Hello,

I'm looking to start my webhosting company early part of next year, and I'm looking to have a website created that breaks from the mold of other hosting companies. So of course I have several questions:

1) When first interviewing a designer what sort of questions should I be asking besides portfolio?

2) Is there a fair pricing guideline eg. fresh out of college = $ per hour , 5 years exp. = $ per hour?

3) How much should I know about my own site before contacting potential designers eg. text, # of pages, codes?

4) Should billing systems, ssl certs. and other programs be purchased before design begins or if designer is made aware of before hand easy to intergrate later on.

Any other information that you think would be useful would be more than appreciated as this is the first time I'll hire a designer for a site.

Thanks in advance,

Rich

Hey Rich,

Definately some good questions... don't think I've seen many similar posted.

Just wanted to let you know that these are obviously my opinion... I'm sure many more will offer different / more suggestions.

When first interviewing...
Obviously, your first thing should be their portfolio. No point in wasting your time discussing anything if the design firm you choose doesn't cleary show the level of work you're looking for in their past designs.

My next request would be a list of maybe 2-5 references from the company / designer so you may contact a couple and ask them questions regarding overall satisfaction, turnaround time on the entire project, anything that impressed or maybe anything that didn't impress. I personally wouldn't deal with a company if they were not willing to take 30 minutes and get me some contact numbers.

Next, I'd ask for contact methods. Will you be dealing with the designer by email, IM or phone? Maybe you'll be in contact with them via many methods. Just be sure to get an emergency contact # for any reason. I personally like speaking to someone over the phone even if we're going to communicate via email solely, just to feel them out and see what kind of vibe I get.

What about down the road!? Will you be left to make all the changes yourself? If so, will you be provided with more then your HTML files... PSD for example. If they're willing to do updates for you, do they offer these for free for a couple of months or do they have a set rate.

Obviously you could find MANY more questions, but these are just a couple that come to mind.

Is there a fair pricing...
Generally when it comes down to it, you just have to consider a little common sense and you'll generally be fine with the pricing side of things. If a company is charging $50 an hour, you'd definately be expecting something with insane quality. As for a designer charging $5 an hour, you can generally expect something not so good :)

The thing I find many of my own design clients doing is checking website such as scriptlance and elance, etc. Although these websites are great, these clients generally go with the guy offering to do their ENTIRE WEBSITE for $200 and then 1 month later these clients are back asking for help. I'm not putting the companies posting at those sites down, but me and you both know that no one can design a properly planned out website for $200.

Now... as for the "per hour" question... I'd stay away from it. Most good design companies SHOULD be taking advantage of tracking their projects using a gaant chart or some other method that allows them to judge their time within specific project information. So for example... if you came to me and asked for a 3 page website, including a 10 second flash intro and a php contact form, I could simply check some past projects I've done to see the general time spent on such items and then quote you a Project Cost.

I guess I'm just trying to warn against anyone charging per hour. I'd definately go with companies willing to quote your entire project as a whole. This also allows you to budget and shop around (within reason...).

How much should I know...
I'd bet that 85% of my clients that come to me for design work generally have no idea what they want. Although this makes designing more fun, it can also be quite frustrating for both the client and designer when it comes time to review the comps that were drafted.

The things you mention such as text, number of pages, etc is something that IS needed and you should have ready, but also consider these things as well:

- What's the overall message you want your website to convey? Are you going to be targetting males aged 16-22? Maybe females aged 40+!? Obviously such things can make an immense impact on the type of design / company image you're aiming for.

