How to choose a web designer

February 1, 2008 at 2:43 pm

Seeing as you’re looking at this page, and at this site, it’s probably safe to say you know how to use the internet. You can snap up a deal on Trade Me, find a long lost friend (if they want to be found) and learn everything there is to know about all that is good and bad for us. It’s all there, and if it can’t be Googled, it’s not worth finding.

Now lets turn around from where you view the internet. You have a website, and it ticks all the boxes. If you type in the address it (usually) comes up. It’s got your name, and maybe even you logo on it, and it even may have a way of contacting you. You’ve no doubt paid good money for it, because that’s what you pay when you’re on that mysterious realm called the Web. You will also know that there are now as many ‘web designers’ as there are graphic designers and printers all operating at different levels, with different specialties in different price brackets. Alas, unlike the printed medium, where you can touch and feel the quality of the paper, see the quality of the printing and gauge a reaction when you hand said piece of printed paper to someone, you don’t know what experience someone is having with your business through your home page.

So how do you find the right web designer to suit your needs?

Let’s start with my old friend, common sense. The joy of the web is everything is linked. If you should spy a web site that you like the look of, then that’s a great place to start. Usually, at the bottom of the page is a link going back to the web designer’s site. Now, be warned. The word ‘design’ can easily be misconstrued.

Where once the word ‘design’ related to the look and feel of an article, be it a business card, a great shirt or the interior look of a home, when referring to the Internet, it can also mean the construction of the website more than the look, colour and typography.

Remember a mechanic can keep your car running smoothly, but that doesn’t mean they should be designing the next Audi. So have a look at the web company’s portfolio. You should see a common thread or feel throughout their portfolio allowing you an insight (or ‘insite’) as to what they could produce for you. Should you see an inconsistency, check they did in fact ‘design’ the look of the site as opposed to the construction.

The web has changed the design world forever. Traditionally graphic designers learn the medium of computer graphics to fulfill their design needs. Typically the way of the web is that computer technicians have had to learn the ways of design in order to fulfill their technical needs.

Does the company have a graphic designer? / Does the graphic designer have a web developer?
As you can probably now predict, the merging of left and right brained people has not gone as well as it could have. In fact many of the truly successful web design companies have strived to keep a foot in both camps. Understanding the technical needs of a website, while achieving the need to remaining true to basic design, putting the individual mark on a website. Usually this is done by the web developer working with a designer to achieve their clients end goal.

What do you want to achieve in having a website?
No matter who you are, your answer should be “to be found”. Whether you’re a company trying to increase sales, or a person with a blog about their pet iguana Chi-Chi, you have created an ‘online presence’ so that you may be found. When choosing a web company ask questions beyond ‘page hits’, and talk about conversion rates, how long someone stays on your site, and do they help write your site in both the Getting Found and Persuasion points of view. Some company’s do this well, others don’t even consider it. If you simply want a ‘brochure site’, an obligatory “yes I’ve got a website”, please still ensure it is functional and reflective of your company’s values.

Search Engine Optimisation should not be an add on
Further, should you want your website found by the people you want to find it, you need your web company to help you find the right words, or combination of words, to be found by the right people. This is more than publishing a list of words attached to the back end of your site, or whatever ‘magical’ digital wand is waved.

Sometimes a half baked website can be worse than not having one at all. The most important question you can ask is “Do I need a website”. Will your website pay for itself, create you a better business and add to your company in such ways that you don’t know how you lived without, or is it simply a one off, one hit wonder, where the only person that will look at it is you? A website is not a magical entity, of which you need to learn a whole new language in order to communicate your needs, but simply another tool in your branding strategy and should be treated, and budgeted for as such.

How to choose a web designer

So how do you find the right web designer to suit your needs?

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