When choosing a website designer, it's easy to be swayed alone by the amount of their base rates. No matter if there's only one designer whose services fit your budget, you should still be careful and strategic when choosing which designer to trust. For that matter, you should consider the five questions listed below if you want the ideal web designer to work on your site.
What kind of experience does the web designer have?
Experience is something that you don't acquire just by spending time performing a particular task. Experience only matters when what you're doing is relevant to your goals. In this case, you want a professional web designer who has experience working with the type of site you want or with clients from the same industry or type of business you are in.
How much experience does the professional web designer have? Basically, this question is about how far you can expect a web designer to be able to cater to your needs. Will it still be able to help you out even if your business has grown in unimaginable proportions in the last few years? The needs of a basic website are far different from what a website visited by thousands or even just hundreds would need.
What kind of expertise can the web designer offer?
Expertise is yet another thing that separates professionals from amateurs. Anyone, for instance, can run a few stitches through fabrics but not everyone can sew and design clothes the way famous fashion designers can. That's the kind of difference you can expect from experts, and that's what you should look for in a web designer.
Expert web designers will be more than capable of meeting your website's requirements. Not only that but they'll also be able to anticipate future needs of your website – things that may not have occurred to you in the first place. For instance, an expert web designer may suggest including a database in your website for easier product catalogue management. It's a good suggestion, but it's also one you would have unlikely thought of alone.
What is its working process like?
Never be satisfied with web designers who can only provide you vague answers about how they work. In order to ensure that your website will come out exactly as planned and meet any deadlines you may have at the same time, your website designer should have an organized and systemized approach for tackling your website.
The web designer must be able to break down his or her work process in specific and well-defined stages or steps. The best work processes are those which seek your approval in critical stages or when something major is about to change with your website. This way, you will know every step of the way what's going on with your website and be able to provide timely suggestions whenever necessary.
What is his or her preferred arrangement for communication?
Even though a professional web designer is likely to work better alone or without too much unnecessary interference from the client, there must still be constant communication taking place between the two of them. Without constant communication, misunderstandings of every kind may arise and cause more expenses and delays with the design and development of your website.
To come up with the best communication arrangement, you need to consider the following factors.
- Method – Do you prefer talking with your web designer over the phone, online, or in person?
- Frequency – How often do you want to be updated about the design process? Will the web designer be able to accommodate your request?
- Feedback – Do you require the web designer to seek your approval every step of the way?
What are your options for payment?
Lastly, you want to make sure that there are no misunderstandings either with regard to payment. Aside from knowing exactly how much you will be charged with and for what, you should also discuss beforehand about all your options for payment.
- Will you be required to pay for downpayment and if so how much?
- Is there any way to obtain any additional discounts or incentives?
- Will it be possible to pay your fee on an instalment basis?
- Do they accept payment methods aside from credit card payment?
When you have all the answers to these five questions then it should be clear for you to see which web designer is best to hire.
