Hiring a web designer for my small business

August 3, 2010 1:05 PM

The small business I work for wants a new website. I'm in charge of finding the people to overhaul it. I've never done this before. I don't want to be the Client from Hell, but I also don't want my inexperience to accidentally screw over the company. Help! Details inside.

I'm in charge of hiring a designer or team of designers to re-haul our website. We're a small, entrepreneurial business, but we have money to work with. (Assume for this question we have the money to pay a designer a fair wage.)

I've never hired or worked with designers, and while I'll be pinging my network & the internets for tips and ideas, I'd love advice from Ask MeFi. I've never re-hauled a website.

Assume that I'm a complete novice at managing this type of project. I want to make sure I get my company the best site they can have, while treating the designer fairly. I don't want to be one of those Clients From Hell!

I'll take all general tips on hiring, working with and paying a designer for a complete website overhaul, but here are some specific questions. It's possible I'm not asking the right questions, or using the correct lingo. Please let me know that, too!

1. Hiring a designer. Is it better to go with a firm, or a free-lance designer? I assume a portfolio is provided. Who says the price on the design first - the designer or the company?

2. Once I've found a designer, what's the best format to describe our vision for the site? If you're a designer, what do you prefer for the initial vision/proposal? What makes your job easier?

3. As a designer, what makes a Dream Client? How do you prefer the back-and-forth to go over the course of the project?

4. What's a realistic time-line for something like this? (Not sure if that's an answerable question.) The site will be an informative business site, but will also include things like a community forum, a video library and an online store.

Lastly, 5: What's a fair wage for something? Or, maybe a better question, what's a good resource/rubric/guideline for deciding on a fair wage?

Again, I'm a complete novice at this (be gentle!), and will be talking to several people to get their advice, but I want to make sure my inexperience doesn't get in the way of a great new site.

If it matters: I'm in Minnesota. I'm the only person in the company who will be spearheading the project, but I will be running everything by our CEO.

Thank you! I know these are big questions, but I appreciate any help you can provide.

posted by Laura Macbeth to Work & Money (13 answers total)

Sortfolio has a nice listing of web designers.
posted by schmod at 1:50 PM on August 3, 2010

Best answer: A reputable freelance designer will likely be cheaper than a firm. The latter are set up to handle large jobs for large clients, and don't scale down well at all. A reputable freelance designer (web designer/builder, not a print designer--make sure you clarify and avoid print designers looking to move into web) will also know the technical people who need to be brought in. Online shopping carts are done by a backend guy like me, typically.

You can expect that if you find a good web guy, he'll do a degree of management of others for you--like the backend guy for the shopping cart.

Get quotes from several and compare them. From what you described, you could spend anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 (though much more likely at the lower end of that) depending on features.

To be a good client, first come up with a detailed list of features you want. If you want your online store to work with coupons, specify that. If you want videos embedded in certain pages, specify that. If you want to be able to edit the content yourself, specify that. For all the logical parts of your website, note how often the content will change, because how it is changed will be part of the overall design.

A good way to get all these details out is to write out some user stories for yourself, as in "The user comes to our site because they saw our print ad. They see the product page for this product and want to buy it, so they click the 'buy now' button, which takes them to the shopping cart. On the shopping cart page they see 'customers also bought this...' ".

Basically, be as detailed as possible from a functional perspective, and let the web guy tell you the technical side and associated costs.

Lastly, understand the concept of technical debt. This means that you'll make choices that will affect the costs now and in the future. For example, online shopping carts like OSCommerce or Zencart are free and widespread and have large communities offering add-on modules, so they will seem like the cheap solution now; but they're also difficult to upgrade and customize, and over time you'll incur greater expense maintaining them, likely. The technical debt you're incurring is future maintenance and upgrades, and the best business decision may be to incur that debt now. The only problem is not understanding that you're building technical debt that will need to be paid off later.
posted by fatbird at 2:06 PM on August 3, 2010

Best answer: Look at other sites you like, and check who designed them. Sometimes it's as easy as checking the footer of the home page, and other times you'll have to call the site owner. Call other businesses similar to yours in terms of money, size and product, and see who they used, and whether they'd recommend them -- as a communications professional, I've gotten several calls like this, and have no problem being candid about my experience.

Once you've gotten some ideas, you should be able to look up designers online and check out their portfolios. The portfolios should be online and easily viewable; I would be wary of a design firm/freelancer who isn't capable of posting their best work online.

I'd let them name a price first. It should be included in the project brief or scope of work statement they draw up after y'all figure out what you want the site to be like. For your site, I'd suggest a firm rather than a freelancer. A firm will have a staff of people who all are good at different things; rather than trying to find someone who is a good project manager, and who is good with clients, and can design, and who can program, and who can write, use a team if you can.

To be a good client, let the designers do their work and design. Don't get too hung up things. Yes, you want them to be right, but don't go back and forth with vague things like, "Can you make this look more fun?" I've worked for people who say they want things one way, then change their mind and require hours of changes, and then want to put things back the way they were. You'll pay a lot for it, and it's not helpful to completing the project.

