the sooner the design means something. Missing content is one of the things that adds time.

A decision-maker. One person who can say yes. Each step ends with someone approving it before the next one starts. If there's no clear decision-maker, that's the first problem to fix, not the third. Work nobody signed off on gets argued about by everybody later.

If research is part of it, a list of people I can talk to helps too. Interviews are usually recruited from your own customers, clients or staff, and recruiting is often the slowest part. Starting that list early saves time.

That's the whole thing

A free call. An estimate in writing. Half up front. The work in steps you approve. One round of changes. Files and code you own. If you've been putting off hiring someone because you didn't know how it works, now you do.

If that sounds like your situation, let's talk.