Learn the truth about your web design company and its portfolio
When you employ a web design company to build your new website, you clearly need to do some checking on the company to make sure you are going to get a good service. And one of the best ways to check whether that company will deliver a site to the standard you expect and with the capabilities you require is to look at the portfolio of the web design company.
It is important to look carefully at any websites in the company’s portfolio and be a little skeptical in your approach. There are literally millions of websites out there which do not credit any design company with creating the site. So there is absolutely nothing to stop a web design company from claiming that they designed a particular site and including that site in their portfolio. The chances are that it would never occur to potential customers to contact the owners of the site in question to verify who designed it (and even if they did contact the site, it is very possible they would not get a reply). Some companies will display a portfolio list with images of sites but without actually claiming that they designed the site – read the text!
You need also to look carefully at the types of sites the web design company has in its portfolio. If you are hoping to build an online shop with a large selection of products then you will need to see evidence that the company you are examining has built similar sites in the past. The web design company may have created several beautiful looking sites for photographers, accountants, dentists and window-cleaners but none of these will be required to function in the way a fully stocked online shop would.
Check if the web design company is a one-idea designer that likes to charge high prices for churning out the same basic design over and over again. It is easy to change colors and images on a site to make it look different from another, but if the basic layout is the same then you should expect not to have to pay for a design from scratch.
Make sure you have a full and complete list of what your site should show and how surfers will interact with it. Ideally have a short list of other sites that you want yours to be like. Discuss in advance with your designer how you visualize the site working. Remember that the designer may be an expert at building websites but may know nothing at all about your kind of business.
The functionality of a site can be verified against a written specification but the visual appearance is a different matter. It is not too difficult for a designer to provide a non-functional mock-up of what the site will look like, and it is a good idea to have that agreed upon before awarding the contract and paying any fee. Agree on a price for the finished product and make sure you have a signed contract stating all the deliverables. Ensure that your contract includes a delivery date. Never pay all the money up front, and consider paying any deposit required into an escrow account.
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