Things I've learned from three professional site overhauls:
1. It will take longer than you think it will. Wayyyy longer. Seriously. Whatever time frame you and the designers decide, tell the higher-ups it will take 3-6 months longer. I'd guess that your site could take as long as a year, depending on how long it takes to get things approved at your company. Yes, really. Yes, this is before you add the 3-6 months of padding.

2. Too many people at your company will want to get involved and make their program/agenda seem more important than it is. Don't let them.

3. Beware feature creep -- your site cannot be all things to everyone. Before you start, figure out what you want from your site. What do you want it to do? How big does it need to be (e.g., a simple brochure site, or hundreds of pages of info and shared resources)? Who is your audience and how do they learn? Who is writing the copy (again, keep it limited to 1-2 people so that your message and voice aren't diluted)? Who is testing the site before it goes live, and how?

4. Once you've figured out your strategy and who you're hiring, sit down with them and hash out all the process details. How do they like to work? Will you have weekly meetings?
posted by runningwithscissors at 2:10 PM on August 3, 2010

I've been planning new and overhauling existing websites for 15 years.

The number one mistake (IMO) is focusing too much on what the new site will look like before determining what it needs to DO.

Form follows function. The back half of the project will go much smoother if the front half is spent determining the functions that the redesigned site needs to have.

Design can have its own set of requirements too (color, typeface, logo usage), so bring it up, but don't ask for design comps until you're satisfied that your supplier has a very firm grasp of the functional requirements, which btw they should document for you.

Memail if you'd like to chat about your project in more detail.
posted by bricksNmortar at 3:41 PM on August 3, 2010

I second what everyone has said. Function first, form second.

Unless they're being paid for each and every change request designers and programmers alike both hate being yanked around on a chain with frequent changes in requests and direction.
posted by thorny at 4:02 PM on August 3, 2010

Best answer:

1. Hiring a designer. Is it better to go with a firm, or a free-lance designer? I assume a portfolio is provided. Who says the price on the design first - the designer or the company?

You should know your budget bounds beforehand. People who come to me and say, "I want to spend between $ and $, how much of a website can I get for that" and "can I expect these features with that" usually get much better service than people who say "I have no idea what I want to spend but you sound cheap/expensive. How much for these features?"

As far as firm vs. freelancer, I'm a freelancer but I would say this:

If you go freelancer, you want a freelancer with a lot of experience. At least 10 years pro-level experience.

If you go firm, you want a firm that has a great rep. Talk to their clients if you can, and ask them how responsive the firm is to their requests for support, changes to the site, etc. The #1 reason why I pick up clients from firms is that the firm was taking too long to respond to even simple emails. They managed the initial launch fine, then just moved on to other clients.

You want to build a relationship with the vendor. That is crucial -- the web evolves so much that you will need somebody to talk to frequently about your website.

2. Once I've found a designer, what's the best format to describe our vision for the site? If you're a designer, what do you prefer for the initial vision/proposal? What makes your job easier?

There's too much to talk about here. I have a questionnaire I have clients fill out. Any good designer should have something similar. This helps guide our discussion. I also bring along a camera to our first meeting, and record anything that will help me establish a feel for the client's story.

If the designer simply takes what you give them and says "thanks, I'll get back to you with a design," BIG red flag.

3. As a designer, what makes a Dream Client? How do you prefer the back-and-forth to go over the course of the project?

Every business is different. The designer wants just as much benefit-of-doubt from you as you want from your designer when it comes to your knowledge of web design.

You may get a little flustered that the designer needs so much information from you.

You may get a little flustered when you see a designer's idea and it doesn't look like your favorite website.

You may get a little flustered when you think of all the thousands of designers out there and wonder if you could have landed someone that would have been "better," even if you have no idea what might be wrong.

Typical buyer's remorse-type stuff that happens in any transaction.

4. What's a realistic time-line for something like this? (Not sure if that's an answerable question.) The site will be an informative business site, but will also include things like a community forum, a video library and an online store.

Wow!!! That's a lot of stuff. In my opinion, you should develop this in stages -- make sure the designer/developer understands what will be required of the site eventually, and then just start off with "informative business site;" once that's done, add the other things one-by-one.

I say that because I've been through this sort of deployment before, and it is SUPER easy for both designer and client to get bogged down. You will be playing to the worst procrastinating tendencies on both sides if you plan to launch this all in one go, with a big bang.

You will get flustered, guaranteed. You will need milestones just as much as the designer will. Don't space them out too far.

Also: If you get somebody who acts like these are all easy features to provide, and it shouldn't be a problem to get this all running fast and cheap, red flag again.

The cheapest, most inexperienced designers will go out and grab Free software that provides these features, and install that on your site without significant modification. That is usually far from ideal if you're going to be basing a business around it. Usually the free stuff needs a lot of work to blend together well.

Also, they need to provide training. Make sure you can get training -- video, in-person, whatever. I prefer online video.

Lastly, 5: What's a fair wage for something? Or, maybe a better question, what's a good resource/rubric/guideline for deciding on a fair wage?

You might want to start by just calling people and working your way through the "features I need vs. money I have" question as best you can.

