Selecting Web Designers

One advantage of making a "features I would like to steal" list is that it makes dealing with a hired Web designer much easier. Saying, "I want to have folders along the left side just like the ones on DaveCentral," and showing them DaveCentral.com to see what you mean, is less confusing to your designer than trying to describe the functions of those folders verbally or by email.

But before you get to that point with a Web designer, you need to select one. In-house? An outside contractor? Your nephew who is good with computers? Do it by yourself, on your own, because you know how to write a little HTML or because you're willing to learn how to write HTML and how to deal with Cascading Style Sheets and all that? It's a hard choice, and it depends on the size of your company, your budget, and the amount of time you have available.

In most corporate situations, you are likely to have either an in-house Web designer or some sort of relationship with an outside ad agency or Web design firm already, and if you suddenly bring in a consultant or other outsider, egos will be bent. You may even find that the marketing executives or other individuals who were in charge of your company's Web site development before you took over, and not the designers themselves, are to blame for your company's underperforming Web site. If this is the case as it so often is you need to repair the existing relationship, not look for a new one.

Hiring Programmers for Your Web Site

Hire full-time programmers to work on your Web site only if it is part of an integrated software package that is running your entire business or if your site is so large and changes so often that it needs constant backend work. Even in these situations, you probably don't need a full-time programmer dedicated to nothing but your Web site, but will be better off having several members of your in-house programming team work on it so that you won't be left high and dry in case one quits.

You should not pay to have custom software written; there are plenty of Open Source content management, ecommerce, and database packages already out there that can easily be modified to fit your specific requirements. (Turn to Chapter 8 for reasons why you should stick to Open Source software instead of buying proprietary programs.)

You should also beware of letting programmers "drive" your project. Your Web site is supposed to be a resource for your readers or customers, not a guaranteed employment program for software developers. You hire programmers, like Web designers, to do what you need done, not to do what they want to do. The high demand for Web-hip programmers in 1997 2000 led many of them into the trap of believing they could do anything they wanted, and if they ran into a boss who didn't cave in to their every demand, they could go around the corner and get a better job or consulting gig in a few minutes. Now we are starting to see a more rational marketplace, especially for programmers who specialize in Java, CGI, Perl, PHP, and other languages useful for making Web sites.

If you are not a current or former programmer yourself, or do not have extensive experience hiring and managing programmers, you may be better off hiring an outside development firm to make your Web site. It doesn't need to be a big or famous company. Indeed, you are more likely to get good service at a fair price from a smaller firm. When you come right down to it, what you are hiring when you contract out your work is a programmer or two and a designer or two, not the support staff, slick brochures, account executives, and fancy offices with elegant conference rooms that big Web design firms use to impress you. The only real factors you should consider when hiring either individual programmers and designers or a firm selling Web design and programming services are portfolio quality, willingness to work closely with you, and price. If you get the best combination of these three factors from three talented people jammed into a basement home office, go with them, smile at the money you're saving, and don't worry about their lack of slick digs. Nobody looking at your Web site will know or care about anything besides how it looks and works.

One major request you must make of anyone who works on your site, whether they are in-house employees, individual freelancers, or an outside design firm, is adequate documentation, up to and including (at least for sites with more than a dozen pages) flow charts and other illustrations that describe the site's navigation scheme and interactions between the various bits of code that make your site work. Without clear documentation it can be almost impossible to fire the original person or company and bring in someone new to take over your site's maintenance; in other words, without a "manual" for your site, you will have locked yourself into total dependence on a single supplier, and this is as unhealthy in Web design and programming as it is in any other phase of your business.

Small entrepreneurs building Web sites must be especially careful about getting locked into sole-supplier relationships with Web service providers. Those deals where "We do all the design, hosting, and promotion so you don't have to worry about it" may seem attractive when you see the pitch online (or even in a TV infomercial), but what if that provider goes out of business? Your Web site will disappear and you will be screwed. The only sure way to keep from having this happen and it's not a remote possibility; applications service providers and Web service companies go out of business, merge or get acquired quite frequently is to maintain total control over your site, from domain name on.

Dealing with Web designers when you are not one yourself is like traveling in a foreign country; even if you speak only a little bit of the local language and have a rotten accent, the fact that you are trying to speak and understand the native tongue at all will get you better service and make you more friends than if you arrogantly expect every person you meet to speak English, German, or whatever other language you speak at home. A few hours spent looking through some of the design-oriented books and Web sites listed in the "Resources" section at the back of this book before you choose a Web designer (or create a relationship with one already on your company's payroll) will pay off heavily later in time and money saved and in higher quality output.

The first thing to do when evaluating Web designers (now that you know a little of their lingo) is to look at their design portfolios. You are not looking for sites that look exactly the way you want yours to look, just evidence of overall competence. You want to check basic mechanics. Do all the links on the sites they show you work? Are their navigation schemes sensible? Do their color choices and fonts look reasonable to you?

Beware of excessive download times and monitor requirements. If you have a high-speed Net connection and a 21-inch monitor at work, and a small laptop and phone modem connection at home, you may want to view prospective designers' work at home before making a final decision. You should certainly view all samples in more than one browser on more than one type of computer, which may take time and trouble but is worth the extra effort every time. Another test is to print out a few pages. Do they look coherent on paper? The value of a print test may not be immediately apparent, but when you look at the way people and companies make buying decisions, you'll realize that many Web users may want to print out a few pages from your site now and then and look at them on paper or pass them around before making a major buying decision, so you want to make this as easy as possible for your prospective customers.

There is also the intangible matter of rapport. An old military truism states, "A merely competent squad machine gunner whom you know and trust is better than one who is a perfect shot, but whom you don't trust." When you hire a Web designer to make a site for you, it is still your site. Yes, the designer is a professional (we hope!) who knows more about his or her job than you do, but you know your business and your customers better than anyone else (we hope!) so you must make the final decisions about how your Web site should look and feel. Your Web designer must be able to accept this. Yes, he or she is entitled to your respect, and you should not reject suggestions from your designer out of hand without good reason, but the chain of command must be firmly established from the start.

And then there is the putative "nephew who knows the Internet" to whom so many small entrepreneurs turn for Web site design help. There is nothing wrong with having a friend, co-worker or family member who is not a professional Web designer make a site for you, as long as it is a simple site consisting of fewer than 10 or 12 pages. A big site, especially one for an ecommerce venture that is essentially an online catalog with hundreds or thousands of items listed, is as much of a database structuring job as it is a design job per se, so your friend or relative had better be familiar with database structures before you turn him or her loose on your Web site. But then, if you are doing a site of any scale, you ought to be able to budget enough money to hire a competent and experienced designer. If you can't afford a professional designer, you may want to scale back your plans, at least at the beginning. That said, there is nothing inherently wrong with having a friend or relative design a simple site for you, but do not expect too much from someone without experience, or you are sure to be disappointed.

One last word on hiring a Web designer: You will not get competent work from someone who uses Microsoft FrontPage or one of the other site design programs that supposedly turn out "instant" Web pages. These programs are like instant coffee; they are simply not as good as the real thing. Make sure that any designer you hire thoroughly understands HTML, XML, or any other code your site requires, and isn't faking it.