Basic guidelines to select a web designer:1) Look at the portfolio of the designer, avoid jumping to grand conclusions by the impressive graphics. Go to all the portfolio sites and try to measure the success of these sites. You may want to research about the company and how successful its web presence is. Measurements of eCommerce Success: (i) System quality: availability, response time and usability (ii) Information Quality: completeness, relevance and ease of understanding of information (iii) Use: the number of site visits and number of transactions executed (iv) User satisfaction: repeat visits & purchases (v) Individual impact: impact on individual (vi) Organization impact: impact on employees and firm
2. Variety is important. One common mistake many people make when they get impressed by attractive graphics. If you carefully look through the portfolio, you can easily find out whether all look similar in format and structure.
3. Background of the designer. Education background and qualifications of the designer or all the developers of the design firm are important.
4. How they respond to your queries? Live customer support during standard business hours is most important.
5) Ask for customer support. It is always better to deal with a company that offers live customer support on phone rather than chat or emails.
6. Never assign a project to a designer without a contract When you select a designer/company, always sign a formal agreement.
7.You get what you pay for. 97% consumers nowadays search the internet to look for products and services. Web sites designed using cheap templates will not generate any leads no matter how good your products or services are.
8.Did you know that the organic (non-paid) links in Google receive as much as 8x the traffic as paid links? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not only important but a msut for your web site. Your designer should know how to design SEO friendly web sites.
9. How many satisfied customers do they have? Look at the testimonials page and find out what their customers are saying about their services. Always check at least two references from their customers.
10. Web Usability is important Usability rules the web. Your customer should have enriching experiences while browsing through your web pages. Ask the designer whether he has proven expertise in usability centric web design. It is not easy to find a good usability expert who is inexpensive but there are some companies that offer usability centric design services at highly competitive prices.
11. Project development methodology Treat your web design as a project and a formal project development methodology is very important. You will lose track of your project progress without a proper development methodology. It is always better if your project is executed by a Certified Project Management Professionals (PMP). PMP is the most globally recognized credential for project managers
12. How about their Quality plan? Your web site quality is the most important aspect of your web development project and it is always better to deal with a designer/company that has a quality plan, which conforms to international standards such as SEI/CMM (Software Engineering Institute / Capability maturity model).
13. Post completion and ongoing support Web sites evolve constantly and you need to update the content on a regular basis. You also need to incorporate certain changes periodically as per your business needs. Always ask about the post completion support and monthly on going maintenance support.
14. Do they know anything about project documentation? Project documentation is extremely important. You may not find the same designer/company after two years or in case you hire another designer/company for future enhancements. Project document acts similar to that of a blue print of a foundation of any structure. Without it you cannot modify the original designs and you will have to completely demolish your structure.
15. Some things are better left to the professionals and web design is one of them. Don't hire online freelancers. Many of them are working from home part time and have limited skills. You need to hire a designer who has proven track records not a fancy portfolio.
2. Variety is important. One common mistake many people make when they get impressed by attractive graphics. If you carefully look through the portfolio, you can easily find out whether all look similar in format and structure.
3. Background of the designer. Education background and qualifications of the designer or all the developers of the design firm are important.
4. How they respond to your queries? Live customer support during standard business hours is most important.
5) Ask for customer support. It is always better to deal with a company that offers live customer support on phone rather than chat or emails.
6. Never assign a project to a designer without a contract When you select a designer/company, always sign a formal agreement.
7.You get what you pay for. 97% consumers nowadays search the internet to look for products and services. Web sites designed using cheap templates will not generate any leads no matter how good your products or services are.
8.Did you know that the organic (non-paid) links in Google receive as much as 8x the traffic as paid links? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not only important but a msut for your web site. Your designer should know how to design SEO friendly web sites.
9. How many satisfied customers do they have? Look at the testimonials page and find out what their customers are saying about their services. Always check at least two references from their customers.
10. Web Usability is important Usability rules the web. Your customer should have enriching experiences while browsing through your web pages. Ask the designer whether he has proven expertise in usability centric web design. It is not easy to find a good usability expert who is inexpensive but there are some companies that offer usability centric design services at highly competitive prices.
11. Project development methodology Treat your web design as a project and a formal project development methodology is very important. You will lose track of your project progress without a proper development methodology. It is always better if your project is executed by a Certified Project Management Professionals (PMP). PMP is the most globally recognized credential for project managers
12. How about their Quality plan? Your web site quality is the most important aspect of your web development project and it is always better to deal with a designer/company that has a quality plan, which conforms to international standards such as SEI/CMM (Software Engineering Institute / Capability maturity model).
13. Post completion and ongoing support Web sites evolve constantly and you need to update the content on a regular basis. You also need to incorporate certain changes periodically as per your business needs. Always ask about the post completion support and monthly on going maintenance support.
14. Do they know anything about project documentation? Project documentation is extremely important. You may not find the same designer/company after two years or in case you hire another designer/company for future enhancements. Project document acts similar to that of a blue print of a foundation of any structure. Without it you cannot modify the original designs and you will have to completely demolish your structure.
15. Some things are better left to the professionals and web design is one of them. Don't hire online freelancers. Many of them are working from home part time and have limited skills. You need to hire a designer who has proven track records not a fancy portfolio.
About the Author:
Amit Sarkar is a silicon valley based project management consultant. He is a certified Project Management professional (PMP) and a certified scrum master. He has 18 years of experience in many areas such as Aerospace engineering, Software development, Project management, Products / Projects development, Offshore development, Strategic management etc. To learn more about web usabilty visit ezwebguru
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