I'm a newbie with my first freelancing job. Anybody want to help me out?

"If it is the former, then to be honest, the design will be entirely up to you!"

This is crazy. The designers job is primarily to solve problems, regardless of the particular domain the designer operates in. A designer ≠ a digital artist. If you do this, you might end up with a pretty portfolio piece but you'll be doing your client a disservice.

Um... I am sorry. I don't particularly think that is crazy though. I mean yeah the job of a designer is to technically solve a problem, but the design will be entirely up to him if he is the designer, that's generally why clients hire designers.

I am a software engineer but I have friends in design, so from what they have explained, they generally get a specification letting them know font sizes, color schemes, etc. but when it comes to the layout and design of the site is that not generally up to the designer?

A designer is not a digital artist, I don't know where I made that comparison? A designers solves communication problems using graphics as a medium while digital artists are just that, artists that employ technology as their toolset.

If I am wrong let me know! :D

"I mean yeah the job of a designer is to technically solve a problem..."

Right...

"...but the design will be entirely up to him if he is the designer"

This is a non-sequitur: it does not follow your premise.

"...that's generally why clients hire designers."

No. That's generally why clients hire illustrators, sculptors and other artists.

"I am a software engineer but I have friends in design, so from what they have explained, they generally get a specification letting them know font sizes, color schemes, etc...."

These are known as constraints and —as long they are rooted in reality— they are a necessary part of narrowing down the problem space (read: narrowing down the set of all possible solutions in order to determine the optimal solution).

"but when it comes to the layout and design of the site is that not generally up to the designer?"

Well if the designer is hired by the client, then, of course, the site design is "up to them." But if the designer is interested in actually doing their job — as opposed to arbitrarily applying layouts and color schemes and such — they will focus on solving the problem at hand. To that end, they will have a reason for each design decision they make and that reason will be based on real data... from real users and other stakeholders.

Sorry Mikis I am just confused about what we are debating. I mean, the site design will be up to him, he can and should use ux principles in his design, but at the end of the day, the way the site is laid out, the graphics that are used and designed in photoshop, the way the colors are displayed on the site, and how typography flows will be entirely up to him, am I wrong? That's all I was trying to say.

"This is a non-sequitur: it does not follow your premise." I don't see how their is a contradiction in my logic. The job of a web designer is to come up with a design for a website that accomplishes all of ux problems that can occur on the website, no? So while a designer may have to follow certain guidelines to keep a consistent and working ux, the task of laying out the parts to create the whole is entirely up to him.

"No. That's generally why clients hire illustrators, sculptors and other artists." Um..I think you are missing what I am saying, I am not saying that graphics, images, or logo need to be created by him, that is what you would hire a graphic artist for. I am saying that the client will hire a designer if they themselves do not know how to solve the problems that the design may call for. You don't hire an illustrator to design a website, you would probably hire an illustrator to create the logo for one though.

I see what you are saying but I fail to see what we are arguing about. I think you are sticking on the fact that I said that the design is entirely up to the designer. Which while I still think that is true, I understand that you are saying that real-world data provided by customers and the like will determine what the designer does. At least that's what I think you are saying. However, I believe that the data doesn't tell a designer exactly what to design but instead gives them a foundation from which they can then create a design on their own. I hope you understand what I am trying to say.

Well the client hasn't gotten back to me. I guess he doesn't really know what he wants. I'm still trying to get in touch with him.

Ira Salem, have a conversation with this guy, find out what he wants, what features he wants, and do an honest evaluation of what you can provide him. If he wants you to build a similar site there are things like PCI standards that you need to know PCI Standards regardless of the PHP code you are going to use. check out this stackoverflow question. So in short find out what he wants, ask yourself if you can do them, and go from there there. Don't be shy, but don't bite off more than you can chew.

Jacob Mishkin Thanks for the advice. Definitely don't want to end up with a bad rating.

Ira Salem Yeah, of course. No one wants a bad rating. Like I said before, have your client define what his needs are and for you know what you can provide for him. If it doesn't match find something that does. In my opinion it's better to hold off on a project that you can't do rather than do one and mess it up, and possibly have legal issues. Good Luck!