When to hire a designer

Designing your own website takes time and expertise. An effective design is accomplished by taking fundamental web design elements into consideration. These include user-friendliness and conversion principles, proper use of colors and fonts, choices for monitor sizes and resolutions, optimization of file sizes for proper load time, W3C standards, and also search engine optimization techniques. Here are some signs that you may be better off hiring a professional designer to work on your site, whether it’s an initial concept or a re-design:

• You don’t know HTML and don’t have the time, patience or proficiency to learn.
• You have trouble with creativity and consistency.
• You need your website or logo to be created quickly.
• You time is more effectively spent building and managing your own business than building and maintaining your business’s website.

Preparing to hire a designer

Once you’ve decided that hiring a design firm is the best course of action, prepare yourself to work with a designer, and begin to gather the necessary information about your needs. First, put together the following information about your site, or be ready to provide it to your new designer:

• Will you need a logo created in addition to your design?
• How many different compositions would you like to see before choosing your final concept?
• Will you want the designer or firm to develop content for your site in addition to the design?
• Do you need regular modifications to the site’s design and content? If so, how frequently: daily, weekly, monthly?
• What is your timeline? Are you in a rush?
• What is your budget? How much are you willing to invest?
• Will you need search engine optimization performed at the same time?

When it comes to e-commerce, conversion-friendly design is critical to your site’s success. Be ready to lay out the site’s primary objective to your designer and ensure through a consultation that your chosen designer will be knowledgeable in conversion-friendly site design elements such as on-site search and easy-to-find cart checkout buttons.

How to choose a design solution

One of the best ways to determine which design solution is right for you is to view a company’s online portfolio, but don’t get hung up on what you see as options for your site. Consider each site’s content and offerings. Does each design fit the industry and the target customer? Once you’ve researched the company and read about their services, here are some key questions to ask the sales person:

• What is the process, step-by-step?
• How many rounds of revisions will the company provide?
• Will the company work around your timeline or their own?
• What is the scope of the work? Which elements of the site will not be created or generated by the designer? How much will you need to do on your own?
• Who will host the site?
• What additional fees may be incurred beyond the base price or hourly rate?
• Who owns the final design?

MonsterCommerce offers several options for designing your site. You can choose from many e-commerce templates or hire a designer on staff to create a fully customized design or professional logo for your site.

Did you know?

Here are some interesting facts about web design that may surprise you:

• The most commonly used Internet browser on the Web is Internet Explorer at over 58,2%, with Firefox coming in 24.9% and steadily increasing in share. Be sure you are designing and testing your design using both browser types.*
• 1024 x 768 is the most commonly used screen display resolution at 57% with 800x600 coming in at 20%. Again, design and test for both screen resolutions.*
• 10% of users are have JavaScript turned off or are using a browser that does not support JavaScript. Keep this in mind when creating JavaScript navigational elements. Try to supplement drop down menus and similar dynamic navigation with text based navigation for those not using JavaScript.*

* Source: W3 Schools Browser Statistics