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How to Hire a Great Web Designer 10 things you should know By Lori Goodman 1. Get references. Ask how long they've been in business and request examples of their work. Visit their client's websites as well as their own and see how they look, feel and function. Look with a critical eye for things like misspellings, incorrect dates and missing links. The content should look crisp, clean, easy to navigate and be well laid out. It should be easy on the eyes. Anything flashing or clashing or packed full of advertisements is not a good sign of a good design on a professional website.¹ < < [For your reading convenience, all footnotes are linked] Check websites like Yelp, Twitter (#search) and others for reviews if possible. Reviews will usually come up with the search results. If the designer is also handling your social media needs a good indicator of their ability can be obtained by looking at their company's online presence. At the very least it should be well-established and they should have a good professional reputation overall. If they come up on page 1,236 instead of the top 1-3 when you type in their web address (the name following the "www"), that's not a good sign they'll be able to effectively drive traffic to your website either.² Use a discerning eye when reading mixed reviews. If you see an unusually scathing review along with overwhelmingly glowing ones, check out the negative reviewer. Sometimes the competition doesn't play nice. And sometimes a company messes up. See if they addressed it and how they fixed it. Often, negative attention shows up in first place without immediately following it with the subsequent "Thank you for making this right, sorry I was such a jerk, you guys are AWESOME!" note from the customer. It's human nature to focus on the negative. 2. Get a written estimate and contract. Get a written estimate up front that spells out the details of the actual work to be done and what (if anything) you are responsible for supplying such as written content, graphics, photos, logos, etc. A range of estimated cost is acceptable for a complex project. Once you agree with the terms, a signed contract to perform the work should follow with a portion of the estimated final cost given to the designer. Make sure you have a copy. I prefer "by the job" pricing over "by the hour" for the main work. Changes and updates or extras can be added on as hourly expenses. Not all designers work this way so it's advisable to ask them how they charge. 3. Never pay in full up front. Unless you are dealing with a highly reputable professional firm (or paying for the work through a company like AMEX) don't ever pay more than half of the total cost up front! (EVER!) It is customary to pay a deposit of 50% to the designer up front and the remaining balance after completion once you are satisfied with the work. Never pay in full for a project that is not finished. This is not professional and you probably won't see your completed website or hear from the designer again. After you have the completed website in your hot little hands and before you make the final payment, check functionality, preferably with your designer. That means click every button and double check every link. Make sure it's what you wanted and your website is working flawlessly before you pay the balance. 4. Know what you're getting. Be clear up front about everything you are paying for. There can be a significant difference in price and quality between a template-based website and a custom-created one-of-a-kind design. The more gadgets and gizmos you ask for the higher the price to create and more complicated it will be to update and maintain. Keeping it clean and simple is desirable to your web audience and beneficial to your budget. 5. Know your designers capabilities. If you decide to add multi-media or other add-ons down the road, can your designer do these things? If these are things you think you might want now or later, can they be done within the design firm? Outsourcing drives price up because everybody wants their cut. Be sure your website is fully scalable, meaning as your online needs grow the website can expand to meet those demands. If you want your website to work on Smart phones, be sure they understand what that entails. I write my websites from scratch, most designers don't and most programs are good - some can can create source code that behaves strangely on various devices and operating systems. If you don't understand something ask the designer to explain it in plain language. If the designer scratches their head or confuses you with techno-babble and double-talk, step off and move on. Smart designers can communicate well. You are not obligated to work with the first person you talk to about your project or with anyone who confuses you. "Next!" 6. Show up with ideas. Your ideas are great, sometimes too great. Have realistic expectations by discussing with the designer what you want your website to look like and what you expect it to accomplish before construction begins. This will save you money. Prepare a list of other websites that you love and explain why: color scheme, look and feel, layout, simplicity, "coolness"... Knowing what you like will help the designer create what you want. They do not have to be websites in your particular industry. Great designers stay on top of trends and should have a few ideas and suggestions for you as well. If you have existing literature such as business cards, brochures, print ads and want your website to complement them be sure the designer sees these before work begins. Depending on your industry, an online presence that mirrors your brochure may be all you need. It's not exactly up-to-the-minute current to design a website this way, but on the plus side it's a simple starting point if you're completely new to all of this. If you're planning to re-brand your company image in the near future, make