Forum Moderators: phranque
Can anyone give some advice on finding a reputible web design company that is professional and would be capable of designing a nice website and would offer ongoing support?
Does anyone have any recommendations for companies they have had success with in the past?
Thanks.
Think in terms of the items you'll need and what the site needs to do. Here's what you should be ready with.
1.Define the work to be done as best you can.
2.Explain the goal and audience of your website.
3.Define your goals for the work to be done.
4.Prepare and have available a copy of all (or at least the most current items in use) visual materials your company uses for the designer to keep including:
a.Corporate Literature (brochures, business cards, letterhead, etc…)
b.Brand Use (rules for use of your logo and brand identity)
c.Color Palette – identify if in RGB, CMYK, or Pantone colors
d.Photographs – with copyright info and use guidelines
e.Illustrations – with copyright info and use guidelines
f.Technical Drawings - with copyright info and use guidelines
5.Be prepared to identify and provide contact info for at least two key individuals
a.The project manager - the person the designer will work closely with
b.Someone in accounting - for questions about billing and payments
6.Have ready a list of good and bad (minimum 10) websites you've visited with explanations of what you like or didn't like. Your feedback will help the designer to understand what you're looking for in your own website so be specific about pet peeves or things that make you go 'wow'. Make sure to mention your overall impressions of these websites - triggered by colors, content, navigation, etc...
7.Have ready a list of domain names owned by the company and note whether they are active or parked.
8.Be prepared to talk about how you plan to measure your website's success. Be realistic about your expectations.
9.Be ready to discuss timeline and schedule for the work to be done.
10.If you will be involved in the delivery of copy, images, illustrations, drawings, or any other materials the designer will use, then be prepared to discuss realistic deadlines for delivery of these items.
Now. What to look for in a designer. Look for someone who has been in the business for a while. Get a list of references and talk with them. Ask about the project(s) the designer did and how satisfied the reference is with the work, the timeliness of completion, the communication between themselves and the designer, and the project overall. I give far more creedence to this sort of information than I ever will to a list of hyperlinks to work previously done on the designer's website.
Talk with the designer. If the repoire isn't there, then there's a good likelyhood you'll have difficulties down the road. Look for punctual and informative responses to questions. Think about how you feel after you hang up the phone. Do you feel like you learned something? Do you feel like this person knew what they were talking about - did they answer your questions in a way you could understand?
Prepare yourself ahead of time with as much information about what you're asking for so that you can ask intelligent questions. Throw a few bonehead questions in there - ones that you already know or think you know - the answer to. Analyze the reply. How well did they answer them. Did they talk down to you for asking a simple question? Did they brush it aside? Or did they make an attempt to answer you respectfully and fully?
When I don't know a lot about the what goes into the service I'm buying then how that service is performed becomes all the more important.
Oh yea. And as for where to find them. Check your local phone book. If you're confident you can work with someone long distance then you might want to visit one of the work-for-hire places - the names of which escape me at this moment.
Hopefully, no one will drop URLs to their designers as we all know that would be a violation of the TOS [webmasterworld.com]. ;)
awguy2 - a few phone calls to client references is time well spent. Do your homework and find out if the clients are satisfied, how long they have been using the web design service, if they have been happy with costs, service and bottom line results.
Don't just look at the web design portfolio - call the clients.
Related to this, does anyone have experience with hiring off-shore programmers or designers?
I would imagine that hiring an off-shore designer would be slightly more risky than hiring a programmer, as good design is subjective and I'd want to be able to chat with the designer face to face.
However, what about hiring a programmer based in another country? I see many software houses (particularly in India) offer programmers for hire for very reasonable rates. Is this a classic case of 'You get what you pay for'? Or is it genuinely good value for money?
Another item I would add to the list would be to find out from the designer his/her top three (or even five) concerns that they keep in mind when developing a new site. For instance, my answer to that question would be something like this:
Easy navigation, readability, and general usability
Clean, structural, valid markup styled with lean, valid CSS
Attractive, cross-browser template/design.
Other developers might mention SEO, stunning graphics and/or color scheme, or a back-end that's easy for the site owner to administrate. There are many answers that would be good, and some that would be bad, but all will help you understand the priorities of the developer.
Getting answers to these questions can help put a portfolio in context. Big name companies tend to hire lots of designers for their sites, and the results are often stunning. But you need to know who contributed the most, and who just built the odd .css file and spent the rest of the day watching cricket.