If you just want a quick answer to start with, tell them that, tell them you'd love to talk later but for now you just need to know a really rough starting figure for the features you want. Tell them you're not shopping by price necessarily, but you need to figure out your budget before you start discussions.

Anyway...lots more I could tell you. Use your gut. Good luck!
posted by circular at 4:36 PM on August 3, 2010

By the way, I mentioned that "that's a lot of stuff," but of course it doesn't have to be. A community forum could be really rudimentary, almost like a guest book. A video library could use a third-party hosting service like Youtube for the videos. And an online store could be as simple as a Paypal shopping cart.

With that in mind, think about the foundation you want to build down the road. Does your company have the resources to build an online community? That will take at least one administrator/moderator who knows what they're doing.

See if you can establish a reference point for these features with your web developer. Is there an existing online community you want to emulate? You can then talk about what would be required to get there.
posted by circular at 4:46 PM on August 3, 2010

Response by poster: You guys are GREAT. This is exactly what I was hoping to read. Thank you!
posted by Laura Macbeth at 5:22 PM on August 3, 2010

Best answer: Pretty much what runningwithscissors and bricksNmortar said, especially about feature creep and padding your time projection. (The two are intimately related.)

When you begin working on the web site overhaul, whether it's with a new in-house employee, a firm, or a freelancer, you should have a kick-off meeting. The major topic of discussion should be the scope of the project; that is, what are all the major things this new site absolutely must include? Major sections, dynamic features (such as a contact form, or an image gallery, or a shopping cart, et cetera), special requirements like Section 508 compliance, everything. After the kickoff meeting, the designer/developer should produce a working specification that you both sign off on. You're basically both saying "Ok, this is what we are both agreeing that this web site will include. No more, no less. Introducing other functionality is off the table until this first iteration is built."

In theory, this is great. In practice, the line is almost never that firm, which can in turn push deadlines back. Probably the biggest culprit is vagueness in the initial specification; A one-word line item form "Blog" could mean practically anything, and the developer may go off and build something simple and functional for one user, while you're expecting something massive with multiple users, complex permissions, yearly and monthly archives, threaded comments, and so on... or vice versa; your needs may be incredibly simple, but the developer assumes you need something crazy and pads their estimate accordingly. So, although the end product almost never sticks exactly like the initial spec, the more specific you can get the better.

Also, I use this answer a lot in web site questions, but: if you're not already I would strongly consider using a Content Management System for your revamped web site... it almost goes without saying these days, but I still see a whole lot of new static HTML or hybrid, hand-coded HTML & PHP web sites getting build, which are difficult and expensive to maintain and put you at the mercy of "the web guy" whenever you need to fix a typo or change a phone number. Most CMSes provide you with a browser-based interface and rich text editors for managing your site; no HTML or FTP necessary, and depending on the size of your company upkeep of the site can be distributed among several people instead of always falling to the bottom of one person's to-do pile.

And finally, I will leave you with these, which are both pretty painfully accurate depictions of clients from hell:

If architects had to work like software developers

and

How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell

(But I know you will not be those people. Good luck!)
posted by usonian at 7:26 PM on August 3, 2010

Er, ...A one-word line item for "Blog"...
posted by usonian at 7:31 PM on August 3, 2010

If you do not want to be the Client from Hell, visit ClientCopia. Start at the first quote ... view ten quotes at a time. Just view the first, oh, two hundred quotes total. Maybe three hundred. The site eventually developed into a Bitching About Your Job site, which wasn't what it was supposed to be about, so that's why I suggest you start at the beginning.

That's the stuff you generally do not want to do. You probably already know not to do these things, but in case you don't ...
posted by adipocere at 8:52 PM on August 3, 2010

Best answer: So, I'm a project manager for web development.

Some thoughts:
1) Any proposal that I put together for a potential client takes into account the fact that 'we really don't know what it is you don't know'. We can make smart-people-who-are-professionals guesses. But even I get burnt out answering the same question over and over again in different ways. So the fact that you don't know what you don't know? Not such a big deal. Just be honest with yourself about what you're expecting, what you have already, and what someone else reallyreally wants your website to do. You'll probably have to have the 'glossary of terms' conversation a few times.

2) Take a good look at your organization. Is that organization in a place where resources can really be put to the website design? Or is it going to be that one thing that sits in someone's email inbox for a week or two like the forgotten stepchild? Do you have someone with technical aptitude who can take it over after it's built?
I'm the first to admit that trying to schedule ongoing maintenance into the busy life of a web shop is difficult. You have to know exactly what you want, and it ideally should be large enough to be treated like a Phase 2 of the first project.

3) Plans are fun. Plans are useful. Plans are the thing that lay out the house you want to build. If you don't lay out the plans, what might have been your awesome house with the automatic light sensors will look something more like a washing machine. Functional, yes. Works as designed? Absolutely. But the expectation mismatch will taste like ashes.

Message me if you want more concrete advice.
posted by msamye at 12:04 AM on August 4, 2010

Response by poster: Thank you again. As the project draws closer, I'll be referencing this thread & probably MeMailing some of you.
posted by Laura Macbeth at 9:49 PM on August 4, 2010