Here's what you're looking for in the person or firm who will design your site's pages and who will assure that they work properly needs to have several characteristics.
- Your designer must have the design and programming skills for the site that you want.
- Your designer must have good organizational skills so that they complete their work on time.
- Your designer must be willing to conform to your project management and site specification guidelines.
- Your designer must understand what makes good design for an effective business site.
- Your designer must be able to communicate with you.
You may use a formal Request for Proposal process to select your designer, or you may use a less formal method. In any case you should ask them for three sets of information.
Ask them for a list of the five sites they've done that represent their best work. Use this list to get an idea of the kind of work and style that the designer uses. Use this list as a reference list. Contact folks at the companies the designer has worked for to find out their impressions of the designers skills and working style.
Ask them for examples of work they've done that use features or functions that you'll want on your site. These may be on sites that are on their best list, or they may be in other projects.
Finally, ask them for a list of five excellent business sites. The sites they pick will tell you if their idea of an effective business site is the same as your own. It's usually not a good idea to expect good results and a good working relationship from someone who differs with you on the basic definition of "good."
