Finding the right website designer who will be come up with the goods that you are looking for is quite a tricky business. The interpretation of your website dream, the way in which you business will be fronted, is quite an intricate undertaking, and you need to make sure that you select a user friendly website designer who you will work comfortably with.
Even where you may be given a personal recommendation for a supposedly good website designer, it doesn’t necessarily follow that you, personally, will be able to communicate with them. Excellent communication of course is absolutely vital to any project, but in terms of designing a new website, it is imperative that you choose a website designer who can turn your ideas into a user friendly site to move your business forward.
Most projects that we undertake in our working lives are actually more about people than anything else. Whether you are buying, selling, designing, or whatever you are interfacing with other people, and being able to communicate with them effectively is key. Design and concept are probably the most difficult things to be able to communicate. Concept is more about thoughts, ideals and aspirations than say, a set of figures for example. Choosing a communicative website designer to whom you can convey your ideas to, and one which understands each business has individual requirements, is hugely important.
Ideally you need a website designer who has empathy. You want someone who is good at listening; someone who can grasp the nettle of your idea and your concept and run with it. However, they must instinctively be able to run in the right direction. It’s no good your design company haring off at one hundred miles per hour in the wrong direction. That just wastes time and money, and will result in frustration and disappointment for all parties. You want a user friendly website designer who will pick up on your needs and goals and who will translate them into reality.
Ideally you should go through a tendering process when you search for any sort of supplier though you can only go so far by measuring certain criteria such as quality, timescale, and price. Then when it comes down to choosing somebody that you feel you can work with in a productive way, you need to have a face to face meeting. So, if you are going “cold calling” to find website designers the ideal is to start by going out to tender with the same loose specification to a number of potentials; say up to three as an example. Once you have received their “ball park” quotations, you can then narrow your field down to your two best hopefuls, and then arrange that face to face meeting to try and find the most user friendly website designer amongst them.
When you arrange your meeting, you must ensure that it will be with the people that you will work with if you chose that designer. It’s no good meeting up with some sales guy whose sole job it is to get your order and then pass the brief on. The whole object of the exercise is to locate the people that you feel you will be best able to communicate with, and that you will work with to see the project through to its successful completion. Make sure this is clearly understood when you arrange your meetings to find the best user friendly website designer.
It’s been the butt of comedians’ jokes for many a year – but now the rural county of Norfolk is fighting back with a bold campaign to champion itself as a world class business destination – with particular focus on the creative industries.
We’re really interested in hearing from anyone in Norfolk or East Anglia who is actively using twitter to engage with the business community either locally, nationally or indeed internationally.
Posted on October 2nd, 2009
