When you start building your online business and looking for a web design company to implement all of your website needs, you must understand that you are entrusting your company’s reputation and future to them.
That is why it is very important to make the right choice.
There are several factors that must be considered, and one of them is the portfolio of previous web design work that the company has done. It can tell you more than all the words and promises combined. Just pay attention and try to analyze. I will tell you what you need to pay attention to:
1) The portfolio’s presence
Yes, it seems obvious that the web design firm must have its own portfolio website. But don’t be too surprised when you see one without it. There could be various reasons for this, but I wouldn’t recommend you tempt fate. The portfolio is like a “face” and is the pride of the web design company. It must be complete, substantial, and regularly updated… and it HAS TO BE!
2) Total quantity of works
This can tell you a lot, but there is no standard number that will guarantee you will be dealing with web design gurus. Yes, 50 successfully completed projects is better than 5, but their quality is also important. Compare the number with the time period the company has been in the market and calculate the average number of projects per year, month, or week. Remember that a website design takes an average of 2-4 weeks to complete.
What can this information give you? First, you can see that the company has enough expertise. Then this shows that it has a steady flow of work, an adjusted schedule of the development process, and enough staff to carry it out, so if you hire your website design company, you can be sure that the work will not be for them as a bolt out of the blue or well paid but not feasible overhead.
3) Job Description
Look carefully at each piece of work in the portfolio. How many projects are similar to the one you need based on site type, technology used, industry and look and feel?
At least 2-3? Good!
More than 5? Excellent!!
No one? There may be a reason for this-the owner didn’t want to publish it or the website is no longer live-so if all the other work shows professionalism and expertise, you should ask
the company if they have ever done the task that you need.
If you need a certain technology to be used to implement your website, it is more than necessary to see examples of how the web design company has worked with it. However, sometimes if the technology is not commonly used and very popular, the web design company won’t have a chance to work with it for commercial purposes, but it could be used for internal project development, so you won’t lose anything if you ask the company. to show you some examples, if any.
If you need a website for a specific business, for example, a dating site or real estate site, it is also better to view such previous works in the portfolio as there may be specific features and it is better to make sure that the company of web design has experience with them. Also, some web design companies do demo packages that can show off your skills and experience.
4) Work quality
Carefully research each live site (or those that are similar to the site you need). How long does the homepage take to load?
Some seconds? Great, the web designer knows how to optimise images.
a few minutes? This is normal if this is a Flash site, because usually the whole site is loaded at once, not just the home page; or is it a Flash intro that continues entering the site
and also may load longer because of the movie and sound.
But if a simple HTML website takes more than 2-3 minutes to load and you can’t see all the images or they are partially displayed, you need to be careful. Check other HTML sites in the portfolio-if they also take ages to load, it’s better to look for another web design company because they are not professional.
All of the above is correct only if your Internet connection bandwidth is normal and you usually have no problems loading websites.
Test the site for user-friendly navigation; pay attention to the colour combination; and estimate the overall impression of the site-all these should reflect professional work. But sometimes a web design company has to design a website strictly according to the client’s wishes, so if the client lacks good taste, the website looks tasteless. There may be one or two such sites in the portfolio, but not all!
5) Contented owners
The web design business is a highly competitive field, and as in any business, there are honest and dishonest players. Sometimes it happens that you see the same website in the portfolios of two different web design companies, and it is difficult to find the truth to which of them the work really belongs. Some strange companies put cheap templates in their portfolio with contact information of fake owners.
That is why it is very important to have real references from the real owners of the websites made by the web design company. Ideally, this information should be accessible on the web design company’s website in the Portfolio, Testimonials, or Clients sections. Try to contact ALL the people listed there and compare their opinions. You might know some interesting facts.
6) The web design firm’s own website
And finally, compare the web design company’s own website with the websites presented in its portfolio. Are they similar in quality, technology used, and overall feel? If the works in the portfolio appear to be much lower quality than the own website, it is possible that the own website was ordered from a different, more professional web design company.Yes, it sometimes happens in the web design business that a start-up hobbyist company outsources its website design to “older” professionals. In this case, it is better to continue looking for another web design company.
So these six rules can help you make the right choice. Don’t be afraid to spend more time on research and analysis. In the end, you will only benefit from getting a perfect website that will give new perspectives to your business and make it more successful.