Webdesign is a creative process that involves the effort of the web designer to display the
content of a web site beautifully. While designing websites requires creativity a competent
web designer must also know various highly technical information about HTML (the
language web sites are written in) and how it displays in various browsers. This is why
one seeks out a web designer.
If you're looking at commissioning a web designer to build you a website, one of the first
things that you will need to know, is the monetary cost. This will explain to you why there
is such a huge variance between web designers and their quotes and will give you some
advice as to how much you can expect to pay to contract a competent web designer in the
US.
First of all you have to have a rough idea of what it is that you want from your website.
You have to have thought of what you want to achieve with the website. What are its
objectives? You will then need to have thought of a basic structure for your website. There
are many website examples out there for you to have a look at; the important thing is to
have an idea about what structure you want for the site - meaning a rough outline of the
numbers of pages and the content (text and images) that will make up each page.
Once you have your project objectives in mind and a rough idea of your websites structure
you are in a position to start contacting designers. There are multitudes of web design
companies everywhere and can be found most readily on the internet. As in all other
industries there are people who provide excellent service, there are people who provide
an average service and there are also cowboys (people who sell web design services
without the necessary knowledge and experience to do so).
What you have to think to yourself is this: If a person promises me the earth for $1 does
that mean to say that they can deliver it? The best advice I can give is to be realistic.
There are lots of really web design companies throughout the world that provide excellent
services. They are always there to take your calls and you even get your own personal
account manager to handle your requests and hold your hand through the entire web
design process. The services of such companies are wonderful but this obviously comes
at a price. Account managers and admin staff are large overheads and the prices charged
by high profile web design companies reflect this. If you have a modestly sized website,
which needs to be under content management system control, don't be surprised if the
web design quote runs into tens of thousands of pounds from a major city based web
design company. If you are looking for a top quality 100% inclusive, comprehensive
service and your company can afford this kind of bill then I would suggest using a high
profile company every time.
Then there are the smaller companies that are made up of just a few individuals. These
types of companies have much lower overheads and frequently have very knowledgeable
and capable staff. The service level can be slightly lower than that of major city based
web design companies (as most don't offer 24 hour support). However you can get some
excellent work done by such companies at a fraction of cost of the high profile companies.
A much overlooked group of web designers that can produce some excellent web
designs are the wide community of freelance web designers. Freelance web designers
are private, self employed individuals who work from small offices (they frequently work
from home). Freelancers have very low (mostly non existent) overheads. As such they can
provide web design work for much lower costs than larger web design companies. If you
are looking for fair quality web design for less money then it definitely work looking at
using a freelance web designer. However freelance web designers make up the majority
of the web design cowboys, so take great care when interviewing these individuals and
ask for both referances and sample work
The people that you really need to avoid are the web design cowboys. As stated above
cowboys are people who sell web design services without the necessary knowledge and
experience to do so. If you are unfortunate enough to have contracted someone like this
in the past you will be aware of the low quality work that they produce and the lack of
significant results that they achieve. Cowboys invariable promise you the earth for a $1.
Use your common sense and if someone is quoting you £100 for something that 5 other
companies are charging around $4000 for, you know that something is not quite right.
Remember the old adage - buy cheap, buy twice!
You will find a great deal of variance between web design quotes depending on what level
of web designer you choose to contract and what level of service you require. Always
make sure to get as many quotes and talk to as many people as you can so a) see what's
available on the market and b) get an unbiased idea of the likely costs involved. There
are lots of good web designers out there but there are also a lot of lesser skilled web
designers and even some of the proverbial cowboys. Make sure to use good common
sense and get a feel for the web designer's skills and experience when you meet them.
No matter how charming a person is, experience is very hard to fake. Ask to see examples
of their work and where they have done similar work to your proposed project.
|
|
