What does “affordable web design” mean?

Affordable:

something that can be afforded

low-cost: that you have the financial means for;

that can be afforded; believed to be within one’s financial means

So, affordable web design means a web design that is within one’s financial means. Right?

I think that what people normally mean by affordable is “cheap”. After all, how can anyone else know what is affordable to potential customers. What is affordable to one business or individual could be out of reach for another.

What we really need to be offering as web designers is “value”. But this is tricky too. Value is subjective and people put value on different things.

Value is always a function of cost. A product loses value as it’s price is increased (over-priced art work excepted). Set against that cost are all the things that you do as a web designer. Customers will assign value to things like speed, communication, design, friendliness, proximity and many more factors.

It’s up to us as designers to try and discover what these values are and then deliver on them as best we can.

I try to deliver on “quality”. This means that I’m rarely the cheapest option. I try to work with customers who put a high value on good design and coding rather than price alone.

For me this means happier clients and a happier work life!