5 Important things to check before hiring a web designer
If you want to hire a web designer, it is important that you look out for some specific highly important tips which I’m about to reveal to you in this article. These 5 tips are so essential that if ignored, might result in you wasting your money and time because you will definitely hire the wrong company. The result is that you will be compelled to pay yet another web designer to redesign the entire website for you.
So we will dive straight into exposing those things that actually separate the good, the bad and the downright ugly web developers in the industry.
1. Your Web Designer Should Be A Real Business
This is important because when you deal with a single individual say your neighbour’s 16-year-old son, that guy you met in the church or the one your friend introduced you to the other day, you are dangerously putting the future of your business at risk. How? You may ask.
What happens when he/she is not reachable and you urgently need to update information on your site for a client to review? Or when your site goes down and you need it right up ASAP because your potential business partner wants to take a look at your website? I think the answer is obvious.
This is why it is important that you deal with a real business so that even if the web designer attached to you is not available, they will quickly reassign you someone else to work on your site in case of an emergency. The web design company need not be a very big one. It just needs to have a structure in place and the organization that comes with a business
Another important point is that dealing with a business helps you to make specific requests with regards to the features you need and be firm in your negotiation. You are dealing with professionals so the entire project will be handled in a very professional manner.
2. The Web Designer Must Have A Website
This point I believe is a no brainer! The first thing you should checkout before hiring a web development company is the quality of their own business website.
If the site is shabbily designed, you will certainly get the same quality of work. If there are a lot of errors like 404 errors, dead links, non-functional features, poor web graphics etc, then you know your own website is going to look exactly the same. The web design agency cannot offer you what it can’t offer itself. However, if on the other hand, the website is a top-notch world class design and excellent in functionality, then feel at home. You are at the right place.
3. Quality of Customer Service
This is by far the most important factor you should put into consideration before you even make any financial commitment with the web developer. How do they respond to your inquiries? Are they hasty about it or do they take their time to address your concerns and answer your questions. Are they easily reachable 24/7? What is the most effective way of reaching them - Is it by phone, email or live chat? Me personally I prefer a web designer that is always online for a live chat. This is because, if there is any form of emergency with your website, you will get instant response from the web design team. Also hire only web design agencies that respond to email enquiries within 6 hours. Anything less than that is not acceptable! My major concern with phone conversations is that there is no guarantee that the person you are talking to is online at that moment or will be online on a regular basis.
Also how they follow up on a client after completing the web design project is yet another important factor. You certainly don’t want to deal with a developer who only contacts you once a year when your web hosting is about to expire. Some are even so bad and careless that your website will expire and they won’t even inform you about it.
4. Web Design Portfolio
“Let me see a website you have designed before” This should be the first thing you ask a web designer when you meet one. You don’t want to patronize a rookie in the business of web design that will use your website to learn. This is not to disparage the skill of people who are still fresh in the industry. But you should understand that we are talking about quality web designers here. A good web design firm should have no less than 20 projects in its portfolio. And these completed projects should be publicly listed on their website. Or at least they should be able to prove that they actually did the work. One easy way to find out who designed a website is to look at the site’s footer. This is where you will see something like “website design by XYZ Technologies”.
5. Web Design Price
I intentionally left this to be the last factor to consider in this article. And when you want to hire a web design company, it should also be the last thing you discuss. If you make it the first, as most people do, you will likely end up with a very poor choice. Why? In my 7 years experience as a web developer, one thing I have found out is that you get the quality of job you pay for – this is like a general rule. Cheap web designers always ask for cheap price and deliver cheap jobs. The important thing you should know is that price of any web development project is generally determined by 2 things:
The type of website you request for: The cost of putting up a dynamic website is always higher than static html site. And if it designed with a content management system, the price goes even higher. The costliest websites are usually ecommerce sites. So you should have this at the back of your mind when approaching a web designer.
Number of features that you request for: You should know that the more features a website has, the more likely it will be costlier. For example, if you request for a bespoke design for your website, be sure that the price of such project will be a lot higher than when the web designer uses a template to do the job for you. Generally, if you don’t have any specific reason why you need a unique design, it is always better to stick with templates - it is cheaper and your designer can tweak it in any way you desire such that it may even appear unique.
In conclusion, before you hire any web designer or web development company, ensure that it is a real business with established structure – It doesn’t necessarily need to be a large company with 100 designers on its payroll. Also that the company has its own functional website, offer quality customer care service, and has a good portfolio of completed website design projects. Don’t also forget that when it comes to web design what you pay for is what you get.
Have a question about your web design project? Call an experienced web developer with over 10 years experience and we will help you every step of the way from conceptualizing the idea to design and full implementation.
