How to Find & Hire a Web Designer

Choosing the right web designer to create your website can feel overwhelming—much like finding the right mechanic for your car. You want someone who knows their craft, can understand your vision, offers fair pricing, and will actually be there when you need them.

Where to Start?

Before you dive into the designer search, it’s essential to have a clear vision for your site. Here are a few questions to help shape your plans:

• What kind of website do you need? (E-commerce, blog, portfolio, etc.)
• What features are essential? (Contact forms, payment systems, SEO tools, etc.)
• What’s your budget?

For help planning, see article: Planning Your Web Site Content and Design

With a solid plan in place, you’re ready to start your search.

What Factors Matter in Your Decision?

What factors should be part of your decision-making process?  Referral or recommendation? Location? Style? Technical Expertise? Customer Service & Reliability? Price? Rapport with you?

When hiring a web designer, consider these key factors:

• Referrals or Recommendations
• Location: Local or Remote
• Design style and technical expertise
• Customer service & reliability
• Pricing
• Rapport and communication

Referrals and recommendations

One of the best ways to find potential designers is through referrals from people you trust. If you admire someone’s website, ask them who designed it. Be sure to ask:

• Did the project meet your expectations? Was it on time and on budget?
• Was it clearly defined what you were going to get? did the designer deliver as promised?
• Was the designer professional, easy to work with, and good about returning calls or emails?
• Why did you choose this designer, and would you hire them again?

Alternatively, you can find the designer of sites you admire. Many web designers include a small link to their web site on the bottom of each page of sites they have designed.

Location: Local or Remote?

Although it is possible to work on a website remotely, most folks, in my experience, prefer to find a web developer that is close to them. A simple search for “web developers near me”, or “web design (you city or region name)” will provide you with a list of candidates.

Once you have a list, don’t be afraid to contact the developers and ask about their experience, skills, and availability.

Advantages of Working with a Local Designer:

There are advantages to working with a designer that is in your region. Face-to-face meetings give you a chance to get know your designer. A local designer may have regional knowledge about the people, businesses, and happenings in your area – your local flavor – which can help with developing your site content. Most of our web design clients are in the Medford-Grants Pass-Ashland Oregon area.

A Remote Designer can Work Too:

With tools like email, video calls, and telephone making long distance communication easy and affordable, it is perfectly reasonable to work with a designer anywhere in the world. Most communication with your designer will be via email and phone. Face-to-face meetings are not necessary. At A Street Web Design, we’ve satisfactorily worked with many clients, one as far away as Japan, without ever meeting in person.

More important than location, we feel, is the designer’s style, technical expertise and reliability.

Style: The Designer’s Portfolio

Look at the designer’s Web portfolio (every Web designer should have one).

• Do you find the overall look and feel of the portfolio sites appealing?
• Is the design — colors, layout, font — of consistent quality throughout the site?
• Do the sample sites have any of the features you’d like for your site?

A strong portfolio should demonstrate both creativity and technical skill.

Technical Expertise

Not all websites are created equal. Maybe you want a product catalog, a shopping cart, credit card processing, contact from, mailing list or a content management facility so you can update the site yourself. If your website will have some unique features be sure to mention them. You want to ensure that the designer you are considering has the expertise to implement the features you want.

While you are checking out their portfolio, pay attention, too, to technical details:

• Do their portfolio sites demonstrate a good user experience (easy navigation, fast loading times)?
• No spelling errors, broken links, broken forms or missing graphics
• Relevant, text is easy to read and understand
• Appropriate & appealing graphics

The designer’s site should have information about their areas of expertise and what training they have. If not, be sure to ask when you contact them.

Customer Service & Reliability

You can learn a lot about a company when you call with your questions.

• Are they friendly and approachable?
• Do they seem knowledgeable and interested in helping you?
• Do they understand your needs and offer clear solutions?
• How long have they been in business?
• Can you talk to someone who can guide you to the best solution (effective & affordable) for your business?

Too many times I’ve gotten inquiries from site owners in a panic because their designer has disappeared or just doesn’t know what they are doing. Unfortunately, there is nothing to stop someone from taking a couple of courses at the junior college, setting up a site and calling himself a professional web designer. Always check references.

Pricing: Value, Not Just Cost

Once given your Web site plan, a designer should be able to give an estimate or price range on what that site will cost. The estimate should include a list of what you are getting for that cost. Find out, too, what kind of guarantees are offered.

If you are on a tight budget, ask if the designer can make suggestions to help you to keep costs down. Sometimes the same or similar results can be achieved by using easier methods. Or you can plan to build your site in stages.

Additionally, you may keep costs down by providing the content in ready to use format. That means writing your text for Web presentation, and providing professional quality graphics and photos.

Tip: Beware of the lowest bid. While cheap designers may seem tempting, they may not offer the quality or service you need. It’s about finding value—not just the lowest price. You’ll want to be sure to select a designer that has the level of skill to provide your with the right site for your needs.

Always, Always Check References

References give you an authentic, behind-the-scenes look at working with the designer. A great designer will be happy to provide references from past clients. Email the designer and ask to contact a couple of their clients.

Contact the owners of the sites of the designer’s clients and ask about their experience. Was the process enjoyable? Were they satisfied with the work on their sites?

Rapport: Collaboration Is Key

Web design and site development is a collaborative process that requires good communication between the client — you — and the designer. Hopefully, your relationship with your designer will be a long one. You want to find a web designer who:

• Is considerate and friendly
• Listens well; understands your requirements and concerns
• Displays a genuine interest in your business
• Takes the time to explain the design process and all Web matters in terms you understand
• Make suggestions on how to effectively achieve your goals

Take the time to find a Web designer with whom you feel comfortable. You are an important part of the design process.

Get a Contract

Once you have chosen your designer, make sure you get a written contract. A solid contract will outline:

• What the designer will deliver
• Your responsibilities (e.g., providing content or feedback)
• Project timelines
• Payment terms and guarantees
• Ownership and copyright details

The contract is beneficial to both you and designer; with a contract, both will know what to expect.

Make sure you read and understand all the clauses of the contract. If there is something that is unclear or that you don’t want to agree to, or if some issue you feel is important is not covered, ask for clarification and/or modification of the contract.

In Conclusion

Finding the right web designer doesn’t have to be a daunting task. Using these as a starting point—referrals, location, style, technical skills, customer service, price, and rapport—you probably will come up with additional ideas about what to look for and what to ask when you want to hire a web site designer who truly understands your needs.

Remember, this is a partnership. Take your time to find someone who will bring your vision to life while offering professional guidance every step of the way.

I hope your will find these suggestions helpful in your search for a designer for your Web site.

Have questions about how to find and hire a Web designer?

call: 541-582-0597

Or

Request a Free Consultation

A Street Web Design – We take care of the details.