- What do some of your main competitors websites look like? What do you like about them? What do you dislike? What items would you like to incorporate into your own design. Don't be afraid to tell your designer what you like about other websites. Obviously he cannot steal the work from your competitor, but you both can brainstorm together to come up with a new idea of presenting it to your own audience. An example of this would be something as simple as a contact form. Let's say you visit xyz.com (competitor) and they have a contact form asking for name, email and comment. You could then take that idea and begin to expand on it. Maybe you'd like to gather this users phone number, maybe their address... That example was rather pathetic, but you should see where I'm going with this :)

- How do you want the website to flow!? You've likely been to websites where after 3 clicks, you're lost... this is definately frustrating for the user and is definately a main issue on many of the new / fancy websites popping up today. Make sure to plan out how you want things to work. You don't need to go overboard on this as your designer should be good at this portion of the process, but just make sure you have your site planned out atleast on a rough piece of paper... anything is better then nothing ;)

Should billing systems...
This question really depends on the amount of work involved in your project. If you've hired a company to create your ENTIRE website then you'll likely want all of these things ready to go prior to beginning the design process. This would allow the designers access to skinning your programs, integrating softwares, etc.

If you've only hired a designer for 1 working homepage and maybe a subpage, then I'd say just telling them about what you had in mind in terms of software should be fine. A good example of this can be seen in about every template being sold on this forum. Odds are, if you look at a hosting template in the RO&R forum, you'll see a control panel login box included in the design. This is something that the designer knows the client could use and will include it.

So in your case, maybe you're going to be using helpdesk software to help you handle support. Tell your designer this and see if they can come up with any ideas on how to incorporate this into your design. Maybe they'll display your 5 newest helpdesk faq questions on your homepage... maybe a helpdesk login table... maybe they'll display the top 5 staff rankings, etc.

Hopefully I haven't bored you to death or made you go blind with my 4:30 a.m. ranting :) If you have any questions, just post away as this forum is great for getting answers :)

Some good questions there.

First of all ask to see their portfolio and check it out - make sure they really did what they said they had done.

Originally posted by markjut
Some good questions there.

First of all ask to see their portfolio and check it out - make sure they really did what they said they had done.

Good advice!

Thanks so much Mekhu your answers were exactly what I was looking for. A couple more question I forgot to list and hopefully you can share your wisdom on this as well:

1. How should payment be spread out after deciding on a certain designer eg. how much up front and then payments following?

2. Is it fair when shopping for a designer to ask them to make a 1 page mock up of the site, to see if there on track with what your looking for?

3. If you find out the designer isn't the one for you either through work or lack of communication at which point is it to late to turn back and say I think I'll look somewhere else?

Thanks again so much for the great answers given,

Rich

How should payment be spread out after deciding on a certain designer eg. how much up front and then payments following?
I guess my general answer to such a question would be that if you're extremely satisfied that you've picked a very well respected company, then you should have no problem following the payment plan they lay out for you. I'd say that if you feel scared about paying the entire payment up front, then you're not going with the right designer. Now... realistically... Most designers will not ask for the entire fee up front. 50% upon the signing of the contract (IMPORTANT) and then 50% upon completion and delivery of all your website files.

2. Is it fair when shopping for a designer to ask them to make a 1 page mock up of the site, to see if there on track with what your looking for?
As we all learned in school, it never hurts to ask. Whether or not designers will do this for you, I do not know. I personally would not do it as I'd feel that my portfolio should be a good judging of the type of work I do. If you do ask and a company is willing, then why not.

3. If you find out the designer isn't the one for you either through work or lack of communication at which point is it to late to turn back and say I think I'll look somewhere else?
Definately a hard question and also a situation you hopefully do not end up in. It really depends on the type of people you're dealing with. I've dealt with clients in the past that I cannot just seem to please. I had one project I was about 60% done on and we agreed it was not working out. I kept the initial 50% which most designers will and then I didn't make them pay the final 50%. Hopefully doing your homework prior to landing a designer will help this situation be avoided... if something does happen, just make sure you have a signed contract, contact information and correspondance to cover your butt in case something was to happen.

Regards,
Jeff

If you are going with a firm, get a contract which includes the scope of the project and how payment will be handled.

Most firm have a payment plan already in place.
With a contract you both can be protected and the right expectation has been put in place.



Good Luck.