Finding Good Web Designers

[Ntee]

Hey guys,

I've been managing a tech news site for a while with my brother and the two of us have been using Wordpress as our platform. Our site has seen success compared to when it first started almost one year ago (January 2010) and it is time for us to reinvest some of the money we have made.

We are looking for a wordpress developer / web designer but don't really know where to go or who we can trust. Do any of you have suggestions ? I saw a thread about hosting but not one about this, so I figured i'd ask.

 

[monkey_slap]

Are you poking for custom themes? A one time gig or someone to manage it?

 

[cnick79]

I suggest finding sites you like and see who the designer is. Most sites have the designer listed at the very bottom or they insert a comment when you Right-Click -> View Page Source code. Then you can check that designer's website and see if they have a portfolio listed. Most of the time with web design, you get what you pay for.

 

[-BokkeN-]

I'll start with your direct questions first:

As far as finding a design firm, that's as simple as going to Google and typing, "web designer in ${your_town}". Seriously, any designer worth a damn knows online advertisement.

As for trust, there are two things you need to do to ensure your happy at the end of the project. First and foremost, document exactly what you want done. I can't tell you how incredibly important it is to do this. If you want them to redesign your website, tell them you want a few rough mock-ups created. If you need additional functionality, write that down and be as detailed as possible. If you don't know what you want, it may behoove you to pay some one to advise you on the subject. You'll also need a lawyer to look over everything.

Secondly, don't sign anything until your lawyer looks over it. Get everything, including prices, in writing.

Now, here's some advice for you from someone who has built probably 50 small-medium business sites:

This is probably going to be a multi-step process. Even if your project seems small to you, I promise you that it isn't. Taking things a step at a time will help you keep your sanity and helps keep your project from going over budget.

The first thing to start with will be mock-ups. These are simple but detailed pictures that give an indication of the major aspects of the website. They will include major design themes, font colors and choices, etc. There will typically be one picture per mock-up, but that isn't always the case.

Mock-ups are pretty important because they are cheap and give you options. Expect to pay around $80-120 per mock up. It is probably wise to request about three. This is also the best time to request changes, because this is where they are cheapest to make. If you don't like an aspect, ask them to change it. However, be careful to not tell them how to make something look. Remember: you're paying them to design this because you don't know how, don't throw that expertise away without good reason.

When evaluating the mock-ups, be sure to ask the designer what they liked most about each one. They will almost certainly show you features and themes that you missed out on without being shown. It also helps to get an idea of which one they spent the most time on. If you pick the one they like the best, they are probably going to put significantly more effort into making sure it is perfect.

Creative people enjoy working on things they like. At my old company, the designer there would almost always spend all of his allotted time on one mock-up, then throw together the rest. Invariably, there would be times where the customer picked the design that he spent 15 minutes tossing together. He hated working on those pages and would only work on them for the actual hours billed. But, when they picked his favorite, that guy would stay up all night making sure it was perfect. The customer was charged the same either case, but, some of them got more for their money because they trusted the right person.

The next step in the process is picking your favorite mock-up and turning it into a HTML or a template. This first involves creating a page listing and mock-ups for every page, then breaking those pages down into markup. The end product will be something that you can put into your site and have it look pretty. Expect to pay about 6-8 billing hours on the first page and about an hour or two for each additional one.

Lastly, if you desire additional functionality, you'll need to deal with code design. This is the hardest, most frustrating aspect of the entire experience. This is where you will have to sit down and document exactly what you want to happen. The more thorough you are, the more happy your be with the results and the less you'll pay. Everything you don't specify will left up to the developer's discretion; basically, you'll be paying someone to do something which you may or may not want. In my experience, this is where a LOT of waste comes from.

Really, I could write pages about code documentation, but I don't have the time. If you would like me to expand, I will, but it doesn't seem to me that you are that far yet.

Be sure to realize that each of these steps are atomic. Basically, you can get a mock-up from Design Firm A and, if you aren't happy with them, take those assets over to Design Firm B and have them create your HTML/templates from them. The same goes with the code functionality. But, the key is to never allow yourself to be locked in with a single company. Cover your ass and make sure that you can walk away at any time and take the work they made with you.

Best of luck, feel free to PM me with any questions you have.