Date: 01/05/06 (WebDesign)    Keywords: web

'm putting together a vague estimate for a corporate business in which I may be designing some marketing collateral and redesigning their website.

I'm charging $x.xx/hour, and I'm just leaving it at that in regard to the print collateral, since they don't have enough details at this point for me to even venture at a vague estimate (I think they're more interested in my hourly rate anyway).

The web redesign is the part I'm not so sure about. The fact is that I still have a lot of learning to do (I'm a fast, but a bit obsessive--too thorough-- learner), and though I'm confident that the end product will be excellent, I'm a bit squidgy about charging hourly for something I'm still pretty slow doing. I considered giving them a lump sum estimate, or charging per page, but both of those make me extremely nervous, since I don't know what I'm getting myself into with this company yet.

So, I think I've decided to give them an estimate based on my hourly fee using a reasonable amount of hours for the job, and bill accordingly. If I feel like things are taking me an unreasonable amount of time, I just won't clock those hours (consider them my personal learning time). That way they won't get screwed because I'm being slow, and I won't get screwed if a huge amount of my time is sucked up by their excessive revisions, etc.


So my question is, since I have no personal frame of reference: What's an average range of time it would take you (a seasoned web designer) to design a site with the following specs? Perhaps a range of time to develop the overall look, then more streamline per-page average?
-13 total pages
-Nearly every page is basic, informational (about us, management, contact info, etc)
- A couple pages with forms and a section you are required to log into in order to download a demo are the most complicated things they have so far (I can do these no prob), and I don't foresee that they will want anything much more fancy


Thanks for your help. Right now I'm thinking five hours per page seems about right for an estimate...? I just don't know...sometimes that seems way too high to me, sometimes too low. I think it would take me a lot less time than that for most pages, but I'm good at underestimating time, and I don't want to seel myself short...

(x-posted to graphicdesign / webdesign)

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/webdesign/1036200.html