web page layout from image or mockup - expectations?

Question

I recently asked a contractor to layout a web page design using a mockup I designed in Balsamiq. He surprised me by telling me that he couldn't proceed unless he had a PSD of the entire page that he could use for precise alignment, layout, sizing, graphics, etc.

I expected to proceed like this: give dev the mockup, dev takes 1st cut at basic color/layout styling, 2nd cut adds assets and common content, 3rd cut is final tweak to layout, then done. If I understand him correctly, he doesn't feel like he can specify the DIVs to be used for layout, etc., without the PSD.

Are my expectations too high? What's the best way to approach this in the future?

@Update: This design is for a ground-up site. We need the box-model templates and some basic color/styling for the developers to work on view templates. Also, we do not have finalized assets like site buttons, logos, etc.

Answer 1

For huge projects in which you'll have multiple developers working on several parts ( backend devs, front end devs ) it would make sense to give say a mockup to the backend developers so they can lay the foundation, the underlying system. Then when the final design psds are ready it would make sense to provide the front end dev so he can finalize and brush up the html/css/js.

As far as small sites / individual front end devs I think it would be a huge time-saver if you provided the PSD first because then the developer doesn't necessarily need to go back and realign things, refactor his css/structure. It's very frustrating ( speaking as a developer myself ).

If I start out with the final PSD to which all the design decisions are agreed upon, I don't have to waste my time and I can start laying the "final" code immediately. Though, this can vary depending on the variables of the project... whether it's a brand new fresh site, whether we need to integrate this into a live CMS, whether you have the resources for design, whether you have lots of design revisions... but if it's feasible please provide the PSD.

Answer 2

I would say the contractor's absolutely correct. Your proposal is potentially going to require him to do the build three times which will cause serious cost and time overruns. It's never a good idea to say "we can tweak this layout later" if you're talking about HTML - even minor alterations to single elements can mean that the whole structure needs to be readjusted and then tested cross-browser again. It's significantly easier to make small tweaks to a PSD than it is to do it once the HTML has been built.

The appropriate way to do it would be to have the creative finalised and signed off before it gets anywhere near a front-end developer. By all means show wireframes so that there's an idea of the scale and the hierarchy of the site, but a front end dev shouldn't even breathe on the code until the design is final.