Hiring a professional web designer is costly and crucial. If you hire someone without checking his/her background, this will cause issues down the road. In a few cases, you may waste time and money.
This post explains the checklist before hiring a web designer. This will be a comprehensive guideline for first-time recruiters, but these are only limited to:
- Why do you need a web designer?
- How to find and hire a web designer?
- Common mistakes and dangers to avoid.
Hiring a web designer is the most important step in turning your ideas and high-fidelity UI mockups into a real product that people can use. But it can be hard to find the right person because of their unknown level of expertise and overpromising attitude. Moreover, web designers don’t always specialize in one thing—their jobs often overlap, and the technology they use changes daily.
Let’s see how you can sort the quality persons for your project and specific needs.
Who is a web designer?
Web designers create websites and web pages by combining text, pictures, graphics, animations, and videos, among other visual design elements. A web designer can either make a whole new website or just change the look and feel of existing pages.
They aren’t expected to know much about the code that supports their designs. Instead, their main job is to create a better user interface and ensure a smooth user experience and usability.
Web designers may use markup language like HTML, style language like CSS, and programming language like JavaScript. They will also use design programs or software, such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Figma, to help them make designs that stand out. Finally, they build a visual representation of a web design.
Read also: How websites are created?
Difference between a web designer and a web developer
A web designer’s job is to make a website look good. A web developer, on the other hand, writes code and makes the back-end features.
While web developers and designers are crucial to creating websites, their roles differ.
Web designers determine how your site looks and feels. They also plan the customer experience and create an interface that is attractive and easy to use.
However, functionality is the main priority for web developers. They build your site’s front-end and back-end to work how you want it to and have all the features you need.
Can a web developer be a web designer, too?
It is possible for the same person to work as both a web designer and a web developer. If that person has studied the tools and methods, he or she can do both jobs simultaneously.
However, it is quite tough to be a web developer and designer simultaneously, as the job roles are quite different, and it is tough to manage both sides simultaneously.
Why do you need a web designer?
Proficiency in web design
Web designers know the basics of design, including how colors work, how to use fonts, and how to create websites.
They know how to make color choices that make visitors feel good, pick fonts that are easy to read, and arrange things on a page in interesting ways.
Website design that fits you
“Tailored design for your website” means creating a custom, one-of-a-kind website that perfectly fits your brand’s personality and goals.
When a web designer makes a design for your website, they think about the things that make your brand unique, like its colors, logo, goal, and values.
They use their knowledge to create a plan for your website that includes these things. Customization isn’t just about how things look; it also affects how people use them.
Website design that works on all devices
A website’s style and content are responsive, meaning they can change to fit different screen sizes and resolutions.
Web designers no longer use fixed-width layouts. Instead, they use flexible designs with fluid grids that let content grow or shrink to fit the screen size. For example, a website’s text, images, and buttons will be readable and useful on any device.
The user experience
A good user experience means creating a website that is easy to use, interesting, and full of useful information. A well-designed website that prioritizes the user experience can help a web designer get a lot of work.
It should be easy to get around on a well-designed website. This makes it simple for people to find the data they need.
Faster loading
Web pages load faster and work better when they have faster load speeds. Pages that take a long time to load can annoy users and make their experience bad. That’s why “Core Web Vitals” is a big factor for ranking.
Google and other search engines care a lot about page loading speeds. In search results, pages that load quickly tend to show up first. In other words, faster load times can make a website more visible and increase traffic.
Where to find a good web designer?
Finding the right person can be frustrating sometimes. However, it’s not as hard as you may think. But it can be time-consuming, especially if this is your first time hiring someone.
You may be thinking about where to find a web designer. There are a few places you can look, such as:
- Freelancing platforms: Look for independent web designers on platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, etc.
- Search engines: You can use Google and other search engines to find independent web designers and agencies like us.
- Review sites: Use review sites like Clutch to find web design firms and view their prices, reviews, and work.
- Google Maps: Google Maps can be very handy when you want to work with locals or people in a specific region.
When looking for a web creator, don’t forget to check out the people around you. You can get recommendations from friends, coworkers, and others in your business network. Their advice can make your life easier by keeping you from having to look at and choose from many choices.
What to look for in a good web designer?
To help you out, here is a list of six traits that all skilled web designers must have. These are the traits you should look for in a web designer.
When you talk to possible web designers, use this as a guide to making sure you make the right choice and set up your business for success.
Knowledge of web design
Experience in creating websites is one of the most important things you should look for in a web designer. It’s what sets professionals apart from amateurs. Of course, there are new web designers who, naturally, don’t have as many clients as agencies that have been in business for 10 years or more.
This means that they have less experience in the field. Start-ups are important in every field, but remember that their experience and portfolio quality aren’t as good as those of companies that have been around longer.
Know-how in responsive design
A responsive website is essential if you want to reach more people and make a good impression on your visitors or prospective clients.
It’s great that websites can be viewed on phones, but mobile websites are even better for users. Pick a web designer who knows a lot about responsive design to make sure that all of your website’s information looks good on all screen sizes.
