Whether you are an individual or work for a company needing web design work completed, the first and most important step is choosing the right professional freelance web designer for the job.
These ten tips below are intended to help you prepare to choose the best web designer for your project.
1. Know Your Budget
There is no point contacting any designers until you have a budget in mind for your project. Like in any other business designers will vary in what they charge clients, and no one wants to have their time wasted needlessly. Once you have a budget in mind you can start narrowing down the designers who will fit in with your budget.
2. Look For Designers Who Specialize In What You Need
Just because a designer may be able to make incredible flash websites does not mean that the same designer will be able to create stunning advertisement banners. If you are wanting a designer to create a myriad of advertising banners, then the logical thing to do is find a designer who specializes in banner ad creation. A designer with this sort of specialty will have experience creating banner ads that look professional and more importantly that also convert.
This same philosophy should be applied to every type of web design work you may need. If you need a wordpress theme designer, then naturally look for someone with experience in that field.
3. Know Exactly What They Can and Can’t Do
Design work online is a lot more tricky than having design work completed offline because there is html and special coding that has to be performed. It may not seem like a big deal at first, but the last thing you’ll want to do is expect a fully coded website, but only receive a photoshop file containing your design. It is important to find out if your designer will be coding your design and how they will be coding it.
If you are having advertisements created, then it is important to let the designer know exactly what type of file you need created and the maximum size it can be. Many websites won’t allow advertisements that go over a certain file size because they will slow down the website too much.
If your designer does not do coding, then you will also have to hire an additional person to perform the necessary work for this step. Oftentimes designs can look somewhat different once they are coded. So if you need something fixed you will now have to go through two different people in order to get a small problem fixed. For this reason, it is a very smart move to find an all-in-one designer who can make the design and then perform the necessary coding. A lot of designers are capable of handling the coding, but it is still important to let them know what you will expect in the finished product.
4. Know Their Availability
Before hiring a designer it is important to let him know your time constraints. If you have a deadline, then it will be important to let the designer know you’ll need the work completed a few days before that deadline approaches. This will give you a couple days to look over the design, and have the designer touch-up any small fixes that need to be made. Letting the designer know your time constraints will also let him know whether he can take on your project or not.
If you are outsourcing your work, then it is important to set specific times that the designer will available for you to communicate with him or her. Time zones can create awkward schedules for both you and the designer. The designer may need to contact you for questions or approvals, and likewise you may need to contact him or her for updates. Setting up a standard time that both of you will be available for contact before you start the project will help you avoid many headaches down the road.
5. Look Deep Into Their Portfolio
It is always important to look at a designer’s portfolio before choosing someone for a project. A designer’s portfolio is after all the only way you can tell how qualified a person may be for your project needs. It is a smart idea to find a designer who has already created designs similar to what you may imagining in your head for your finished design. Simply taking a designer’s word that he can create a specific design will open you up for a major let down if it is anything less than what you expected. If a designer has created something similar to what you want, then you can easily steer them in the right direction by telling them which designs of theirs you liked.
It is also important to find out if the designer completed all of his designs on his own or not. Sometimes designers can collaborate on projects and then take credit for the work without detailing what specific sections they worked on. I would highly recommend checking with the designer to make sure that his portfolio represents his work solely.
6. Ask For References
A web designer may be able to create the most stunning websites on the planet, but that does not mean that they can necessarily meet deadlines on time or that they are pleasant to work with. By checking with the designer’s references, you can get a good feel for how smooth your project will go with a particular designer. You can also find out any specific shortcomings the he or she may have, and receive special tips that can help you better manage the designer.
7. Know The Designers Rates
As stated above, nobody wants to have their time wasted. It is a smart idea to find out a designer’s rates from the get-go before proceeding further in your discussions. If the freelancer works with an agency or company, then you can expect to pay a higher price than you would with an individual freelancer.
You will want to find out if the designer works on a project basis or by-the-hour beforehand. A designer may charge special rates for certain types of projects as well. Basically, find out everything you can as early in the process as possible about what the designer’s rates will be for the project.
8. Find Out How The Designer Handles Revisions
I have yet to work with a designer who created a finished project on his first try. You should expect to have several revisions performed on your project even if it ends up not being necessary. For this reason, it is essential to find out how the designer handles revision work. Some designers will only allow for a certain number of revisions to be performed before they charge extra, and some designers will do unlimited revisions until you are completely satisfied with the results.
It will also be important to set an expected time-frame for revision work to be completed. If a designer believes your project is about to be finished, then he may take on more projects that will severally cut down on his time available for your project. By establishing a turn-around-time beforehand, you will save yourself from potential headaches down the road.
9. Test Out Their Work
If you are needing a designer to create a new website, then I would recommend checking out his completed work online. Designers will often link to their completed work, which will allow you to interact with their work and to see the loading time that their designs require. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) now takes website loading times into consideration. So you will want to choose a designer who is an expert at creating designs that load fast and are neatly coded. This will allow for your website to be better crawled by search engine bots, and can help you to possibly rank higher in search results.
10. Know How The Designer Expects Payments
This last tip ranks just as highly as the others. You will want to agree with your designer on payment terms before starting the project. Most designers will expect an up-front fee to cover themselves against clients potentially not paying for the completed work. There are several ways that payments can be handled such as through milestones. To better protect yourself from fraudulent designers it is a smart idea to set aside the full payment amount in an escrow account. This will give the designer confidence that he or she will be payed, and it keeps your money safe in case the designer does not perform the required work.
A lot of these tips come from my own experiences working with professional freelance web designers. I have had both good and bad experiences with designers, but most of my bad experiences could have been avoided if I had known these ten tips beforehand.
I highly recommend you go through this list each time you need to hire a designer to make sure the project gets completed successfully and without unneeded stress.
If you have any other tips or stories about working with web designers, then please share them below.