5 questions you should ask before hiring a web designer or agency!
Posted February 28th, 2008
There are many unskilled and under qualified people in web design who are happy to take your money but will not deliver the quality you require. It can be hard for clients to know which web design agency to choose.
Asking these 5 questions can really help you decide.
1. Is web design their main business?
It’s amazing how many print designers offer web design services these days. So do many graphic designers and even computer programmers. It’s usually best to go with a company that specialise in web design rather than a ‘jack of all trades’ that has recently branched out. The skills required for each discipline are really very different.
2. Are they a full time web design company?
This is definitely worth asking, particularly if you have a large project. There are a huge number of students working out of their bedroom or people with full time jobs doing web design in their spare time. This may not be a problem for smaller projects but they would struggle to cope with the demands of large-scale web developments.
3. Is their portfolio available and acceptable?
This is possibly the biggest factor in choosing a web designer. Their work should speak for itself. First look carefully at their own website and then their portfolio. Of course it’s important that the sites look attractive and professional but be sure to judge them on their usability too. Be wary of companies that only provide screenshots of their work and not live links.
4. Do they build accessible sites with web standards?
There are numerous business, moral and legal reasons why this is vital. Please read these posts on web accessibility and web standards for details of just how important they are.
5. Do you have to stay with them once the site is completed?
Make sure you are not locked into any maintenance contracts you don’t require. Companies have been known to build sites with proprietary software so that clients or even other web design agencies can’t edit them, meaning you have to pay them for any updates. Also, check that they are using industry standard technology so that you can take your site to another web design agency in the future if required.
Web Design Bristol
28.02.08
All very valid points, I would also add ‘Do they optimize for Search ?’. You won’t believe the amount of clients we pickup due to the fact their web design company never consulted them on seo!
W3c valid coding and strong on-site seo are the foundation’s of a good website! Would you agree ?
admin
04.03.08
Of course, SEO should be included in the design, it’s so easy if implemented for the start, I don’t know why so many people avoid it!
If only ’6 Questions…’ was as catchy a title as ’5 Questions…’
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