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How To Hire The Right Web Designer To Build Your Website

Then it might be time to start looking for a web designer!

  • - What is web design?
  • - What does a web designer do?
  • - What are the components of web design?
  • - What to look for in a designer?
  • - What to keep in mind when designing a website?
  • - Where to look for a designer?

What Is Web Design

Your website gives you the perfect platform to communicate with your customers and clients and often will include ways for them to communicate with you as well, in the form of message boards, guest books, or an email that can be used for feedback.


Ultimately, the "specific purpose" of your website will be to promote your business or project and allow you the space to communicate with your audience.

So how is a designer going to help you with this?


What Does A Web Designer Do




Why Should You Analyze Other Websites?

Take a look at a website that you visit often. Can you analyze all the different decisions that have gone into putting that website together? You could stop and make a list, but the odds are that you would probably miss a few, even so.

The goals of the business, organization, or project behind the website have to be constantly kept in mind, even while making decisions on an aesthetic level.

Paying attention to websites that you like can be an important part of research when designing your website. You can share these inspirations as references when communicating the brief with your designer, giving them an idea of what you want.

Now, remember that you don't want a mock-up or a carbon copy of an already existing website, but perhaps you've found a website that has the right tone, or that you just like the aesthetics of.

It is also helpful to check out other sites that are in the same line of business as you are — competitors or otherwise. These can be either good examples or bad.

Consider what works, what draws you in as a potential client, and what doesn't. Knowing what doesn't work will tell you what should be avoided in your design.


What are the Components of Web Design

A good designer will be able to take the goals that you have set, probably by way of a creative brief, and turn them into reality. They will keep all of these essential and basic parts of design in mind.

So what do you have to keep in mind before you start looking for a designer to make the website of your dreams?


More Questions To Keep In Mind

Do you have a creative brief set up for your prospective website?

A detailed creative brief will help your web designer to deliver a befitting website that addresses your needs, wants, and goals. If you don't already have a creative brief written, now would be the time!

What is the basic objective of the site?

Who is your target audience?

If you're putting together a site for a children's clothing store, you know that the majority of your customers are going to be parents.

How do you reach out to them specifically?

What unique ways can you find to speak directly to them and make your site, and therefore your business, appealing?

Are there any previous design elements in place that need to be considered?

Alignment with elements already in place is an important thing to consider for the sake of continuity.



Your ideal designer should take all of these things into consideration.

Ultimately, just like with any business partnership, what you're looking for is a designer who understands your message, your audience, and whose aesthetics are compatible with yours. It helps if they're quick, reliable, and good at their job, as well, which is why you may want to make sure to research your prospective web designer before actually hiring them.


Where To Look For A Web Designer

If that doesn’t work for a few, some have connections in the design industry and they make their good communication skills do the work for them.



So where do you start looking?

Well, you have a choice: the traditional route, freelance, or crowdsourcing.

Doing a simple Google search is going to turn up a lot of results for these options.




Local Web Design Companies

Factors such as the more readily available ability to communicate, support, and trust are listed as reasons to consider this route. "Having the local company working with you means you can have a face to face meeting even before you sign up with any services."


Traditional Web Design Agencies

To hire a traditional design agency that has been in the business for long and believes in a conventional way of doing things is challenging. They thoroughly filter their clients and only pick the ones that meet their criteria of standards and values.

To search for one, you can either look online or you can get a referral from someone who already got their branding or website made.


Freelance Web Designers

You may, of course, have a preference for hiring freelancers. In that case, sites like Upwork or ZillionDesigns are a good starting point.

With a freelancer, you're more likely to get one-on-one interaction, a lower price, and possibly even a faster turn-around for your work.


Crowdsourcing Sites

That said, there are obvious advantages and disadvantages to this way of hiring a designer, just as there are cautions and benefits of other design and development services.

Regardless of what route you choose to find your ideal web designer, a great idea is always to visit their personal website, in order to get a feel for their work. And if you happen to discover that they've hired an outside company to handle their own website design, or if their "Coming Soon" sign has been up for years - well, there's a big warning flag right there.




Inception To Finish - A Successful Project Is In Your Future

By now you should have a pretty clear idea of what a web designer can and should do for you, and why you may want to hire one.

Basically what it boils down to is that you need someone who can deliver a website that is easy to use, on message, speaks to its intended audience, and is pretty to look at.

By "pretty" we mean appropriately and aesthetically pleasing according to the audience — if you want to start a website to sell used tractor parts, "pretty" may not be something that features on your creative brief. Your website should definitely look, and be, appropriate for the intended demographic.




*This post was originally published on Logo Design Guru.