How to Pick a Web Design Firm
Written by Brian Johnson

The image your website design projects on the Internet is one of the most
important aspects you need to keep in mind at all times when choosing a
website design firm. It is very important to remember that most of your
visitors haven't spoken to you yet and your site will be the first
impression they have of your company. If your website design lacks
professionalism and/or does not reflect that of a well established
company, your new prospect can easily loose confidence.

Although probably very well intentioned, most website design firms lack
the experience and artistic skill to give their clients the website design
that truly represents them. You'll probably quickly realize that
programmers are not the best designers. That is why a website design
company should have their production teams split in 2. A website designer
or designers who create layouts and website programmers who, when the
website design is approved, codes the layout so it becomes a functional
website.  Many times business owners will concentrate only on the design
of a web site and not the functionality.  Meaning that they will spend
thousands of dollars on a web site that the moment they have to change
something they realize that they have to actually pay for the web design
company to do it for them or hire a specialized staff member who can do
it. See www.nikosoftware.com for more examples.

This can be fatal to your business, not being able to change your web site
in a timely manner.  Somewhere around 60% of the work on an average website
(10 pages) should be on its design (choosing the right pictures, text
layouts, menus and disposition for the overall website).  The other 40%
should be on making the web site functional so that the business owner,
clerical staff or other non-technical staff members at the company can
actually make changes to the site or add functionality to it such as
newsletters, online forms and ecommerce.  These are critical items that
many businesses overlook and end up paying big later when they need it.

Website design compatibilities:

It is fairly easy to build a basic website design these days, with all the
programs that automate code; hence there are a lot of so called
"professional" website design firms or website designers (the guys who do
this from the computer in their apartment). But only a very small fraction
of people who can actually build a website can do a good job at it. The
quickest example I can give you is when building a site there is a lot to
consider when programming the code.

Compatibilities include:

PC
Internet Explorer V4, V5, V6
Netscape V5, V6, V7

Mac
Internet Explorer V5, V6
Netscape V5, V6, V7
Safari, Opera, etc,

Now if the site isn't programmed in accordance with all these browsers,
browser versions and operating systems, the website design will most
likely display incorrectly when visited. Exp: some images might not load,
some pictures might be crooked; some functions can lead to error messages,
etc. And all this is but one of the multiple details that should always
instinctively be kept in mind when programming and designing a site.

Make sure that you pick a company that has experience in building sites
for multiple industries and have designed on multiple platforms.  The best
way to ensure this is to choose a company that has developed at the least
100 web sites in multiple industries and that is an actual company with
support and administrative staff.  Some companies on the web look like
they are big companies but may only have one or two people working there.
You don't want to put your web site in the hands of a company or college
student who won't be there for you when you need it.


Website design structure:

I am sure you have been on a website before where you have felt confused
and or could not find what you where looking for, and so ended up leaving
and feeling frustrated. Unfortunately this happens all too often because a
lot of website designers out there are very computer savvy and program the
website in function of how they would like it, not keeping in mind the
fact that most of the visitors will not be website designers or
programmers and sometimes barely know how to open their own computer.

When creating a website design, it is important to not only make sure that
the visitor knows at all times what section they are visiting and can reach
any section easily, but also make sure that the information in those
sections is clearly displayed and not confusing.


Getting your website design project right the first time:

A lot of the business in the website design industry is generated by
clients that have already paid to get a website design in the past, and
after using it for a while are not satisfied with it. Eventually these
clients end up calling another website design firm because they decide
they need to upgrade their image so they can use their website to its full
potential. But sadly for the client he ends up paying sometimes almost
twice the amount because the first website design won't be used anymore
and the website has to be completely redesigned from scratch.
Unfortunately it is very easy to be misled and a lot a people get
frustrated with their website design because there is so much they don't
know about websites and the Internet in general. This is why we suggest
choosing a software company as opposed to a web design firm.  Web design
firms build out web sites that look great but have no functionality and
are very difficult to change. For more information go to resources on
www.nikosoftware.com



Brian Johnson is Vice President of Niko Software Corp. and has consulted
with over 300 companies on maximizing web tools to increase profits and
web exposure. www.nikosoftware.com

View their website at: www.nikosoftware.com