Choosing A Web Design Company
What questions should you be asking your
web designers?
This article outlines the primary factors
that you should consider when choosing a web designer or web design
company. |
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Clear
Design UK Ltd Details |
Clear Design UK Ltd
1 Gas Ferry Road
Bristol
BS1 9UN
Registered in England and Wales
Company Number: 4597034
t: 0117 9300222
e: info@cleardesignuk.com
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| Portfolio Of Work |
Looking at a web designer's
portfolio of past projects is the quickest and easiest way
to decide if they are the right company for your needs.
Questions you should be
asking yourself include:
• Is their portfolio of work sympathetic to my business?
• Do I like their style of design?
• Do all their websites look the same?
Although your first impact of the company will usually be
their own website, make sure you look deeper into their portfolio.
Every designer is capable of producing one great website -
but can they produce twenty great websites in succession?
Expect a portfolio of at least eight websites - and look for
a good variety of work. |
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| Cost |
Web design companies can have very different
ways of charging. Some may charge high set-up costs and low recurring fees. Some will
pull in customers with a low set-up cost and then charge high recurring fees.
Bear in mind that most professional web design companies work on a bespoke basis - and will therefore not be able to publish specific prices. They will however,
be able to provide you with a ball-park figure based on a technical and/or design brief.
They should also be able to provide you
with an indication of what their hourly/daily rate is. |
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| Skills, Qualifications and References |
Skills
Whether the design company has appropriate skills will depend
solely on your aims and objectives.
Do you require Flash animation, database design, client
log-in areas or search engine optimisation? If so, can that
web design company produce such work? If they say they can
- make sure they can prove it.
Qualifications
It is perfectly acceptable to ask for the credentials of the
designers or key members within the company.
Whilst qualifications do not necessarily mean that the website
design company is up to the job (or that a design company without
specific qualifications is not
up the job) it is a fair way to judge their experience and expertise.
References
The main problem with relying on published references is that
no company will advertise a bad or indifferent reference. However,
look for companies that at least provide some kind of client
feedback.
Make sure the source of the quote is published - alongside their
contact details. Most
people genuinely enjoy offering recommendations - so don't worry
about making a quick phone call or email to previous clients to ask for some impartial advice. |
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| Size Of The Company |
Largely speaking, the size
of the company provides you with no indication to the quality
or work they can produce; or the services they can provide.
There are a lot of freelance web designers who can produce far
superior work to large companies, but there are also freelance
web designers who charge much more than large companies.
Don't
let your preconceptions about the size of companies get in the
way of the facts.
More important considerations are whether they are going to
be proactive - and if they can offer a high level of support.
Companies that do not provide a landline phone number or an
address will almost certainly be harder to contact when you need them the most. |
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| Deadlines |
Make sure that your projected
time scale is achievable by that company.
The complexity of the site will affect this greatly - and the designer will need a specific brief before being able to
provide time scales. Find out how to write a design
brief here. |
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| Personality |
Perhaps most importantly, make
sure that you get on with your web designers!
Many web design projects can last months or even years - so a
high level of compatibility will ultimately make the process
considerably more enjoyable for everyone. |
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