So, you’ve taken the big step and decided to engage a professional designer to build your web page. That’s the hard work done, right? All you need to do now is kick back, relax, and wait for the new site to roll on in. Right?
Wrong. Not all web designers are created equal, and not all web designers will be in tune with what you want. As in any other business arrangement, miscommunications happen. You don’t need to understand the technology behind how your website is made. After all, this is why you’ve hired a pro. However, by arming yourself with the following simple questions, you will be able to exercise a greater control on the final result.
Can I make minor changes to the content myself?
If you want information on your site to remain current, you need to be able to change the content yourself. The last thing you want is to wait two weeks just to get your restaurant’s summer menu uploaded, or to add details of your next client workshop. If your site is more than an online pamphlet, you will benefit from it being designed in such a way that you can upload files and make basic changes to content yourself. Often a Content Management System (or CMS) is required for such ease of use. A good working knowledge of HTML and FTP programs will also give you greater options.
Is this Flash/JavaScript/fancy widget really necessary? Will it degrade gracefully?
Have you ever you visited a website and tried to bookmark a page so you can refer back to it later, only to discover that the site has been built entirely in Flash, preventing you from bookmarking anything at all? Perhaps a site’s navigation won’t load because the JavaScript-heavy design doesn’t support the outdated browser that your day job makes you use. It doesn’t do you any good to have a fancy looking website if people can’t use your site or find it too difficult. If the allure of using the latest technology is too strong, ensure that your designer knows how to make the site “degrade gracefully”; that is, that the site will still work for people who don’t have Flash installed (iPad and iPhone users for a start), or have JavaScript turned off, or use a browser that is too old to support latest web standards like HTML5 and CSS3.
Who is responsible for keeping the site secure and safe from hackers and spammers?
Many small businesses have discovered the power of a CMS like WordPress or Joomla. However, running a CMS is like running a bundle of software in the wild on the internet. Like software on your computer, a CMS can be vulnerable as hackers and spammers find new ways of exploiting inadvertent holes in the code. This is something that needs to be taken very seriously and keeping up to date with the latest patches and updates can be a full-time job itself. Find out from your designer if ongoing security and maintenance is part of the quote, or if they provide a secondary service. It is possible to do this maintenance yourself (and many do) but you need to factor in the extra time this will require when commissioning your next web project.
Do you design to agreed industry web standards?
A site built with web standards is more likely to be cross-browser compatible and future proof than a site that has been designed to take advantage of tweaks and vendor-specific extensions of some browsers. You may choose to adopt some browser specific enhancements for your site as a “value-add” for users of that particular browser. If you do go down this path, make sure the tweaks don’t form a core part of your site’s functionality. Such designs should also adopt the logic of Flash and widgets discussed above: if you have to use it, make sure it also degrades gracefully so you don’t punish your viewers for not being early adopters.
Shane Perris