sure your designer knows so they don't create a website that looks exactly like your other literature. Don't let your designer oversell you. The rule of thumb when you're starting out is if you don't know what it is or what it does and your designer can't explain why you need it in a way it makes sense to you, you probably don't need it. 7. What's the time frame? Ask how long the website will take to complete and get an approximate launch date in writing. Designing and building a custom website is a dynamic process that requires flexibility and time. Delays of a couple of days are normal - weeks or months with no end in sight? Never acceptable. Excuses are never acceptable. If your designer is running behind be reasonable and as nice as possible. Yelling, pushing, poking or kicking will not motivate a creative person to work faster or do their best work. Doing that can backfire so tread nicely, even when you don't feel like it. 8. Choose one person to handle the project. If it's not you, designate one person to work with the designer exclusively to avoid communication problems. The more people with eyeballs on an in-progress project calling the shots, making changes and creative suggestions the more complex the project and stress level becomes for the designer. Cha-ching! You get the idea. When too many hands are in the mix delays will be inevitable. This is avoidable by choosing ONE liaison, a single person to work with the designer who is a good communicator. That person should be patient, reasonable, preferably have uncommon common sense, a decent design eye (one clue is how they dress themselves) and the power to make decisions without asking 10 people for their opinion first. Your in-house "IT" (Internet Technology) guy is usually not the right guy. From a designer's perspective, I always (ALWAYS!) prefer working with Entrepreneurs and CEOs because they're better at making smart decisions for their company (which the website is representing) and they have the power to delegate all the free reign I need to work beautifully under once the concept is agreed on and locked in. This shows they trust my judgment and competence as a designer. I avoid middle-to-high-level management whenever possible. CEOs listen up: A good designer will not waste your time. They will listen to you, show you the ideas they come up with, reach an agreement, get to work and deliver what you're paying for. 9. Stay in the loop. Communicate with your designer before and during the construction process. If you haven't heard anything a few days after the project started don't wait for the designer to call you. If it's been a week of silence by all means check in. On the inverse, calling or texting three times a day to check progress interrupts the creative work process and may delay completion or drive the final price up. And related though somewhat different . . . 9a. Track the design progress. Check the progress of the website at various stages of construction to be sure your website is being created to your liking. A good designer will let you know up front when you can expect a progress report. They will also run the first draft by you to see if they're on the right track. Schedule weekly meetings and at least one after the initial design is drafted so changes can be made before the project is well under way. If you change your mind about the design or add content mid-project find out what these changes will cost. It's usually a tacked on per-hour labor cost. 10. Check their work. You probably noticed I mentioned this in #3. It is important enough to pound it home again. To me it seems obvious, though many people I've talked to say it's not something they automatically thought to do. When I hand over a project I always, always, always ask them to double check for acccuracy. (Gotcha!) I can tell you horror stories about people who signed off on work that was grossly wrong including a rather embarrassing goof-up that happened to me a couple years ago. As a designer I will always stand behind my work. In my contracts I have a section on "fixing errors" that is very clear. It's a good idea to ask your designer to include that provision in the contract. If a client signs off on the job and something isn't right after the fact, technically it's the client's responsibility. If it's something I can fix, and it's not too long after the fact and the client was reasonable I will fix it for no charge. The key here is don't wait to check for accuracy. Click on all of the links, make sure there are no little blank squares with red X's in them (missing images) and always check to make sure that every button works from every page. ~ Lori Goodman • For designer insider information on this subject: How to Hire a Great Web Designer Bonus Text: What Your Web Designer Doesn't Want You to Know ¹ If you want your customers to return to your website again and again, anything annoying like flashing, blinking, beeping, sound tracks, trailing cursors (help meeeee!) or cutsie stuff will deter that from happening. Exception: On a designer's OWN personal website they may choose to express their personality more openly and have the unstoppable desire to provide more examples of their talents and capabilities than would normally be seen on a client's or their own professional website. ² In all fairness to those who are learning (aren't we all!), there are exceptionally talented designers that are just now digging into social media and search engine optimization (SEO) and implementing that for their clients. I also know designers who work on their own websites last, concentrating their time on projects that make money first - backwards thinking, alas, but true since quite often we wear many hats, not just the designer one. ³ Platforms include operating systems, mobile devices, etc. Back to Articles [In the works: Find me on Facebook & Twitter for content updates] 
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