You dont talk about prices. Second rule of web design is? You dont talk about prices. If you are looking into buying a website for your company and are wondering how much a website will cost you, then in most cases you may as well give in looking as most worldwide companies hide their prices until they know who you are by the means of an annoying quote form or worse. There are two sides to this argument: the first arguing that it’s because you cannot possibly estimate a “real” project cost, and the other camp voices that you should be honest about your prices from the get go.
Most companies are very scared of their competitors finding out about their prices, and for this reason they hide theirs even though they probably have competitive prices and a great service. This is a shame as I imagine a lot of customers arrive at their sites look around the services or products for a while and then search for the prices. Instead of a simple price list they may arrive at a quote form or worse a few linked forms with steps basically gathering as much data they can on you to help their marketing.
quick read web
The first thing you learn in web design school (not literally) when it comes to content is to create small chunks of information for readers. The nature of the web is for its users to quick read, that is they browse for what they want and because there are so many competing websites offering similar services or products they quick read and then move on. If your prices are hidden and your competitors prices are clearly identified who do you think the user will trust more.
web design firms
I know web design pricing for projects is very difficult and that because we never know the exact tasks, deliverables and objectives until we have had quite a few meetings and iterations of the design process we cannot completely price fairly and need to estimate our pricing.
But we could still hint at what the prices are, maybe just hint at a few average price points for example SME, Brochure sites and E-commerce sites. These are just sample prices for a typical scenario. Based on these scenarios the prospective customer can tell whether you are within their budget which will waste little of their time and yours.
For each scenario you could add up the tasks involved versus the time span and calculate the sum, then show this as a price range. Then you can add factors such as for every extra page add $50 etc. This would be more beneficial to a prospective client than no pricing at all.
usability issue
Is it ludicrous to claim that not showing your prices is a usability issue? Well yes probably, but my perspective is that we should think about our users and what they are looking for and if they are looking for prices for a service then we should should supply. One point I want to make though is that if you do add prices to your services then make sure they are accurate and up-to-date, also ensure they clearly identify additional charges.
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