This is a horror story of a different kind. It's less about mistakes you can make in Web design or contracts, and more about requests and how you respond to them. Plus, this story isn't from a reader - it's from me, Jennifer Kyrnin. And it's a letter to Joseph.
We all have friends, and we want to help them out. Sometimes, that's a matter of telling them they look good in that dress or that the design they're working on will be perfect if they just tweak the colors a tiny bit. And sometimes you're asked to do more. I have been asked to build image maps of every state on a US map that was 400x200px. I have been asked to build a website in 30 minutes to highlight a friend's business. I've been asked to put together blogs and photo galleries and critique designs. And whenever I am asked I evaluate my current commitments and decide whether I can do them or not. If I can, I agree, and if I can't I explain to my friend why not.
When Joseph asked me to look at a design he was working on I knew that it wouldn't take more than an hour to do, so I was happy to help him by giving him my feedback. I told him I'd have it done over the weekend.
What I didn't take into account was that I was going to get sick that weekend, then my son, then my husband. By the time we were all well again, I was heading out on vacation. When I returned from vacation, we all got sick again (the only thing I hate about airplane travel - even with a 6 month old). These aren't excuses, just the reason I never got to his site review. Now it's been over a month since I said I'd review the site. I'm sure he's moved on to other projects and I feel like a complete heel.
I'm sorry, Joseph. Next time I'll either do it right away or tell you that I can no longer do it. Leaving it to wait is the wrong decision - even if I was doing it as a favor (as I was never going to charge you for it - even though you insisted).
Did you find this useful?
You can get more articles and information like this by subscribing to the site newsletter or RSS feed.
