Five Things You Need To Know Before Hiring A Web Designer
The website, your website is today’s shop window, allowing your prospective customers see who you are, what you do, how you do it and who does it for you. The website showcases your company fully, and as I have said before it is vital for any successful business today. If you need any more reasons as to why you need a website, read a previous blog where we discuss ten reasons for having a website.
“Great web design without functionality, is like a sports car without an engine” - Paul Cookson
Before you create your website or you decide to get a web-designer to create one for you, there are some simple questions you need to answer in order to clarify your strategy before you hire a designer.
As with any strategy, there are always questions which need answering and making the decision to hire a designer for your website is no different to defining your marketing strategy. You need to ask the who, the what, the why, and the how questions in order to make a well-informed choice and a financially sound decision.
“Good web design is about the character of the content, not the character of the designer,” - Jeffrey Zeldman
Why do you want a website?
You need to determine your goal for the website. It could be a new website, or it could be a new brand launch. It could be a decision to upgrade an existing website or increase and improve the UI (user interface) and the UX (user experience) of the website. Your answer here will help build the foundation of your website and help the website designer understand the project better.
Why do you really need a website?
Who is my website for?
Who are you aiming the website at? You need to know who will be looking at it and why they will be looking at it. If you answer the WHO clearly to your designer, they can design the website to target that specific audience more effectively.
The audience may be completely new to you or you may be wanting to stimulate interest of your existing audience in a new product. Whichever way you cut it, if you do not know who your audience will be the designer will be ineffective and your website will not have its desired effect. Who is your audience?
What will my website showcase?
As you know, your website, or any website is your store window. The website shows you and your brand, and as such, you need to uncover what you want your website to highlight. What will the website be showcasing? Whatever your offer is, will dictate the complete UI and UX of the website. Everything from the style, theme, and colours, the fonts, the media used, to your branding, your services, your products, the navigation and the CTA (call to action) are all dictated by your offering.
The designer needs to know what is on offer, so they can provide you with the website you want. Failure on your part to deliver effectively your offering will lead to failure on the designer’s part, through no fault of their own.
What are you offering?
What is the designer tasked to do?
You are clear in your head why you want a website, who the website is for and what you want to offer, so now all you need do is convey those ideas to your designer in a concise manner so as to avoid any misunderstandings arising from a poor brief. Sit down with your designer and go through your ideas and draft a checklist of tasks and deadlines.
This way you can control more effectively the project and the designer feels comfortable in being able to provide you with something you have asked for. There is limited space for misunderstandings and for going over budget. The designer knows the time constraints and you know the costs to you. Make and agree on a plan.
What must the designer do for you?
How much will the web design cost me?
As the saying goes “failing to plan is planning to fail” and this is very true when dealing with subcontractors in any area of business. You, as the client need to know exactly where your money is going and what it is going to. Without a clear brief, the designer may invest more of their time on your design, billing for more hours, and not meet your expectations, which could lead to animosity between parties. By defining the brief, your designer can give you a more accurate cost for the website. You must also ascertain if the designer is charging for the full project, or charging per hour, and you need to know how much you are willing to invest on a website. You are making an investment and as such you need to know the returns of said investment.
How much will the website cost you?
In summary, before you hire a website designer, there are five things you need to do in order to create a fully-functioning website, that answers your visitors questions and helps guide the customer in making the choice to choose your brand.
The five things you must do are:
Determine your goal.
Determine your audience.
Determine your offering.
Determine your brief.
Determine your budget
"Good design is good business," - Thomas Watson Jr.
Accent on Training have been designing websites for companies all around the world for several years and we pride ourselves in our ability to understand the client and their needs and provide them with a bespoke design with great functionality. If you would like to talk to us about our web design solutions, send us an e-mail. We are always happy to talk to new clients about their design ideas.
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