CALL NOW! +2348105882416, +2348144297674
SOURCE: http://ebrandpromotion.com/website-design-nigeria/index.php/blog/21-5-important-things-to-check-before-hiring-a-web-designer
So we will dive straight into exposing those things that actually separate the good, the bad and the downright ugly web developers in the industry.
1. Your Web Designer Should Be A Real Business
This is important because when you deal with a single individual say your neighbour’s 16-year-old son, that guy you met in the church or the one your friend introduced you to the other day, you are dangerously putting the future of your business at risk. How? You may ask.
What happens when he/she is not reachable and you urgently need to update information on your site for a client to review? Or when your site goes down and you need it right up ASAP because your potential business partner wants to take a look at your website? I think the answer is obvious.
This is why it is important that you deal with a real business so that even if the web designer attached to you is not available, they will quickly reassign you someone else to work on your site in case of an emergency. The web design company need not be a very big one. It just needs to have a structure in place and the organization that comes with a business
Another important point is that dealing with a business helps you to make specific requests with regards to the features you need and be firm in your negotiation. You are dealing with professionals so the entire project will be handled in a very professional manner.
2. The Web Designer Must Have A Website
This point I believe is a no brainer! The first thing you should checkout before hiring a web development company is the quality of their own business website.
If the site is shabbily designed, you will certainly get the same quality of work. If there are a lot of errors like 404 errors, dead links, non-functional features, poor web graphics etc, then you know your own website is going to look exactly the same. The web design agency cannot offer you what it can’t offer itself. However, if on the other hand, the website is a top-notch world class design and excellent in functionality, then feel at home. You are at the right place.
3. Quality of Customer Service
This is by far the most important factor you should put into consideration before you even make any financial commitment with the web developer. How do they respond to your inquiries? Are they hasty about it or do they take their time to address your concerns and answer your questions. Are they easily reachable 24/7? What is the most effective way of reaching them - Is it by phone, email or live chat? Me personally I prefer a web designer that is always online for a live chat. This is because, if there is any form of emergency with your website, you will get instant response from the web design team. Also hire only web design agencies that respond to email enquiries within 6 hours. Anything less than that is not acceptable! My major concern with phone conversations is that there is no guarantee that the person you are talking to is online at that moment or will be online on a regular basis.
Also how they follow up on a client after completing the web design project is yet another important factor. You certainly don’t want to deal with a developer who only contacts you once a year when your web hosting is about to expire. Some are even so bad and careless that your website will expire and they won’t even inform you about it.
4. Web Design Portfolio
“Let me see a website you have designed before” This should be the first thing you ask a web designer when you meet one. You don’t want to patronize a rookie in the business of web design that will use your website to learn. This is not to disparage the skill of people who are still fresh in the industry. But you should understand that we are talking about quality web designers here. A good web design firm should have no less than 20 projects in its portfolio. And these completed projects should be publicly listed on their website. Or at least they should be able to prove that they actually did the work. One easy way to find out who designed a website is to look at the site’s footer. This is where you will see something like “website design by XYZ Technologies”.
5. Web Design Price
I intentionally left this to be the last factor to consider in this article. And when you want to hire a web design company, it should also be the last thing you discuss. If you make it the first, as most people do, you will likely end up with a very poor choice. Why? In my 7 years experience as a web developer, one thing I have found out is that you get the quality of job you pay for – this is like a general rule. Cheap web designers always ask for cheap price and deliver cheap jobs. The important thing you should know is that price of any web development project is generally determined by 2 things:
The type of website you request for: The cost of putting up a dynamic website is always higher than static html site. And if it designed with a content management system, the price goes even higher. The costliest websites are usually ecommerce sites. So you should have this at the back of your mind when approaching a web designer.
Number of features that you request for: You should know that the more features a website has, the more likely it will be costlier. For example, if you request for a bespoke design for your website, be sure that the price of such project will be a lot higher than when the web designer uses a template to do the job for you. Generally, if you don’t have any specific reason why you need a unique design, it is always better to stick with templates - it is cheaper and your designer can tweak it in any way you desire such that it may even appear unique.
In conclusion, before you hire any web designer or web development company, ensure that it is a real business with established structure – It doesn’t necessarily need to be a large company with 100 designers on its payroll. Also that the company has its own functional website, offer quality customer care service, and has a good portfolio of completed website design projects. Don’t also forget that when it comes to web design what you pay for is what you get.
Have a question about your web design project? Call an experienced web developer with over 10 years experience and we will help you every step of the way from conceptualizing the idea to design and full implementation.
CALL NOW! +2348105882416, +2348144297674
SOURCE: http://ebrandpromotion.com/website-design-nigeria/index.php/blog/21-5-important-things-to-check-before-hiring-a-web-designer
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