The next thing you need to do is examine these creations asking yourself these EXACT 5 questions:

[+] Does the overall site look very busy or too plain?

[+] Do the colors and images suit this particular site’s purpose?

[+] Is the navigation easy to understand as well as easy to use? Does it employ a well thought-out menu structure? If you cannot easily navigate the sites you are looking at, say thank you very much and look for another developer.

[+] Is each page of the website clearly defined? Can you click through several pages seen where each is clearly marked with a heading?

[+] Do all the sites have a unique look? When you look at several creations from the same developer, do they start to look identical, possibly just similar, because if so, say thank you and look for another developer.

Any search is going to find that the costs associated from one developer to another may vary quite considerably. You may find a college student, even a high school student, who is trying to build that all-important portfolio who can offer you a more-than-competent designed website at far below the going rate.

This is especially true if you’re seeking to have quite the basic website requiring nothing that is outlandishly customized or employs a lot of scripting for interactive components. Consider the fact that student web developers are so enthusiastic and constantly on top of their game that they may indeed be a great choice looking for something that is unique as well as functional at a very good price.

However, you may find that if you’re in need of specifically customized graphic designs and many server-side or database driven features, you may need to call upon an experienced developer who will obviously charge much more.

In any case, student or a veteran developer, it is highly recommended that you acquire several quotes, and make sure that these are always odd numbers so you’re not comparing one-to-one, but will likely compare one-to-one-to-one.

Since the goal of the majority of sites on the Internet is to conduct business, you’re going to want to find a web developer who has fundamental search engine optimization skills when designing a website. Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, is the procedure designing a website so it will rank as high as possible for certain targeted keywords on a search engine like Google.

You’re going to want any visitors looking for you to find you in several ways including using your company name, but you may also want them to find you looking for your particular type of company in your specific city. The ability to rank for certain keywords is a large part for your organic marketing success when people look for you on the Internet. If the developer you choose is not conversable with SEO tactics, the site you purchase will never attain high search engine ranking.

Like every business in the real world, those existing in cyberspace can profit from using business statistics that track certain trends in certain time periods. The same types of statistics are useful to gain an understanding of just how well your website is functioning as a commerce tool.

Therefore, make sure that your selected web developer understands use of a powerful tool like Google Analytics and directs you to sign up for an account where you can obtain a simple code that the developer can pace at the bottom of each one of your website pages.

If your developer does not mention this, make sure that you do. It should not be a deal this breaker, since you might buy artwork without the artist recommending a frame. However, it does concern the installation of code that does fall into the web developer’s realm of activity.

Another important aspect to consider when hiring a web developer is post-construction maintenance. The trend in recent years is to develop websites that include a content management system (CMS) where site owners and users have the ability to make simple updates like changing text and uploading and adding photos.

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You will never completely eliminate the time consuming aspect of testing.  A tester has to assume the mantle of a user at varying skill levels, performing different activities within the site.  Allowing them time to do this, then provide feedback and results, then analyzing those results does take time, but it should be viewed as an investment, not just a cost.

There is nothing more important that having a new design tested purely from the users perspective.  The site has been designed for them after all.  We have been staring at the site and working our way round it for days, if not weeks so we can’t test it ourselves.

Three useful ways of getting inexpensive, reliable user testing is by using the online tools Userfly, UserTesting.com and ClickTale.  All three use real users to test your site and provide feedback on the experience.

Userfly is only suitable for smaller, simpler sites as it has problems with playing back the review in an iFrame which doesn’t match the element of the site they are using.  If the design is simple and it’s pretty obvious what action was taken and when, this isn’t a problem.

UserTesting.com is a much more thorough and reliable testing system, albeit more expensive.  The site allows you to specify the demographic of the testers, how many you need and what you want them to do on your site.  They arrange for the testing and provide a video so you can see exactly what the users did, and listen to an audio commentary the user made while doing it.  They then provide a written summary of the testing including what elements the testers did or didn’t like.

ClickTale is similar to UserTesting.com but slightly cheaper for some of the options.  It also records user behavior and provides a video and written summary of feedback for you to use as you see fit.  The testing also includes a heat map generated during testing for you to analyze hot spots on each page.  This is great for refining navigation or page content.

These aren’t the only three user testing tools out there.  We have found them to be the most reliable and who provide the best kind of data and feedback.  Detailed information on how end users utilize the new site is essential in making the most of the design and ensuring its success.  Using impartial, user oriented testers is by far the best way of achieving this, which is why we suggest using this method of user testing.

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What follows is a list of some of the sources we use to keep up with developments and learn new skills.  Some of them teaches us something new, while others reinforce what we already know.  We don’t know everything, as much as we might like to believe we do.  Each website in this list offers us something, and they are included in this list in case they can help you too.

One of the most popular resources on the net for graphic design is Smashing Magazine, (www.smashingmagazine.com).  This is a well established site with a regular audience of web developers and graphic designers.  It has imparted knowledge since it began and continues that trend to this day with plentiful tutorials on web design, Photoshop and all the other toys we get to play with during the day.  The forum is remarkably quiet for a site so lively, but the information it contains is sound.

Next up is tuts+, (www.tutsplus.com).  This is another high quality site and one we use here in our office in Naples.  Graphic design at its best with high quality tutorials written by experts.  It is the hub for all of the Tuts+ sites and is great place to start when searching for information or inspiration.  The site is aimed at beginners and pro’s alike, but is more geared towards advanced users.  It leads off to subordinate sites like psdtuts, for Photoshop, aetuts for Adobe After Effects and so on.

Another useful site is called CreativePro, (www.creativepro.com).  This is another resource site aimed at existing graphic designers.  There are more categories and tutorials on that site than any sane person could read.  There is literally something for everyone here.  Beginners may find things a little hard going as most of the content is for advanced users, but who said design was easy?

Sitepoint is the last site we are going to mention here, (www.sitepoint.com).  This is another site aimed at experienced graphic designers or web developers, but has a lot of information and resources for the newcomer too.  Often there are other tips, like how to run the business side of things, or practical advice for clients and that kind of thing.  Sitepoint has been around a few years, just like Smashing and has built up a loyal and vocal fan base.  The marketplace is an excellent place to go if you have spare templates, JavaScripts or other stuff to sell too.

Those are just four of what I am sure are thousands of sites out there.  They each offer something different and are lively enough to keep us going back every week.  Hopefully they will give other Naples graphic design enthusiasts a hand up as they have done to us.

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