Website Designers vs. Website Creators:
Today, many people claim they are website designers when in fact they are website creators. Web design is a art form… a professional service. There is a huge difference between creating a website and designing a website. Just because someone puts paint on canvas does not mean they are an artist nor does someone who strums a guitar mean they are an musician. Just because someone puts a band-aid on a cut does not make them a doctor. Skill, talent, experience, and knowledge is the critical difference in all these cases.
The point here is that a website creator is anyone who types information into a website and hits save. While anyone can create a site, not everyone can design a website. Couple this with the fact that most websites on the Internet are suffering from poor design, layout, programming, SEO and other issues and you can see why a real, professional website designer is so important to have.
Software is Everywhere:
Today, anyone can go to an office store and buy the equipment needed for website creation. Actually in recent years, even discount department stores have started to sell software to create a website. Unfortunately when you go to the store you will not be able to buy the most critical parts… experience, knowledge, talent and skill.
Experience, skill and knowledge is something you can never just acquire overnight. It takes years of hands on work to get it just right. Website design is not about throwing words and pictures on a page and calling it a website; its marketing!
A Website Is Advertising!
Website design is a form or advertising. Just like any other form of advertising you need to have marketing sense to make it work… something that many so called ” website designers ” simply don’t have.
A few wears ago we had a business owner approach us about redesigning their website. The website was horrible. The designer that they hired made the images of the products for sale so small that you could barely see the images on the site. The designer also used colors that contradicted each other (i.e. red text on a blue background) to the point where you could hardly read the site’s text. Finally the oddest and quiet funny thing about the site was the graphics that the designed used all of the place. It seems that during the consultation, their old designer asked this business owner what they liked. The business owner mentioned she liked flowers and so the entire site had huge clip art images of sunflowers all over the place. It looked like you were entering a nursery or funeral home with the number of flowers on the site. It was horrible. This designer also thought it was good idea to photoshop little “sale” tags onto some of the products… needless to say adding the phrase “I’m Cheap” to a photo of a $1,500+ item was not a smart idea as it turned clients off thinking the item was cheaply made. We were able to completely tear their whole site down and replace the shopping system with an affordable and professional solution that they are very pleased with.
Know Your Designer First… Before You Buy:
The point is before you go to hire a website designer, do your homework. Get specific details as to what they will be doing. If you are hiring to redesign, get them to tell you what they want to do differently. Explain to them your problems with the design or your requirements and then listen to their answers. If they are vague or it sounds like they are not sure at what they want to do or if their solution sounds weak, then be wary. Check out their work and ask for an overview of services they have provided other clients in the past and how they worked out. Ask if they do website design for a living or as a sideline. Professional website designers do website design for a living. Beware of those who do it as a hobby or a part time job as that is a flag that support will not be there once the job is done or at the very least that your website design job will be a part time thing and will usually take much much longer to complete.
