Terms of Engagement

Summary

We’ll always do our best to fulfil your needs and meet your expectations, but it’s important to have things written down so that we both know what’s what, who should do what and when, and what will happen if something goes wrong. In this Agreement you won’t find any complicated legal terms or long passages of unreadable text. We’ve no desire to trick you into agreeing to something that you might later regret. What we do want is what’s best for both parties, now and in the future.

What do both parties agree to?

You: You have the authority to enter into this Agreement on behalf of yourself, your company or your organisation. You’ll give us the assets and information we tell you we’ll need to complete the project. You’ll do this when we ask and provide it in the formats we ask for. You’ll review our work, provide feedback and approval in a timely manner too. We’ll be working together on this project so we both have deadlines. We ask you to be bound by the dates we set together. You also agree to stick to the payment schedule set out at the end of this Agreement.

Us: We have the experience and ability to do everything we’ve set out in the proposal and that we’ve agreed with you and we’ll do it all in a professional and timely manner. The proposal lays out the scope of the work we will deliver for the fee quoted. We’ll endeavour to meet every deadline that’s set and on top of that we’ll maintain the confidentiality of everything you give us.

Design

We create look-and-feel designs, called mock visuals, and flexible layouts that adapt to the capabilities of many devices and screen sizes. We create designs iteratively and use predominantly HTML and CSS so we won’t spend valuable time mocking up every page as a static visual if the layout is the same as another.

You’ll have opportunities to review our work and provide feedback. We’ll use an online website emulator called InVision to share the mock visuals with you. You’ll be able to see what the finished website will look like and add comments and feedback of your own.

Website build

After you have signed off the mock visuals the middle payment (if applicable) is due. After this has been paid, we will build your website on a private server which you will be able to see. This is where we populate the website with content and images, do all the coding and functionality and get it ready to launch. Once it is complete and we are both happy, and the final invoice has been paid, we will move the website to the live environment.

Text content

Unless agreed previously and written into the proposal, we’re not responsible for providing text or images for your website. We provide professional copywriting and editing services, so if you’d like us to create new content we can provide a separate estimate for that.

Graphics and photographs

If you are providing us with logos and graphics you should supply files in an digital format. If the digital files are editable or vector graphics this is better but not essential but non-vector graphics must be high-resolution. You should supply photographs in a high resolution digital format with a minimum width of 1920px. If you choose to buy stock photographs, we suggest using Fotolia. If you’d like us to search for photographs for you, this must be previously agreed and be in the proposal.

Changes to the agreed proposal and scope

We don’t want to squash the possibility of new ideas and developments occurring after the project starts. However, the price at the beginning of this Agreement is based on the amount of time that we estimate we’ll need to accomplish everything you’ve told us you want to achieve, but we’re happy to be flexible.

If, at any stage, you change your mind about what you want to be delivered, or no longer want what has been previously agreed and are subsequently not happy with the direction our work is taking you’ll pay us in full for the time we’ve spent working with you until that point and terminate this Agreement.

Also, if you decide after the project has started that you need significant extra work or functionality that wasn’t covered in the proposal, we will estimate for this work and send you a quote for its inclusion. We will decide what constitutes ‘significant’ and give an explanation.

Project management

We use online software called Podio for project management. We will set you up with a project workspace and we will use this workspace as a repository for all messaging and the sharing of all assets, documents, images, updates and references. Podio keeps everything we need for the project in one place and we will show you how to use it.

You will agree to use Podio for the management of the project and not any other medium such as email, SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, etc. Using these methods of communication is inefficient, unsuitable for project management, means that things will go missing, milestones will not be met and the planned delivery date will not be achieved. We accept no responsibility for missed deadlines if these methods of communication are used by you rather than Podio.

HTML, CSS and JavaScript

We deliver web page types developed from HTML markup, CSS stylesheets for styling and unobtrusive JavaScript for feature detection, polyfills and behaviours.

Browser testing

Browser testing no longer means attempting to make a website look the same in browsers of different capabilities or on devices with different size screens. It does mean ensuring that a person’s experience of a design should be appropriate to the capabilities of a browser or device.

