How to choose a Web Designer
No this is not about hiring a Web Designer for Pemaquid - though that’ll happen soon enough - it’s about how to select the company that’s going to build or redesign your site.
Recently I was reading an article in which the question was whether a potential Client should pick a Web design firm based on how much experience the Web design company had in the Client business’ industry.
I’d wager that that misses the point. When selecting a Web design firm - whether your business is in Portland, Maine or Portland, Oregon - the most important thing is not how much the designer knows about your industry, it’s how much they know about Web design.
There are plenty of firms out there w/marketing expertise in a particular industry, and they even may have built lots of sites, but all the industry savvy in the world will not help them understand the psychology of how people surf a Web site and how to make that site engaging and easy-to-use - a resource for its audiences.
I’d have to agree with you there. Industry knowledge is important, but it’s no subsitute for good design. In fact, unless you’re doing a site focused only on people withing an industry, having an outside opinion will be a benefit.
Why is it an either/or? Our current Web Design vendor has disappointed us in this regard. They know next to nothing about our business (we are B2B publishers), and that has made our relationship almost impossible because when they are forced to make decisions on imperfect knowledge, they don’t have enough context to make those decisions correctly. I suppose this puts us in Ian’s category (”a site focused only on people within an industry”), but there are a lot of us out there.
Jack,
I wouldn’t say it’s “either/or”… it’s has more to do with what’s the more desirable skill set.
A good Web design firm (any vendor, really) will take the time to understand your business before they propose a solution or start coding. On the other hand, if a vendor doesn’t understand principles of good Web design, it doesn’t matter how well they understand your business.
Sounds like your vendor is not particularly good at either…or…(er, both?)