[skalie]

Here's the situation:

I work on the programming side of the tracks, the most graphical stuff I do is making ActionScript weave the magic in Flash.

Anyway, me and another programmer ( who is the coordinator of the project and probably even more graphically inept than me if that's possible ) presented a website to a group of clients.

We showed them what we had put together, showed them what we could possibly put together functionality wise ( finished projects ) then mistakenly asked them while they were in a group if they were happy with the graphical design so we could advance further.

Not surprisingly ( in hindsight), there was suddenly an abundance of opinion, "have a look at this site", "we like the feel of this site", "the product brand recognition follow through ( no idea how to say that in pro terms ) is good" of another site.

The more cynical amongst us might suggest that they were impressed with Dreamweaver templates.

So here we are, made a mess of it, and were asked to put together two or three new graphical designs for the next meeting in a month or so.

So now my partner in crime has taken off for a holiday leaving me in charge of the crew, me and a graphic designer.

We've decided to each make a design. My boss says that there's no more time left to put into the graphical side of things, take four hours each for the next presentation, he stresses TWO designs.

This I think is a little on the short side, as the graphics set the tone for the whole project, I don't mind putting extra work into the project, as I hate having things that I'm not happy with on my portfolio, this is a chance to have total control over the layout.

OK, enough waffling, here's my question, what sort of presentation should I put together for the next client group meeting? I was thinking of three or so screenshots as opposed to a mock-up web-page with links going nowhere. Maybe play with the colours a little, offer a couple of different menus.

The logo exists already, so it wouldn't in my view, take too much extra time to make extra versions, top navigation, top-left navigation, especially if I'm only dragging around "components" (menu, logo, text boxes) in Flash and screenshooting them. (The final layout will be positioned with CSS).

Would it be a mistake to offer too many choices?

Anyways, any thoughts or links to relevant resources welcomed.

[benandkelley]

What you've described is not uncommon. Many projects have a moment of "redesign" in which the Client wants something new and the budget is tight.

What I would do:
-if not already known, ask the Client for a list of adjectives that would describe their vision of how the site should look. Ask about the mood, the style, the genre, anything.
-the graphic artists can review the color and style of the sites that were referenced in the previous meeting as good samples
-leave the graphic work to the graphic artist. If you're not graphically inclined, then the hours that you would bill might be better spent by a professional artist.
-my graphic artists generally build a prototype screen shot in Photoshop. The JPG snapshots of the prototypes could be emailed to the Client for further guidance. Then, once a prototype is agreed upon and signed-off on, then you can dedicate time to code the html, css, etc. As a contractor/consultant, you're job is to not only provide the Client with what they want, but also help "guide" them towards what would be best for their company.

As a side note, you may want to have the programmers continue with functional development while the graphic artists revise their parts. This would help your project stay within the calendar schedule that was outlined in your project plan.

Hope this helps somewhat.

Good luck.

-Ben

[ism]

Just a personal opinion. No professional clue whatsoever.

Too much choice is always a bad thing.

I tend to (not in web design, but in design generally) go for three options, maybe something like:

1) Based on a competitors product, but an improvement on it
2) An off-the-wall idea
3) Based on current product, but an improvement

Just go with graphic mock-ups, done in Photoshop or whatever you use, no point coding them all just for the 'look' of them.

Found this (maybe) interesting article:

http://ahref.com/guides/design/199806/0608jef.html