Hi guys,
I am currently working on refreshing my coding skills. Its been a while and wanted to know if there are websites out there, that give you “fake clients” or “fake briefs” if you will, of a job ( page count, copy, etc)
I know fake clients is a good one for print design, but anything on the internet for good web design practice would be great. Thank you!
i redid my website in another program (expressions) with empty pages last November and remembered alot of code and techniques from 2007-08 were i worked for a web design firm were our clients had top search engine results, being listed 3# was not acceptable.
Implying code is like riding a bike, you will never forget how to, but your bum will be sore!
Something I used to and sometimes still do, is looking on Google Maps and look up local businesses and see if they have a website. Then basically pretend that they are a client of yours and create a project out of it. This helped me to become more professional in my work and also helped me a lot in brushing up my skills for quite a few different area’s.
I’m not sure if there are any websites that offer “fake clients” or “fake briefings” but the method I just described worked really well for me, I even send a couple local businesses an e-mail with the question if they could send me feedback which was most of the time really helpful.
Edit:
Found a website which offers fake clients for webdesign, seems like you can pick your subject from the dropdown menu, they have a couple options to choose from.
I have reservations about this approach. It sounds good superficially, but in real life, a brief is just one part of the equation unless you’re working in isolation and never interact with anything other than, say, an art director who hands you a brief, says “read this and do it,” then leaves.
Anyway, briefs run anywhere from some brief instructions in an email to a highly detailed, multi-page document.
It depends on the situation, I guess. If you’re a developer working overseas who receives nothing but detailed briefs from someone in another country, that’s one extreme. The other might be if you, the designer/developer, are working directly with the client or employer and negotiating with them about what they need and how much time it will take (and cost).
If you’re just working on refreshing your coding skills, I’m not sure why a brief would be helpful. As @Component suggested, just pick a small business’s website and tackle some aspect of making it better where you see a problem and where you’ll get to focus directly on polishing some of those skills that you feel needs the most work.
If you’re set on working from a brief, though, here’s one…
…and another.
Hi Alex,
you could practice using real client brief. There are online competition website like " 99designs dot com " where there are contest in which you can participate to grow your skills
Regards
Dev