Expert John Alexander cautions about individuals or companies that do not exactly offer good value for the money. Often they may not care about ever making a repeat sale. Some are masked behind a veil or a false persona ...Some have a sharp sounding pitch or a great story to tell. They may have excellent "marketing" skills in terms of writing a convincing pitch. But they are mostly absorbed totally in how much money they think they can make.

QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN SELECTING A DESIGNER:

1. What are your academic and industry credentials for website design?
   • Small website design firms should be able to discuss their academic training (degrees or certifications) and where they developed their website design expertise in the IT field. Working in advertising or computer programming does not qualify a person as a website designer. A website designer needs to study information architecture (information design), user friendly layouts, how write up website specifications, accessibility for people with disabilities, etc. Typically, a person who excels at programming does not excel in graphics and vice versa. For a professional website, you will want custom graphics developed by a graphic artist rather than an internet template modified by a programmer.

     Larger web design companies will have graphic artists, information architects, usability experts etc. on staff.

2. How many websites have you built? Can you provide URLs and names of satisfied clients?
   • They should provide 15 to 20 websites.

3. What do you think are the two most important parts of a website?
   • Content and navigation are often considered the most important parts of an information website. Even in a shopping cart or an interactive page, if the navigation and content are not intuitive, your visitor will become frustrated and leave the site.

4. Will the graphics be developed by the person who builds the website (programmer) or a professional graphic artist with a degree in the arts and experience with web graphics (very different than print graphics)?
   • Keep in mind that you may not get an honest answer to this question.
   • Avoid artwork developed by the programmer. In many one-person design shops, the same person building your HTML pages will be doing your artwork. Typically good programmers are not good artists.
   • Avoid templates purchased on the web. A website designer can purchase templates for as little as $50 and then resell a template to you for thousands of dollars. Purchased templates will not reflect your priorities, branding, and unique requirements. A website design firm will not tell you that they are using a template. However, if you have custom graphics (not a template), you will be able to see your exact requirements that you have specified at the beginning of the project and together you and the website designer will work through revisions of your original artwork. Every good website designer documents your design requirements for your custom graphics—and they will assist you by asking the right questions. They should lead you through the process.

5. How many people will build the website (one person versus a team approach)?
   • It takes many different kinds of skills to build a professional website. If you need a professional website, hire a designer who uses a team approach. Team members will work on specific phases of the project, depending on their areas of expertise. Some team members may have more than one area of expertise, but no one person will be an expert in all phases of website development. Types of team members are
     • Analyst who documents your website specifications at the beginning
     • Graphic artist, for the web (not a print artist)
     • HTML programmer
     • Database programmer (optional)
     • Usability (user-friendliness) expert
     • Accessibility expert—websites are required to have accessibility for people with disabilitlies
     • Information architect
     • Search engine SEO expert
     • Project manager, website producer
     • Professional photographer (optional)
     • Copywriter (optional)
     • Editor (optional)
     • Interactive, flash designer (optional)
     • Illustrator (optional)

     Website Design requires different skill sets:
     
     
     view customwebbooks.com
     

6. What should the website development include? The minimum components should be:
   • Clearly defined website requirements / specifications (critical)
   • User-friendly layout and design
   • Original artwork / graphics by professional artist
   • Content written for the web (concise, prioritized)
   • Information design (architecture)
   • Original hand-coded HTML
   • Testing to make sure website looks the same on different browsers: Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and different systems: PC, Mac. The code should be validated by online validator.
     • If your site has interactive pages with a database and database languages such as Active Server Pages (ASP), ColdFusion, or PHP, make sure that this is hand-coded and tested thoroughly. 40% of all programs built are never used because they do not work the way the client intended them to work. This is typically due to the lack of detailed website specifications at the beginning of the project. Make sure your website requirements are well documented and that you sign off on them before the programming starts. You should also sign off on complicated interactive sections at various stages during development. This ensures that everyone is on the same page and that there will be no surprises at the end.
   • Accessibility for people with disabilities (required by law)
   • Correct information for search engines (we have noticed that many website designers are not trained and do not provide correct search engine information)

7. What software do you use to write your code?
   • You want your website built by someone who understands and writes code by hand instead using only software to generate the code (software generated code often has problems). A programmer typically uses an HTML editor (e.g. HomeSite). In a good design studio, a programmer will write the code and other members of the team will build the other components (e.g. artwork, organization of information). If someone uses Dreamweaver, they should be able to troubleshoot HTML problems with code generated by Dreamweaver.
   • Avoid designers who use FrontPage and Adobe GoLive. Typically novices use this kind of software to automatically generate code. Later if there are issues with the code, it is harder for a real programmer to fix FrontPage or Adobe GoLive and make it look exactly the way you want it to.

8. What is your development process?
        [includes all of the following but the order may vary/overlap]:
   • Document website requirements
   • Artwork; revisions to artwork; sign off by client on artwork
   • Organize content into categories
   • Develop intuitive navigation that follows content; sign off by client
   • Build HTML template; test the template on several browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.
   • Build database (if included in requirements); build dynamic pages; sign off by client
   • Prioritize content; insert content, using principles of information architecture
   • Testing; review and sign off by client
   • Launch website
   • Update your content to keep your visitors coming back!

9. Ask for references and their websites.
   • Do they have testimonials with verifiable names and organizations?

10. What website standards or conventions will they be using?
    • They should validate the code (online validator) to make sure the code is correct. Additionally, they should include ease of use (usability), accessibility for people with disabilities required by law, correct search engine information, and information design. Website designers should incorporate research (e.g. eye tracking, Trunk test) and recommendations of top experts in the field to determine
      • the best placement for the logo, navagiation, layout, design elements
      • name of headings, subheadings for content; prioritization of content

11. Ask if they know who Jakob Nielsen is.
    • Jakob Nielsen is the leading authority on usability—how easy it is to use your website (user-friendly / ease of use). Websites are self-service. Visitors have little patience to figure out how to use a site—it should be intuitive. Every experienced website designer who has academic credentials and years of experience will know who Jakob Nielsen is.