Shopping For a Website 101 - 4 Rules For Picking the Right Website Designer

Time:2010-01-26 21:01:40 Source:Ezinearticles Author:Clayton Harris

1. Identify Prospects - To be quite honest, there isn't a "perfect fit" way to find website designers (there are so many to choose from nowadays). However, to separate the "deadbeats" from the "best of the best", there are some things that you should know while searching Google, browsing your Little Black Book, asking Friends, Family, Associates, Long Lost Pals, Co-Workers, etc. When you have A COUPLE of prospects in mind you're ready for rule number two.

2. Get To Know Your Prospects - Now, the designer you pick must have ACTUAL WORK that they can show you they've completed. If a prospect doesn't have a healthy portfolio with COMPLETED websites that are viewable online, please DO NOT consider them a viable option. The reason their portfolio needs to be available online is because you need to see that the website's they design have been completed, are actually working, and are running smoothly in their current web environments. If the prospective websites aren't working properly...neither will yours. Take some time to click through the pages, try different site features, etc. Red flags are..."Oh I'm still working on putting my portfolio together"..."I have tons of clients, but legally I can't disclose any of them to you"..."Well, here are a couple of sites I'm working on"...etc. The truth is, the best designers have tons of COMPLETED site samples...WHY?, because they're good at what they do and therefore have formed relationships with clients that have utilized their services in the past (and that still use their services). Never go with a designer that doesn't have an "established" portfolio that they can show you. The best designers also have their own website (which doubles as an example of their capabilities). So if you meet a designer and they tell you their own website is "Coming Soon"...watch out, that prospect could be a deadbeat website designer. Bottom line, you want to go with a prospect that has an extensive portfolio...like us;o)

3. Prepare Your Website Vision on Paper - Once you've gotten to know your prospects take some time (as much time as you need) to write out your website vision (requirements); i.e. things (features, colors, pages, layout, samples of other websites you like, etc) that your website definitely needs to have. This could be a lot (or a little bit) of work, but the more detail you can put down on paper, the better chance you'll have narrowing down your prospects (and ultimately choosing the right one). After you've completed your website vision, present each of your prospects with a paper (or electronic) copy of your vision.

SIDEBAR: It may be in your best interest to prepare a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) or a Confidentiality Agreement (CA), in the instance that your website vision contains proprietary information that you would not like your prospects to share with others. A great free template for CA can be found at Microsoft Office Online-->Templates. But, you'll need to compile an NDA with your lawyer or conduct a Google search to find a good NDA template. Either legal document will work.

Once your prospects have reviewed your website vision, expect the most professional prospects to provide a website design proposal. Those that don't provide a proposal are not likely candidates, mainly for the simple fact that a good website designer always does their homework to include, researching the technologies that should be used to provide the features you want and relaying these to you...or just articulating all of your ideas in a way that makes you feel confident that they can do the work. A website proposal should include the following sections (not necessarily in this order):

Site Structure - Overview of the type of website to be developed, i.e. E-commerce, Content Management System (CMS), Flash, Social Networking, Corporate, Static, Custom, Template, etc.
Includes - This could be a logo, slogan, other website ideas based on your vision, etc. The main purpose of this section is so that you the buyer know what's included.
Main Requirements - This section details those items that are overarching features that the website will have no matter what site page a site visitor lands on (these are usually items that are included in the site masthead, footer, left/right margins, or are data related). This can include a database, site login/registration, ad banners, mailing list feature, etc.
Site Pages - This section should include the details for every page that your website will have. Details include, website textual content, pictures, media, colors, theme, etc.
Estimate & Timeline - These two sections go hand in hand, because many web designers translate the time it takes to develop a particular type of website, into cost. Either way, the proposal should relay how many business days it will take and how much it will cost, to develop your website. There are three factors that affect any website project, i.e. cost, schedule, and performance (in this case, performance = website hosting).
Payments - This section should provide the reassurance that any buyer would need when making payments for services. The more methods of payment accepted the better. Please see number 4 below for more information on project costs.
Website Content Disclaimer - This section is very important because a lot of website projects get held up due to the lack of content provided by buyers. Well, this section eliminates any confusion in terms of when content will be received and what will occur if it's not received in a timely manner related to project completion. A good prospect will have a similar section in their proposal.
Refund Policy - A well written proposal will have a refund policy (i.e., a way out for you the buyer if you're not content with the outcome or the way your project is being handled).
Portfolio - This section isn't a necessity if you've already seen the prospect's work first hand, but if you haven't...then this section had better be present in the proposal as a last ditch effort to build your confidence in their website design abilities. P.S. Remember, this section should include working URLs that you can actually visit.
Contact Us - This is probably the second most important section in the proposal (after everything else above of course)...a way for you to contact the prospect via email, phone, fax, a website, and/or even at a physical location. The more ways you have to contact a prospect the better.

SIDEBAR: Remember, good prospects can prove their level of expertise by providing related website samples from their portfolio so that you can see some variation of the features you want in action. And last, a good prospect will be able to not only develop your website, but will also graphically design your website layout using an application like Adobe Photoshop or similar. We provide all of the above for EVERY potential client (another not so subtle plug)...yet definitely something to consider.;o)

4. Discuss All Associated Project Costs - Hopefully number three above helped you narrow down your prospects. If not, discussing cost most certainly will. Please be mindful to never discuss cost before you've gotten to know your prospects AND you've created your website vision on paper. Reason being is because, the first thing a good prospect is going to convey to you, when you ask them how much a website will cost, is that it depends on what type of website you're interested in buying, i.e. what "your website vision" will be. Now, warning...never pay everything up front. Pay 50% to begin the project & the remainder when the project is complete (meaning you've approved the final product). Or if you feel even less confident, it may be helpful to break your payments up into milestones payments, i.e., first draft complete, second draft complete, etc. Either way, be clear on what the total cost of your project, including hosting charges, domain name charges, maintenance charges, and anything else you can think of. A lot of people get duped into paying for things that they should not have to pay for. Some of those things are typically 24hr technical support and structural/framework website fixes (damage caused by poor website development). Make sure that the total estimated cost for your project is included with the proposals provided by your prospect(s). This also means there should be a "Total Cost" line item in the proposal. Please absolutely question ANYTHING that you're not familiar with. And make sure that you take the time to compare costs from all of your prospects in order to generate a baseline for negotiation. Remember, nothing is engraved in stone when it comes to website design...and everything is negotiable.

CONCLUSION: If you follow the four rules above you will be able to pick the right website designer. Overall, you want to go with a prospect that can take your ideas, your website vision, or your concept and create a home on the web for your business or venture. Your prospect should ultimately be able to design whatever your heart desires, whatever your passion speaks to, and what you feel is just right, for your business. Our philosophy is simple; you can't design anything if you haven't first done your homework. We take pride in our ability to customize without changing your ideas or vision. We consult with our clients before, during, and after website development occurs. This is how we're able to provide what we like to call "perfect fit" websites...which I guess makes us the "perfect fit" prospect. For more information on our website design services, feel free to visit us online.

Written By: Clayton Harris
Main Website: http://www.hitekwebdesign.com
Email: webdesign@hitekconsulting.com
Quick Quote: http://hitekwebdesign.wufoo.com/forms/hitekwebdesigncom-quick-quote/
Toll Free: 1-888-471-4043

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Clayton_Harris

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