Man, the web design market is saturated.

So if you’re looking to hire a web designer, it can be really difficult to figure out the genuine professionals from the amateurs. But the last thing you want to do is invest a lot of time and money and end up with something unfinished, or that you’re not happy with. Equally, you don’t want to pay over the odds, but you understand that if you pay peanuts, you’ll get monkeys.

 

Here are a few (hopefully impartial) tips on how to choose a web designer.

Get a recommendation

By far the best way to choose any service is to go with someone that someone you know and trust the judgement of recommends. If you have friends or colleagues who have had a website designed, then pick their brains. Were they happy with the service they got, and would they recommend who they used? Or did they choose based on price and live to regret it? Use their experiences to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Get a few quotes

If you can’t get someone through a recommendation, then it’s worth getting a few quotes. This is not necessarily to find out the cheapest price (going with the cheapest option will almost always end in headaches and unexpected expenses down the line), but to get a sense of the service and quality of product they provide. Do they really listen to your needs and come up with a solution that fits? Or do they just send out a standard template email? How they deal with your enquiry is a good reflection of how they will work down the line.

Go with your gut

At the end of the day it’s about finding someone you can trust and work with long term. A website isn’t a one-off deal, it needs to keep working for years to come. So you need to choose someone who you think you’ll be happy building an ongoing relationship with. Good relationships develop into friendships and maintain high levels of trust and a feeling of security. This is well worth paying a little extra for.

If you'd like to learn how to write copy for your website homepage and how to improve your search engine optimisation, visit our site.

There's a lot of talk these days about responsive web design, and whether to have a dynamic or static page width is one of the most basic ways a website can respond to a user's browser.

In case you're not sure what these terms mean, a static, or fixed, page width is one which is set to a definite number of pixels (or centimetres), and doesn't change, regardless of whether it's being viewed on a small monitor or a large one. A dynamic (or as I like to call them - stretchy) page width is one that stretches to fit the available space.

Advantages of a fixed page width

The main advanatge of a fixed page width is that you have more control over the layout of the page, and can be sure how it will look across different browser and resolutions. It means that you don't end up with unexpected dead whitespace and you can be sure which elements will line up with each other.

Disadvantages of fixed page width

The biggest problem is choosing the optimum width. This is about balancing the needs of users with small screens with those who have huge monitors. If you choose a width that is too big, then users on smaller screens will only be able to view some of the site and will have to use the extremely annoying horizontal scroll in order to see the sides. However, if you choose a width that is too narrow, then users on big screens will have large areas of empty space on either side, and the website will look silly perched in the middle.

Advantages of dynamic or stretchy width

By keeping your width dynamic each user will have most of the available space used up, without losing anything off the edges.

Disadvantages of dynamic or stretchy width

If the width is constantly changing, then it means that the page elements will be moving around and you have little control over the balance of the page and how the elements relate to each other. Also, if the main text is in a stretchy area, then it may end up being very wide - which is known to be more difficult to read than columns. It is possible to do lots of clever things to ensure different parts of the page stretch in proportion to each other - but this is a lot more effort.

If you're looking for web design in Leeds, or want to learn more about good and bad web design, visit our website.

Below is a summary of the five most important elements of great web design.
For the full article about great web design, click here.

1.     Simplicity

Simplicity is at the core of everything from visuals to usability to code.
It’s much harder to create a beautiful simple design, or write elegant simple code, than it is to cobble together a complicated mess.

2.     Beauty

Whather it's fair or not, looks count for a lot. A well designed, calm, elegant site will make people feel at ease, and as if they can trust the owner of the website. A badly balanced, fussy, clearly homemade website will give the impression that the company is unprofessional.

3.     Usability

It takes a great deal of thought to pre-empt how visitors will use a website, but doing so and making sure they feel comfortable and dopn't get lost, will make the difference between a call and a back button click.

4.     Clear objectives

Objectives need to be defined early on, and the appropriate strategy and tactics applied. Are the calls to action in the right place, has enough been invested in SEO? How many customers does the website need to find for the business?

5.     Search Engine Optimised

You can have the most beautiful, usable web design in the world, but if it’s not indexed by the search engines, it’s not going to do you one jot of good. Search engine optimisation is not an area that can be summed up quickly and includes multiple on-page and off-page elements. Read our intro to SEO here.

Read the full article about 5 elements of great web design here.