Lose weight, get organized, save money… millions of people make resolutions like these at the start of the new year. They’re hard to keep, but some of these same resolutions can improve your personal website or your web design work for clients.

Slim down. You’ve heard this one since you started designing websites years ago, but it still applies today. Your traget audience’s work and home computers may have super high-speed connections, but many mobile devices, like the iPhone, can be slowpokes. Sites often visited on-the-go need to keep the weight off.

Banish clutter. Many frequently updated sites are victims of “content creep.” Your once-minimal homepage suddenly has a news box, added by the PR department. A month later, there are some banner ads you never saw before. Then, some extra SEO terms appear. None of these are necessarily bad things, but with all this additional content, you need to reevaluate the design. See if you can rearrange these things on the page so as to maintain the integrity of the original design, or just redesign to accommodate the new features. Every feature on the page will be more valuable when it doesn’t have to compete with clutter.

Get a new job. Okay, maybe not a new job, but how about finding your niche? What can you do to stand out among all those other web designers? While working on your “usual” jobs, consider the parts you’re really good at and those you really love. Maybe it’s Flash character animations or e-commerce. Over time, build a portfolio that showcasing this specialty. You’ll make yourself more appealing to a specific types of clients, be able to charge more because of your expertise, and enjoy your work.

Be secure. If you haven’t backed up your site or all your great custom actions and plug-ins recently, do it now. Right now. Done? Good. Now, talk to your hosting company about other security measures, like ways to protect your site from hackers. This is particularly important if you have some easily exploited PHP scripts on your site. Simple security patches should be run regularly to keep the bad guys out.

Travel more. Are you holed up in an office all day, every day? Sure, you can get the job done, but if you don’t get out, it’s hard to learn about your craft. Design conferences take place around the country all year round, and a flight to one can be counted as a business expense. Events like the HOW Design Conference, Flashforward, the Future of Web Design, and even the Macworld Expo can get you thinking about design trends and technologies and will put you face-to-face with industry experts. Plus, you’ll get out of the office!

Make new friends. In the same vein, interacting with other designers around the world through blogs, message boards, and conferences can lead to new insights or new clients! If you’re already communicating in this fashion, how about doing more? Interactive features are increasingly easy to build, and they can add a new level of depth to your designs. Don’t know how to create them? On to the next resolution…

Learn something new. There are many web technologies and languages you’d probably love to learn, but who has the time? Make this resolution realizable by picking something small, like a really great, flexible AJAX feature, or something like a shopping cart for your clients. Try things that can be learned in a day or two and that can be used over and over.

Share the wealth. If you attempt even a couple of these resolutions in 2008, you’ll surely learn some valuable things about web design and your business. Share what you’ve learned with a budding web designer, or even teach a local workshop on web design tools and tips.

Most importantly, don’t bite off more than you can chew. Just like the personal resolutions people make every January, these are easy to give up when they’re broad or unmanageable. Start with simple, bite-sized good habits, and build on them as 2008 progresses.

Happy new year!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 4:22 pm and is filed under Design, Marketing, Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.