5 things a good web designer would never tell you

September 22, 2009 | Posted by Carolyn Pikoulas
Sometimes it's hard to tell whether you're dealing with a good web person who designs for your company or a bad one who designs for your money. We've discovered a great little video lecture by Paul Boag, a well-known British web designer, that helps teach the average business person what to watch out for if they hear the following things from a web designer:

1. "Sure! We can do spec work for free."
   Speculative work is a job for which a client expects to see a finished product before agreeing to pay for services. The reason why you don't want to work with a company that gives away spec work for free is because you will pay for it in the end. For example, let's say a web company does spec work for Client A and Client B. The web company spent 6 hours on the specs for both prospective clients, which translates to X amount of dollars worth of time. Client A decides not to move forward with the web company. Client B hires the company for their project. That means that Client B will end up paying for Client A's spec work to make up for the cost.
   
   Another reason to avoid spec work is because the web company will only be designing for the "wow factor." The spec is not designed for your specific users or target market and doesn't have your business goals in mind. The better way to know if a web company is right for you is to talk to their previous clients. Ask their clients if the project met their success criteria for their website. Ask how they felt working with the company. Also take a look at the web company's work. Do all their sites look similar in style (bad)? Or are they designed in a way that's specific to each of their clients (good)?
2. "Don't worry about your users."
   You know your business more than the web company would - that's true. But a good web company knows that the users are the ones who should be the main focus, because the users are your customers.
3. "Tell me what you think about this design. Or better yet - what does your committee think?"
   Democracy is great. But, it can be debilitating in the design world. Creating everything through compromise only produces unoriginal, subpar work. Design is so subjective, that it shouldn't be influenced by your personal opinion. Good designers always try to design for the target audience, not for the client's personal taste.
4. "We should use all of the homepage, and squeeze as much information in the 768 pixel limit as possible."
   Some people still believe that users don't like to scroll or click. That may have been true in the early 90's, but not today. Studies show that users are comfortable with clicking on a few links to navigate to the page they want. And, they're much happier scrolling down a page rather than clicking to the subsequent page, and the next, and the next...
   
   The homepage is important because that's where most of your users land. But it doesn't help users navigate to where they want to go when there's image overload. Making things blink and animate to draw attention won't necessarily help either. It just helps the design look unprofessional (unless it's done tastefully, of course).
5. "We should worry more about SEO than design."
   There has been a huge influx of "SEO experts" these days. Some truly know their stuff, while others are scammers, betting on your lack of knowledge to take your money and run. Repeat traffic is the best way to move up on Google. But that takes time and can be a difficult feat, so many SEO companies focus on keyword stuffing and link farms - just enough to not get your website banned by Google. Instead, you should focus on how to keep users coming back to the site. Give them a reason to come back, which means your content must be updated frequently, and it should be useful, interesting information.

Make sure to use your designers for all they're worth, and value their ideas and design skills. They're not just "pixel pushers" or "artsy-fartsy" snobs. They know a great deal about technology, design psychology, business and economics. Above all, they want your website to be successful. Make sure when you begin a project with a web company that you discuss what the success criteria of your website is. Talk a lot about your business, its customer base and its goals. And work with the web company as if it's your business partner, not a vendor. This will help improve your relationship and get your project off on the right track.

To watch the complete lecture, click HERE.