1. Determining your Goals and Objectives
This is the first step in your hunt to find the right web designer for your web design project. Many brands and business owners ignore setting their goals and objectives first and later struggle during the designing process.
It’s a common mistake many people make and often ends up in costly catastrophes. Therefore, you must create a road map to your web design project and assign goals that you plan to meet with the right resource at hand.
For example, if you want a website designed according to your preferences, you must define its business structure. Here you must ask yourself if your site will do e-commerce or help your audience with information. The kind of structure you decide plays a deciding role in how it is perceived by the web designer.
A web designer can help you understand what kind of template, theme, navigation, platform, and things such as visual elements you must use to make the best out of your website. You can start by drafting an outline of your goals and objectives and how your website can accomplish them.
2. Doing your Homework
Doing random searches on Google is helpful, but with 2019´s highly competitive web design landscape, it is best that you do it professionally. Currently, there are dozens of online marketplaces, web development hubs, and other freelance networks that you can approach to find a good web designer.
Ideally, your search should be focused on someone who has a decent amount of commendations, good ratings, and a well-balanced profile. You can view their portfolio, work samples, and client reviews to get a thorough idea of their skillset and professional conduct.
If you’re looking to work with a professional web design agency, there are many local, national and international directories that list the best companies in the website design industry. For example, check out how our agency Bloominari, has consistently made it in the top 20 web design agencies in San Diego in UpCity’s local awards. Additionally, you could see the top 60 digital marketing agencies in the US by UpCity’s National Excellence Awards. There are other websites such as Cluch or Expertise.com. An important part of any of these rankings is to read real customer reviews and to understand where each web design agency did good, great or really bad when working with a real project.
3. Aesthetic Elements and Priorities
Many websites that score higher on rankings and can generate better user experience have one thing in common, good use of aesthetic elements. While this may seem like something you would like to check after you hire a web designer, it is actually more important in the beginning phase of your project.
Having a fair amount of knowledge about visual elements, how they are designed and implemented will help you get a clear insight into the kind of skill-set you must look for. For example, if you are looking for a website that is rich in visual elements such as HD images, videos and graphical representations, a web designer that specializes in this area would be the ideal choice to partner up with. Similarly, if your website involves a high ratio of text and informative content then it would be best to seek someone with the necessary expertise.
4. Project Management System
Having a project management system is highly important in 2019. Virtual desks or dashboards are quite popularly used in 2019 and been improved with tons of helpful features that allow the admin to optimize their workflow to prevent delays, reduce human errors and eliminate unnecessary costs.
Before you hire a web designer you must ensure the agency or the freelance designer gets the correct environment to work and the right tools to coordinate and collaborate with the teams. Implementing a virtual dashboard into your work model will allow you to effectively manage operations, keep track of tasks and ensure a streamlined flow of communication with the designer and other counterparts.
5. Freelancer or Agency
This is probably the most important thing you must check before making your decision. This requires careful consideration of your budget, available resources, working platform and the magnitude of your project. To help you get a clear idea, we have divided the two with their pros and cons.
Freelancers
Pros
- Can hire a specialized resource who is trained in a specific niche. This yields better work quality
- Freelancers can be hired under flexible contracts. This cuts down many overheads
- You can assign, manage and extract tasks without in odd timings such as weekdays
Cons
Freelancers come with certain limitations especially when multi-disciplinary expertise is required for a full-scale solution
Your tasks are always at risk from disruptions and illnesses caused by illness, time-zone and regional differences.
Freelancers are usually strangers and the lack of trust is often hard to overcome
Agency
Pros
- Hiring an agency allows you to work on a comprehensive web design and marketing strategy under one roof. They offer a complete package covering development, design, and marketing
- You get streamlined work with better speed, experience, and efficiency. This helps you accomplish goals faster
- You also get free support. This is particularly important since 2019 design trends are quite complex to work on their own terms
Cons
- The first disadvantage is the cost. Agencies are generally more expensive and band multiple services together
- Agencies usually have their own offices. This conflicts with planning, collaboration, and daily meetings. On the other hand, keep in mind that today there are various video meetings tools, such as Zoom.us, which makes it super easy and convenient to meet with anyone in a matter of minutes, from any device
- Agencies have strategic leverage over work deadlines and other operational factors which allows them
If you're interested in working with an agency?
Learn more about our digital marketing agency Bloominari, recently rated in the Top Digital Marketing Agencies in San Diego, California (By DesignRush)
Final Takeaway
With 2020 just around the corner, this year has introduced many new web design trends to the digital and e-commerce industry. With its rapidly evolving landscape, it is critical to stay posted with what is has brought in 2019 to prepare for what it holds for the future. With these 5 checkpoints that we have shared, you can easily learn and adapt to the latest guidelines for hiring a web designer for your project.
