by Theraisa K

Created on: October 25, 2008

Choosing the Right Designer for You

There are many ways to go about finding a web design company or web designer: the phone book, online searches, ads you've seen on TV or out on the streets and of course a friend's referral. The easy part is finding unlimited resources, the hard part is discovering the right company or designer for you and your website needs.

Before you put the pedal to the metal and go out willy-nilly searching for the ultimate designer, there are a few key items that you should already in hand, before making the first move in contacting a potential designer or design company.

Do you know who your target audience is?

Knowing who your website is targeting will help not only sell your products or service better, but will also help the designer layout and design the proper look and feel for your site. For example, if your site is targeting businesses or business executives your site may be more structured, text/fact based with not a lot of bells and whistles. If on the other hand your site is targeting a younger generation of hipsters (lets say those interested in the music or entertainment industries) then your site may be flashy with lots of bells and whistles to attract their attention more than just stating the bland facts about your company or services.

What products and/or services will you be selling or offering? What purpose will your site serve?

Most websites are hubs for promoting products and services online. Knowing what products you'd like to sell or services you'd like to offer, will give you a general idea of what type of website you need to have built. Knowing a little bit about the coding behind the design of your site, (or at the very least a basic understanding of what type of code is needed to get the job done), will help you find the designer you need the most. Most designers have an area of expertise (and some are jacks-of-all-codes), so knowing whether your site needs to be built primarily in HTML, Flash, CMS, CSS, PHP or a mixture of everything will help you narrow down your search to more specific designers and design companies. Having a basic idea of what type of site you want (ecommerce, personal, etc.), will also help the designer not only know what code he/she needs to be proficient in, but how to layout and design your site effectively. Also, if you want your site to be search engine friendly (SEO compliant) or accessible (to those with impairments) you may have to hire a separate company or specialist that deals strictly

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