Tips on Choosing a Web Designer
You've searched the Internet and found some web designers, but how do you choose between them?
Here are a few things to look at as you examine their websites and portfolios:
- User friendly designs
Are the websites they make easy to use? Can you navigate through the sites and find things?
- Proper use of graphics
Are graphics over-used? A graphic heavy website might be slow for some users, but on the other hand you don't want your site to be too plain and boring.
- Do their samples look the same
Are a lot of websites in their portfolio very similar? This could mean that the designer is only making minor modifications to templates and not giving individual projects the attention that they should have.
- Was there a horizontal scroll bar as you viewed the sample websites?
If a horizontal scroll bar appeared, then the web designer has not taken into consideration the various resolutions and monitor sizes users have.
- How do the samples look in different devices
Different devices such as smartphones, iPods, iPads and tablets will display sites differently, but are they usable and visually pleasing?
- How do they look in different browsers
A website doesn't have to look identical in different browsers. There are things that don't work the same in Internet Explorer as they do in Safari or Fire Fox. But the web page should not look broken in any browser and must be usable.
- And if there's a "best viewed in ..." note on a website
It usually means that the web developer is not keeping up with the changing web or is too lazy to test other browsers. (though, it may be acceptable if you're using a really old version of a browser.)