Choosing a Web Developer
For a successful website choose quality over price
These are the qualities that will make a difference to your website:
- Skills and experience in the type of site you require
- A good fit with your company in terms of ethics and culture
- A team of people you like to work with
Find web design websites
You have your plan, design brief, content outline, and budget. Now is your chance to test the websites of people who should know how to make them.
Search Google for 'web design', 'interactive agency', or 'web developer'. If you prefer to deal with people face-to-face narrow the search to companies within your travel range.
Follow links from sites you like, or, if there is no link, search for the name of the site – the web developer may mention it in their portfolio.
Don't hesitate to judge web developers by their websites
If the site looks professional and you can find things easily, have a look through the portfolio and check out links to their example websites.
If you don’t feel the design matches up to your examples, or you can’t find the portfolio, move on to the next one.
Do they have the skills you need?
Check to see if any of the featured sites in the portfolio demonstrate the functionality you require. If not, it’s worth sending an email to ask. (Sites may not make it into the portfolio for various reasons; the site may be private or subcontracted for another company.)
History
The About Us page should tell you how long the company has been in business and how big they are. A company which has grown steadily over a number of years is likely to have the resources to support you now and in future.
Arrange a meeting
Email your plan and budget to the web companies you have chosen. Be open about the fact that you are interviewing several companies.
If the company is in your area they will probably be happy to meet you to go through your brief and discuss their capabilities.
If not you will need to communicate with them and judge them by phone or email.
Imagine working together
If you are meeting face to face, visit the company premises. You may meet with a producer, project manager, or information architect. This is your chance to ask any questions, and to get a feel for the company culture.
Discuss the functionality of your site and ask for examples of similar sites they have produced. Ask about the challenges and results of each site.
Find out about hosting, the development process, and resources.
Ask to meet the team, especially the person who will be managing the job and the company manager.
A research-friendly culture
To build websites which use the Internet to its full extent requires continual research.
In a research-friendly culture developers keep up with new developments and and share information.
A mission to provide great customer service and to use technology and design to provide value to users is essential to keep research focused.
The Estimate
Your estimate should arrive within a week unless the site is very large or contains complex functionality. If your plan and content outline is complete the estimates should be reasonably close. If there are large differences it’s worth checking to make sure both estimates cover the same things.
Most estimates will be optimistic about the number of changes and authors corrections which will happen, so don’t take the estimate as the maximum budget.
Illustration, photography, or music will likely not be included, or may be covered by a rough ballpark estimate. If you can’t work with this, specify a maximum budget and ask for examples and quantities of what you will get.
Add us to your list of web designers
We are a web design company based in Auckland, New Zealand . A team of 12 people, the company has been in the business of web design and development for 15 years. We provide a complete service including SEO and CPC advertising with Google AdWords.
