‘How much will a website cost me‘ is a very hard question to answer without more information. I’ve gathered a few questions that have come up, and some that have been forgotten in the past. Without some of these answers it’s impossible to properly predict:

1. actual cost
2. hours
3. cultural fit with client

So, next time you get approached for side project work, consider using some of these questions to gather requirements.  It’sby no means an exhaustive list, but is a good start.

As an aside, if you’re looking for a nice solution for hour-tracking, time estimates, and invoices, check out Harvest App.

Basics

• What is your budget?
• When did you need to launch your site or app?
• Do you already have a website or app, on what technology?
• What functional requirements/or new features are you looking for?
• Do you have a design/designer for the app or site?
• Are there any color preferences or corporate branding that you want to use?
• Will you require responsive design (adapts automatically to mobile devices)?
• Is there anything that you would like to have included in the new website that you lack currently?

Company Genetics/Brand/Agenda

• Who is your audience/What is the target demographic of your website visitors?
• What differentiates your company from your competitors?
• Are there any short-term or long-term corporate goals that need to be considered a redesign or new version update?
• List a few competitors’ sites/apps that you’d consider benchmark companies?
• What elements of these companies’ websites and/or their online activity would you like to model in your redesign?
• What is the ultimate goal or metric of success for this product?

Contact info

• Who is the main point of contact?
• What phone number/email?
• How often would you prefer to be updated?
• Do you prefer to use basecamp/slack or any other collaborative site?

March 25th–26th, 2016

Not much happened project-wise, due to my attendance at CocoaConf Chicago.

I did meet a lot of fantastic people, and attended some very though provoking sessions on Swift. With time I hope I’ll be able to unwrap all the knowledge that I downloaded straight into my brain.

Some of the sessions I checked out were:

• Thinking in Swift with Daniel Steinberg
• Getting Metal up and Running – Janie Clayton
• Localization Explained – Ellen Shapiro
  • A bit of forethought will save hours of fixing up your app for a global audience.
• Swift on Linux – William LaFrance
• Grow your Community to Grow your Audience – Jean MacDonald
  • Get ‘In’ by showing up.
• Gaps, Niches and Expertise – Basics of App Store Success John Voorhees
• When you are on stage – T. J. Usiyan
• #NoExcuses – Jaimee NewBerry
  •  excellent talk, and fellow Nano-er, I gave her a copy of my Graphic Novel originally a NanoWrimo novel
• Being a Subject Matter Expert – Marcus Zarra
• Camera Does What? — Walter Tyree
• GamePlayKit – Josh Smith
  • can’t wait to dig into this.

I also joined the Breakpoints Jam and played ukulele.  (you can see me in the back next to the awesome Jean MacDonald.

That makes this the perfect time to talk about my favorite customizations for it – Packages!

Sublime packages are a little like after market mods for your car. Or plugins. Either way they improve the usability and can do things like change the color of the interface or check your code for you.

First: Start off with the package installer, called Package Control.  https://packagecontrol.io/installation

Here are a few useful packages I have installed:

• BracketHighlighter
• Colorsublime
• Git –  lets you do regular git stuff
• GitGutter – shows you where things are different in the gutter
• Package Syncing – syncs package settings to Google Drive, Dropbox or iCloud, so you can have your settings the same across devices.
• SFTP
• SideBarEnhancements
• SublimeCodeIntel
• SublimeLinter
  • SublimeLinter-php
  • SublimeLinter-phplint
• Swift

Themes

• Material Theme
• Soda

Do you have any packages that you’d recommend?