How to find a good web developer?

[CNibbana]

Seriously. I know this may sound like a silly question, but I have been looking for a good developer now for some time and have come up empty. How do you find a good web developer?

I am redesigning an enthusiast site (non e-commerce) and am looking for someone with CSS, Flash and graphic design experience. Easy enough, right? Since personal funds are being used, I'm afraid of making a large investment and not getting the result I want.

What are the right questions to ask? Is it okay to ask for mock-ups before obligating? What are average hourly rates? ($50-$100/hr?) I've used search engines to look, but are there any better places to find good designers?

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

What are the right questions to ask?

If you want to ask questions ask the people in their portfolios. They will tell you if they got VFM.

[ken_b]

If you want to ask questions ask the people in their portfolios.

About all a portfolio is good for is to let the designerr show off the work s/he did for happy customers.

Very few, if any, designers are going to include their worst work or the sites of unhappy customers in their portfolios.

A portfolio might give you an idea of the style of a designer, maybe of their flexibility, maybe of the niche the tend to work in, or if they are a real generalist. But that's about all.

You might have better finding good designers by way of personal recommendations. Ask people you know, who have websites you like, who the designer was and how they were to work with.

[Marketing Guy]

I've found a lot of suppliers through business networking forums (UK ones for me, but whatever your local region happens to be) - you can usually get good recommendations and reliable suppliers.

Scott

[lorax]

>> Is it okay to ask for mock-ups before obligating?

It most certainly is - a visual design (a big TIF for example) is likely to be part of their design process. A designer should be willing to walk you through the steps, show you what they intend to build and then build it.

When you find a suitable candidate, get them on the phone and fire off your questions. I place a lot of weight on how I feel about someone as much as I do in their skill set.

You can always swing by one of the contractor sites like eLance or even Craig's list to locate one.

[Monkey]

I've seen some bad designs but the through put is pretty good as there is a lot of useful content

Content is king or queen....or however the expression goes

[King_Fisher]

Your looking for a rare bird!

Some guys are great with code, and know zip about graphics or design

Others are great designers and cant write a lick of code.

So on that rare occasion you find some one who can do both, latch on to them!

KF

[edited by: King_Fisher at 12:47 am (utc) on Aug. 10, 2007]

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Very few, if any, designers are going to include their worst work or the sites of unhappy customers in their portfolios.

Of course not, but an extensive portfolio of happy customers is a good indication of the quality of the service offered.

[dukelips]

jack of all trades may not be a master at one

[Habtom]

When it comes to picking a web developer for graphics designing, there is no much better way of knowing how much experienced and creative he/she is, unless you check their portofilo. This might not tell their complete story, a few days part time or freelance job before you permanently hire them can tell you a lot about the person. Perhaps, this is easier said than done, but that could be the best way.

Habtom

[edited by: Habtom at 3:37 pm (utc) on Aug. 11, 2007]