Web design for Non Web Designers - For Entrepreneurial Unisa Students That Need to Deal With Designers

A Quick Guide to getting your Website Designed 

Finding a good web designer can be a long and difficult task. 

There seem to be three broad types of web design companies:

the cheap, the expensive, and the very expensive. 

As with many other things money does not always buy quality. It is not that simple. I recently sent a brief description of my new website’s requirements to a number of local Web designers. Most did not bother to respond to my enquiry. Of those that did, some simply said they were not able to do the job – for a variety of reasons. 

The quotations I did receive varied more than a little. The cheapest was R 8000 and the most expensive was R 200 000. I thought that there was probably something wrong with the companies that gave these two quotations. I decided to interview a few of the web designers that had found the time to give me a quotation. 

I do not consider myself a technically minded person. I know as much about web design as I do about medicine – almost nothing. Web designers, like doctors seem to have a habit of expressing themselves to the layman as if they were contestants at a competition where the one to use the most jargon wins. 

In preparation for my interviews I read the book, “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Running an Online Business”. By the time I had finished it, I was sure that I’d be able to speak, “geek”. 

It helped a bit. I had at least a basic understanding of what some of the following terms and names mean: joomla, droople, cms, voip, html, xhtml, gif, jpeg, ftp, seo etc. etc. 

You could go to a meeting with a web designer unprepared. This would probably be a waste of your time. You may know what you want them to do but on the spur of the moment expressing your vision can be difficult. 

Here a few suggestions of how to prepare:

1. Make a list of the functionality you require.

2. Decide on the overall goal of the site.

3. Consider what the site should look like?

• Which colours do you prefer?

4. Think of your time line.

• When do you need the site to be up and running by?

5. Make a list of any questions you have - no matter how silly they might seem.

6. Remember that you are the boss

• Just because you are in their office or boardroom it does not mean that they are in charge – you are.

Meeting face to face with your web designers is just the first of the many steps in building a successful working relationship. Think of it as a first date. You’ll learn about them and they’ll learn about you. If something comes of it that’s great. If not there are many more out there that will be happy to help you.