Here are some tips in finding the right people for the job and some considerations to be taken into account.

1. Introduction

Many businesses look for a web designer as though they were shopping for a general commodity item such as a light bulb - i.e. All websites are equal and paying the 16 year old student on a computer course to build the site will reap exactly the same dividend as paying a specialist web development agency. Other businesses often feel they have to spend thousands upon thousands of pounds on a website for it to be successful.

Let us dispel these myths

Contrary to what many believe, web design is only one component in the production of your website. Some web designers can talk day and night about how pretty your web site can be, but if it isn't functional, user-friendly, or capable of helping you meet your online goals, then all the superficial beauty in the world isn't going to help it serve it's purpose. The design theme of a website is only one component of building a successful online presence.

Choosing a Web Designer is not an easy task! - Here are some tips...

There is so much more to web design than just making a few web pages look pretty if you want to succeed. You need to consider your target audience, underlying message, content, desired responses, visitor impact, online goals, how you are going to measure the success of the site and more. There is so much more to web design than just making a few web pages look pretty

2. Defining Your Requirements

If you have no idea why you want a website or what you want the website to achieve, it is as well to sit down and think it through, rather than rushing to put up a "White elephant" that doesn't serve a purpose. Every website must serve a purpose, and that's usually where many websites falls short. They serve no purpose because the website owner never gave much thought to it. It's not the website's fault. A website is inanimate. It is only what you make it. The only life a website has is the one given to it by its designer and owner. If the human element doesn't do a good job of defining the building blocks, the website will serve no purpose and eventually die a digital death. Every website should have a distinct purpose With that in mind, we'd suggest the first stage would be to define the "Goals" of the website in relation to the requirements and aspirations of the business or organisation involved.

Defining the Goal

Every website should have a distinct goal or number of goals that are measurable. A goal can be anything from communicating with friends and associates through to making profits by selling products or services online (e commerce). Your goal in the first instance may even be to have a web presence so potential clients don't regard your organisation as being backward! Once you have defined a goal (or number of goals), it's equally important to define:

The target audience. i.e. Who you want/expect to visit your website.
The actions you want to result from their visit. i.e. Making an online sale, getting them to make an inquiry etc.
What benefits you are giving and receiving from having the website.
Defining the Key Functions (The actions)

Once the goals of the website have been established, it's important to define the actions required by site visitors to meet the goals. An action is any traceable sequence of events carried out by the end user.

Examples might include:

Getting in touch - either by phone, email or via an online form.
Disseminating Information.
Signing up for a newsletter.
Completing a questionnaire
Commenting on a Blog
Downloading or buying products
Using an online tool
Of course, there are other intangible benefits that your website might provide to an end user that don't result in direct "actions"... i.e. simply providing "peace of mind" to an existing or prospective customer would be considered as such. If you haven't already done so, then it's also useful to check out the competition, for ideas, likes and dislikes.

Establishing Your Design & Development Preferences

Once you have formulated the goals and functional requirements for the website, it's time to start building a picture of how you anticipate the site coming together - with regard to structure and design theme. This doesn't need to be a definitive exercise - Your web designer should be able to add a lot of input and suggestions at a later stage, but it helps to have some ideas to feed into the requirements you approach the designer with in the first instance.

As follows are a few that we feel should be mandatory:

The website should adhere to recognised standards. The site should be written to conform and validate to the standards defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) - this will in turn, mean your site should be cross-browser friendly (i.e. Appear the same across various different types of web browser).
The website should be accessible. In web terms, this means that it conforms to the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
The website should be clean, crisp and fast loading.
The website should be easy to use and inoffensive (see below).
Our Tip: Easy to use and Inoffensive - The WOW factor

Webbies often get asked to produce a website with the "WOW factor". The "WOW factor" is a term that means different things to different people. Often, the person or business commissioning the website have grandiose plans for extensive animation, splash screens, cartoons, garish designs... This isn't the WOW factor - A bold garish design with "off the wall" colour schemes may seem bold and innovative to some people, but may really put off other site users - Find the happy medium.

If a person wants to buy a pair of shoes online then their mission is basically to find the desirable pair of shoes at the right price in the quickest possible time. They don't visit an e-commerce site to watch an animation of shoes tap dancing across the screen. Leave cartoons and needless animation that add zero value to those experts in their own field. People watch the Simpsons for that type of entertainment. They likely won't be visiting your website for (or be impressed by) to be "dazzled" by irrelevant attempts to stand out.

Our own interpretation of the "WOW factor" is a site that is very simple to use, clean, crisp, user friendly, fast loading with great content. Basically, the site that delivers it's underlying message quickly and concisely is the most effective. Google has the WOW Factor and you don't see slow loading animation on that website. The WOW factor should mean Winning on the Web and nothing else.

Ok, so you've mapped out some goals and requirements... time to start looking for the right guys to go ahead and implement the solution for you.