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Website development, standard terms and conditions

(1) Introduction

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

(2) Summary

*You* (the client) are hiring *Us* (GD Graphics Ltd) to design and develop a web site for the estimated total price as outlined in our quotation previously provided. Of course it’s a little more complicated, but we’ll get to that.

(3) What do both parties agree to do?

You have the authority to enter into this contract on behalf of yourself, your company or your organisation. You’ll give us everything we need to complete the project as and when and in the format we need it. You’ll review our work, provide feedback and approval in a timely manner too. Deadlines work both ways, so you’ll also be bound by dates we set together. You also agree to stick to the payment schedule set out in the quotation provided.

We have the experience and ability to do everything we’ve agreed with you and we’ll do it all in a professional and timely manner. 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.

(4) Design

We create look-and-feel designs, and flexible layouts that adapt to the capabilities of many devices and screen sizes. We create designs iteratively and use predominantly HTML. JavaScript and CSS so we won’t waste time mocking up every template as a static visual. We may use static visuals to indicate a design direction (colour, texture and typography.) We call that ‘look and feel.’

You’ll have two opportunities to review our work and provide feedback. If, at any stage, you’re not happy with the direction our work is taking, you’ll pay us in full for everything we’ve produced until that point and cancel the contract.

(5) Text content

We can create the initial website text describing your services in general however, we prefer at the very least that you supply an outline of your business and the services it provides. You will then have the opportunity to change that text and/or provide additional text content such as customer testimonials and specific project descriptions that will help potential customers understand your business value and compelling offer.

(6) Photographs

You should supply your company logo, if you have one, and photographs you specifically want to feature on the site in a high resolution digital format. We will provide a limited amount of stock library photographs to help illustrate your site. You guarantee that all elements of text, images or other artwork you provide are either owned by you, or that you have permission to use them. We are not responsible for ensuring you have the copyright in any content you supply.

(7) HTML, CSS and Javascript code

We deliver websites developed from HTML5 markup, CSS stylesheets for styling and unobtrusive Javascript for feature enhancement, detection, poly-fills and behaviours. Where we employ a content management system, typically WordPress, we will develop a customised theme based on the look and feel agreed for the site. A content management system will enable you to maintain the site on your own in the future, following an initial training session from us.

(8) 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.

(9) Desktop browser testing

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 won’t test in other older browsers such as Internet Explorer unless you specify otherwise. If you need an enhanced design for an older browser, we can provide a separate estimate for that.

(10) Mobile browser testing

Testing popular small-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 work in:

iOS: Safari and Google Chrome

Android: Android built-in Browser, Google Chrome and Firefox.

(11) Technical support

We provide website hosting as an inclusive service so we don’t offer support for other third party website hosting accounts, email or other services relating to those hosting accounts. You may already have professional hosting and you might even manage that hosting in-house; if you do, great. If you don’t, we will set up an account for you on our hosting service for which there is an additional annual charge, if not already stated in our original quotation.

(12) Changes and revisions

We know from experience that fixed-price contracts are rarely beneficial to you, as they often limit you to your earliest ideas. We don’t want to limit your ability to change your mind. The price at the beginning of our agreement is based on the length of time we estimate we’ll need to accomplish everything you’ve told us you want to achieve, but we’re happy to be flexible. If you want to change your mind or add anything new, that won’t be a problem as we’ll provide a separate estimate for that.

(13) Legal stuff

We can’t guarantee that our work will be error-free or that the website hosting is available 100% of the time especially when provided by a third party. In no event shall GD Graphics Ltd be liable for any damages whatsoever, including, without limitation, incidental and consequential damages, lost profits, or damages resulting from lost data or business interruption, resulting from the use or inability to use the web site, whether based in warranty, contract, tort, or any other legal theory, and whether or not GD Graphics Ltd is advised of the possibility of such damages. Finally, if any provision of this contract shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this contract and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

(14) Copyrights

First, you guarantee that all elements of text, images or other artwork you provide are either owned by your good selves, or that you’ve permission to use them.

Then, when your final payment has cleared, copyright will be automatically assigned as follows:

You’ll own the visual elements that we create for this project. We’ll give you source files and finished files and you should keep them somewhere safe as we’re not required to keep a copy. You own all elements of text, images and data you provided, unless someone else owns them.

We’ll own the unique combination of these elements that constitutes a complete design and we’ll license that you, exclusively and in perpetuity for this project only, unless we agree otherwise. We can provide a separate estimate for that.

We love to show off our work and share what we’ve learned with other people, so we reserve the right, with your permission, to display and link to your project as part of our portfolio and to write about it on websites, in magazine articles and in books.

(15) Payments

We’re sure you understand how important it is as a small business that you pay the invoices that we send you promptly. As we’re also sure you’ll want to stay friends, you agree to stick tight to the following payment schedule.

Website development projects are paid for in an agreed number of installments as specified in our quotation to you. This will include a deposit to begin the work and reserving our development time for your project. Then a final balancing payment when all the initial content has been added and the preview site is ready to go live. For large and eCommerce websites we may also include interim payments.

(16) Timescale

We allocate appropriate time in our schedule to complete your project and we will do our utmost to keep to that schedule. From experience we find that these schedules can slip mainly due to delays in receiving content or providing design feed back and approvals in a timely manner. We will agree a schedule following discussions and agreement via email.

(17) Maintenance and support

The cost of the project includes a 30 day period for reasonable revisions, changes and tweaks required to be made to the site after it has been published on a live server. After we’ve provided training for how to use the website, we’ll hand over the keys and leave the website in your capable hands!

You are free to engage the services of any other website developer, with suitable experience and expertise, to develop the site further or to maintain it for you. You are not 'Locked-in' to using GD Graphics Ltd, we do not believe in such draconian measures where you are held to ransom for updates and changes.

We do offer website care packages which includes regular website backups, security and uptime monitoring and further development work that you may wish to undertake once the site has been published beyond the initial 30 day period.

You have a website that is crucial to your business. It generates leads, customers and revenue (or at least it should). It’s a channel through which customers, suppliers, potential new staff and partners will find you and engage with you. It is fundamental to the success of your business and you want peace of mind that it will be up and available for your audience 24/7 with the minimum of disruption. Details and prices are available upon request and may have already been indicated in our proposal.

The benefits:

  • Working with us means your website will continue to be maintained at a fraction of the time and cost it would take to do it yourself.
  • This service is designed to offer you peace of mind and the assurance that you have a skilled partner who can help you achieve your online objectives
  • Peace of mind that all software is up to date, secure against any unwelcome attacks and that your website is actually online and operational for your customers and users
  • Quick restore if anything goes wrong
  • Assistance with managing the content on your site
  • Continual improvement of search engine visibility and results
  • There is no formal or fixed contract for this maintenance plan and you are free to cancel any time with 30 days notice. Website maintenance services are offered on a subscription basis and do need to be paid monthly in advance by direct debit.

(18) But where’s all the horrible small print?

Just like a parking ticket, you can’t transfer our website development contract to anyone else without our permission. This contract stays in place and need not be renewed. If for some reason one part of this contract becomes invalid or unenforceable, the remaining parts of it remain in place.

Although the language is simple, the intentions are serious and this contract is a legal document under exclusive jurisdiction of English and Welsh courts.

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