Know about the newest ways to use SEO
A skilled web designer should know how to make responsive websites with the newest SEO strategies and how your website can best use them. Your web designer should not only make your website look and feel good for people, but they should also use SEO to make it useful and easy to find.
If you hire a web designer who is knowledgeable about SEO, you’re more likely to have a high-converting website that works well with your digital marketing.
Excellent portfolio
Whether or not a web designer’s work lives up to their claims can ultimately be determined solely by examining the caliber of their portfolio. You can look at the work that the web designers you are talking to have done in the past.
Don’t be afraid to ask them why they made a certain website the way they did and how that design helped their client’s business grow.
Reasonable prices
We know your budget is one of the most important things you consider when picking a web designer (or any other professional you hire from outside your company). Because they have more experience and knowledge, well-known and skilled web designers are more valuable to your business than new graduates, so they charge more for their services.
Learn more: How much does it cost to hire a website designer?
Support for clients
Your website needs to change and grow along with your business. As an e-commerce business owner, you need a dynamic website that needs to be updated and maybe even upgraded frequently.
That means you should pick a web designer who is easy to contact if you need help making future website changes.
What are the steps for hiring a good web designer?
Figure out how much you can spend on website design
How important is the style of your website? Research shows that 38.5% of people judge goods and brands by their websites. 38% will stop using a badly designed website, and 50% will go to a competitor’s site.
There are billions of websites, and most of them have failed. That’s why it’s important to hire a professional web designer. If your business often adds new features to the site, hire a full-time web designer. Prices for website design jobs vary greatly depending on the size of your business. However, hiring a freelancer or even an in-house designer is usually cheaper than hiring a full-service agency.
Make a job description for a web designer
Once you’ve decided whether to hire a full-time or freelance web designer, you’ll need to write a job description for them. Start with a short account of your workplace that clarifies what your business is all about and what it wants to achieve. Tell them why you’d be a good business partner or boss and why this project will be fun and creative for the right person.
Please ensure the job description is short, precise, and concise. Don’t make it long or bog down with a long list of roles and duties. Also, never use artificial intelligence (AI) like ChatGPT to create a job description for you.
The reasons why most freelancers fail and give up →
Look at the digital portfolios and resumes of designers
When people start applying for your job, you’ll need to look at their resumes to see if they have the traits you want in a web designer, such as:
- A bachelor’s degree in computer development, graphic design, or digital design, or work experience in a related field
- A clear understanding of the basics of visual design, such as how to arrange images, use fonts, and organize information
- A good grasp of information design and user experience
- Knowing how to use coding languages like HTML and JavaScript and having experience with content management systems, top industry software, and cascading style sheets
- Know about search engine optimization and mobile optimization
After reviewing the resumes, you’re almost ready to hire a site designer. The next step is to look at designers’ digital portfolios and examples of work they’ve done for other clients or companies.
The best candidates’ portfolios will show best practices for web design, like clean design, easy browsing, and calls to action.
Know what questions to ask in an interview
Most of the time, the best web designers have special skills. They are scientifically creative problem solvers with great eyesight. They’re creative but committed to meeting deadlines and are very well-planned.
The following questions will help you find someone with this unique set of skills:
- What things do you need from your clients before starting a project?
- What makes PC design different from mobile design?
- How do you keep everyone on a project team’s goals and opinions in check?
- What do you do when deadlines are coming up, and some parts of a job are still unfinished?
- How would you rate your time management skills?
- Tell me about a proud web design job you worked on.
As you interview each candidate, think about the skills they’ll need to work with your team and finish the job, like communicating clearly, being flexible, and having technical knowledge. You might also ask to talk to some of their former coworkers and clients.
Make a contract and a project brief
If you want to hire a freelance web designer, you should give the top candidates a project brief that explains your design needs and goals, as well as your budget and schedule. In return, they will give you a design suggestion.
If the project brief is unclear, you may end up with an unacceptable final product and redoing everything from the ground up. So, make sure your brief is short, clear, and concise. Also, make sure your designer understands your expectations clearly.
Choose the winner based on how well their proposal fits your company’s goal and brand value.
Even if you’re just hiring someone, you should still write up a project brief. However, your new web designer can help you with this task and all the ones that come after, from making wireframes for each stage of usefulness to launching your beautiful new website.
Mistakes to avoid when hiring a good web designer
- Don’t just pick a web designer only based on their portfolio
- Don’t have any knowledge of why you are paying your web designer? Is it only for a web mockup or a complete website design?
- Clarify future maintenance and support scope
- Not having ideas of other costs
- Getting confused about different types of web designers
- Hiring a web designer without knowledge of SEO
Final thought
If you want to get your website up and running quickly, you might want to hire the first web designer you come across. As I mentioned in this post, this is the first mistake many people may make.
However, you should research first to ensure you hire the right person. Your website is how the world sees your business.
You can also contact us to see how we can help with your website design, development, and SEO.
