Hiring A Web Designer

This article is written for businesses that are looking to build a website and are shopping around for a web design company to contract the work. A lot of business owners and managers are uncertain about what to look for in hiring a web design or website development company. Should they be local or does it not matter? Would an individual web designer do a good job or should I hire a full service agency?

The answers to those questions may not be so black and white. Often times the needs of a buyer are very much personal. Nevertheless, we created a check list of questions and criteria to help buyers find a good match.

• Planning
  Are you as a client good at planning? If not, you may need a designer that can sit down with you to talk through a scenario. Keep in mind, that the time a designer spends planning is often a billable cost. Sometimes less experienced web designers will not charge for planning, but they later become overwhelmed with their workload and as a result can have trouble making deadlines or being reachable. It can be helpful to pay for some planning time on slightly larger projects.
• Local or not local
  For some, being able to meet in person with a web designer is very helpful and reassuring. There are alternatives though. A lot of designer use software like GoToMeeting or Skype to conduct video chats which can connect vendors and clients from different states or regions.
• Freelancer or Agency
  Agencies often have more experience and capabilities, but they will also cost more as a result. However, there are many sizes and types of design agencies from virtual companies to large shops with full, in-house production teams. Our advice is to ask about their working process and project management style… get to know how they work. Freelancers can be good and may cost a little less–but it all depends on skill, experience, portfolio, capabilities, depth of knowledge, etc.

Also, we have prepared a list of questions that will help you define your needs. These questions are useful after finding and selecting a design company, as they are geared for clarifying the project scope and drafting a proposal that is accurate and specific.

Questions To Help Define Your Project

• What is your general purpose for the website? See below.
• Do you have products to sell through your website?
• Try to create a very basic break down of your website into pages and categories, if possible. For large websites, you don’t need to define every page: Just define the most important (high level) pages and general categories).
• Do you need to update content yourself or would you prefer to have the web designer make the updates occasionally for you?
• Are there websites that you like? Start making a list, and then ask for feedback from the web designer to explain what features of those websites may be more expensive than others.
• Are you wanting to have interactive features such as moving parts, items that respond to mouse clicks, slide shows, etc, etc.

Setting A Budget For Web Design

It is a good idea to do some initial thinking about budget. Don’t just shop around looking for the cheapest option. So many business owners (especially first time buyers) have wasted money trying to go with the cheapest option–only later having to redo the project with another company and essentially starting over. Price is not the always the most important factor.

First it is important to understand that websites are not all built the same. Clean coding, good planning, attractive design, timeliness, security are just a few factors that differentiate the quality of websites. For example, a more experienced web designer may cost more per hour than a web designer working out of her parent’s basement, but the end cost may be less for the more experienced designer. Or, the more experienced designer may in fact be a lot more expensive, but the quality may be very different. Please understand that we are not suggesting that less experienced web designers are not worthwhile… in fact, there are some very talented designers out there who are just getting started but make excellent work.

Some considerations for cost include:

• Is the cost a flat rate or per hour (time based)?
• Do you have a logo? Logo designs may cost extra.
• What does the price include? One design concept or more? Are there revisions to the design concepts? Is coding and implementation included?
• Do you need to purchase additional software or licenses along with the work of the designer?
• Costs for stock photography, vector graphics, etc.
• Will the website need content updates? If so, who will make them? What will it cost to make those updates?
• How will maintenance be handled should something break? Keep in mind that hiring a web design company to build a website is not a permanent and lifetime warranty. Things do break on the web, and this cost should be planned for.

What should I prepare before the web design process?

• Think about the content. Who will write it? Do you need assistance, if so this may cost extra.
• Do you want your website to help with marketing in specific ways? For example, do you want to be found on search engines like Google or Yahoo!? Would you consider marketing through social networks or do you want to know more about social marketing online? Or, do you plan on marketing in person with business cards and brochures?
• Photography: Do you need more photos for your site? Do you plan on having photos taken, if so, when? Do you want to purchase stock photography?

If you need help with your next project, give us a call and give us the opportunity to help you out.



Thank You,

Hector Graxirena
President | HoBITS Technologies, Inc.
117 West Alexander Street Suite 105, Plant City, FL 33563
T. 866-524-7762
hg@hobits.com
http://www.hobits.com