1. Qualifications are worthless. Unless the person has a proper graphical design background, almost all of the web design training is learned at a community college part time and not very credible. Unless the person you are qualifying can explain XHTML and CSS to you and why they are good for your website, stay clear.
2. A good web designer will have a diverse portfolio and lots of attractive sites they have built for their customers. They will also be able to explain to you why they designed the site the way it looks. If a person does not have a substantial portfolio, get them to do a first draft design to display their skill to you.
3. Your designer candidate needs to realize that they are building your website for users. This means all users regardless of technical ability and which web browser they are using. Amateur web designers tend to come up with what they think are impressive looking pages while ignoring the visitors who will come to your site. Ask the prospect which browsers they will test the web site on? (answer: as many as possible) What is the purpose of the website? (answer: explain the point of the site very simply).
4. Many web designers have no idea what to charge for their services. When you ask, you will get bids form $50 to $5,000. Both of these are ridiculous as one of them may be from a non English speaking foreigner and the other a committee that will accomplish little. Look for an independent individual as opposed to a corporate type person. Be willing to negotiate the price but never agree to a let them do whatever it takes to make a good site and pay by the hour!
5. Be very wary of any web designer who tries to sell you a whole package; domain name, web hosting, etc. Most of these types of operations have huge flaws in one area or the other. They will either be web hosting specialists who think designing web pages is easy or designers who are reselling some cheap hosting package for a huge profit. It's best to buy the hosting yourself.
Keep these five points in mind when looking for that perfect web designer.
Xara Web Designer 5
During the process of developing a web site to represent your company, you should communicate thoroughly with whoever is doing the designing for you. This is the best way to ensure that your web site and its content will thoroughly reflect what your company stands for. But oftentimes when companies are working with web design agencies, they end up having poor communication or misunderstandings. Therefore, you should follow certain guidelines to make sure that the communication is always easy and clear. You'll be glad that you made the effort.
First you need to figure out specific terms for your project. Non-designers can be frustratingly vague when talking about the projects they need done. Decide what the goal of your project is. Do you want to provide information about your company, or do you want to convince people to buy your products? Are you trying to be helpful for your established clients? Are you going to actively seek out new clients? All of these things are important when designing the site, so be sure to make them clear to the agency. Discuss the budget of your project, so that if necessary, any unneeded extravagances can be avoided.
Once you have decided on all of these things, you can compile them into a single document that will help you choose which design agency's services you want to use. Always be sure to present this document to anyone that you talk to about the web site, so that they know what you are expecting them to do. When a buyer-seller relationship develops without these pretenses, it can often lead to misunderstandings, and therefore a finished web site that is not on par with what you expected. So start laying out your goals today, and make sure that you get exactly what you need for your site.
Both Kevin Sinclair & Gabriel Adams are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
