Selecting
a Professional Web Designer
Choosing a designer to develop
your web property is without a doubt one of the most important decisions
you will make in the preparation of your online business, and can
have a significant impact on your overall potential for success.
Effective web design is
a product of experience, a keen understanding of the competitive
world of ecommerce, and the technologies relative. Selection of a
developer lacking in up to date technical knowledge, or one without
an eye for the customer can set you quickly on the road to dot com
failure.
Some criteria to carefully
consider when selecting your central development team include the
following:
Experience
- what properties
have they developed to date?
- what has been
the success rate of those properties?
- have they
developed ecommerce sites, or purely information based properties?
- can they provide
references who may be contacted?
Technical
Scope
- what development
tools have they utilized in the past?
- what ecommerce
solutions have they recommended?
- are all site
add-ons developed in-house, or are they usually out-sourced?
- if out-sourced,
who is the provider, and what is their range of experience?
- what is their
comfort level with relatively new technology, such as database development,
Flash development, Java?
Customer Fulfillment
- what do they
consider the determining factors in developing a customer oriented
site?
- what steps
would they take pre-development to determine the property needs
necessary to customer satisfaction?
- what history
of customer based development can they show?
General
- what is the
projected timeline for development of the property?
- have they
experienced delays in delivery in the past?
- do they offer
site maintenance and upgrade options?
- will they
train the owner to administer the site, once launched?
Pricing
- what financial
commitments do they require prior to beginning the design function?
- what is the
projected overall cost, including all recommended elements?
- what are the
projected costs for regular site upgrades?
- can these
projected costs be put into writing?
- do they provide
any form of satisfaction guarantee?
A careful exploration
of all potential options can mean the difference between overnight
success, and almost instant failure on the web. Finding the perfect
mix of developer experience and pricing can be a challenge, especially
for the business owner uninitiated in the technologies and terminologies
of the internet. With attention to detail, any avid learner can pick
up a sufficient level of knowledge to make the right decision, one
that results in their online success.
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