We test our work in current versions of major desktop browsers including those made by Apple (Safari), Google (Chrome), Microsoft (Edge), Mozilla Firefox and Opera. We’ll also test to ensure that people who use Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 for Windows get an appropriate experience. We won’t test in other older browsers unless we agreed separately. If you need an enhanced design for an older browser, we can provide a separate estimate for that.

Mobile browser testing

Testing using popular smaller screen devices is essential in ensuring that a person’s experience of a design is appropriate to the capabilities of the device they’re using. We test our designs in:

iOS 9: Safari, Google Chrome Android: Google Chrome on Android Emulator

We won’t test in Blackberry, Opera Mini/Mobile, specific Android devices, Windows or other mobile browsers unless we agreed separately. If you need us to test using these, we can provide a separate estimate for that.

Technical support

You may already have professional hosting and you might even manage that hosting in-house. We are happy to launch your website on your own hosting but you, as the account holder, are responsible for maintenance any faults or issues that may arise with the server supplied by your hosting provider.

We are not a hosting company but if you require hosting, we can provide this service via one of our trusted partners. We agree to maintain your hosting, solve any issues and rectify any faults that are within our control. If you do require hosting, this will have been discussed and agreed and be in the proposal.

Search engine optimisation (SEO)

We don’t guarantee improvements to your website’s search engine ranking due to myriad outside influences, but the web pages that we develop are accessible to search engines and we can provide search engine optimisation services once the site is complete. This service is detailed in your proposal.

Legal

We’ll carry out our work in accordance with good industry practice and at the standard expected from a suitably qualified person with relevant experience.

That said, we can’t guarantee that our work will be error-free and so we can’t be liable to you or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if you’ve advised us of them.

Your liability to us will also be limited to the amount of fees payable under this Agreement and you won’t be liable to us or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if we’ve advised you of them.

Finally, if any provision of this Agreement shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this Agreement and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

Intellectual property rights

First, you guarantee that all elements of text, images or other artwork you provide are either owned by you, or that you’ve permission to use them. When you provide text, images or other artwork to us, you agree to protect us from any claim by a third party that we’re using their intellectual property.

We guarantee that all elements of the work we deliver to you are either owned by us or we’ve obtained permission to provide them to you. When we provide text, images or other artwork to you, we agree to protect you from any claim by a third party that you’re using their intellectual property. Provided you’ve paid for the work and that this Agreement hasn’t been terminated, we’ll assign all intellectual property rights to you as follows:

You’ll own the website we design for you plus the visual elements that we create for it. We’ll give you source files and finished files, if requested, and you should keep them somewhere safe as we’re not required to keep a copy. You own all intellectual property rights of text, images, site specification and data you provided, unless someone else owns them.

We’ll own any intellectual property rights we’ve developed prior to, or developed separately from this project and not paid for by you. We’ll own the unique combination of these elements that constitutes a complete design and we’ll license its use to you, exclusively and in perpetuity for this project only, unless we agree otherwise.

Displaying our work

We like to show off our work, so we reserve the right to display all aspects of our creative work, including sketches, work-in-progress designs and the completed project on our portfolio and in articles on websites, in magazine articles and in books.

Payment schedule

We’re sure you understand how important it is as a small business that you pay the invoices that we send you promptly and you will agree to stick tight to the agreed payment schedule in your proposal.

Deposit paid before any work begins.
Interim instalment after design sign off.
Final payment before launch.

Payment methods

We issue invoices electronically. Our payment terms are due on receipt on the day of invoice by BACS. If you wish to pay by cheque, please let us know and we will adjust due dates accordingly. All proposals are quoted in GBP and payments will be made at the equivalent conversion rate at the date the transfer is made.

You agree to pay all charges associated with international transfers of funds. The appropriate bank account details will be printed on our electronic invoice.

In conclusion

Just like a parking ticket, neither of us can transfer this Agreement to anyone else without the other’s permission.

We both agree that we’ll adhere to all relevant laws and regulations in relation to our activities under this Agreement and not cause the other to breach any relevant laws or regulations.

This Agreement stays in place and need not be renewed. If for some reason one part of this Agreement becomes invalid or unenforceable, the remaining parts of it remain in place.