Comments on: How to hire a web designer

By: Sherice Jacob

Sherice Jacob — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:14:43 +0000

Adobe Pagemill? Wow.. That was back in the days when people used to code by HAND! in Notepad!

Any good designer should not only create a site that the owner can update, but also give the page owner the tools and information they need to make those changes. So if someone doesn’t know how to create a hyperlink, it’s a good idea to either show them a tutorial of how it’s done, or walk them through it when you put the site up on the server and they’re ready to take over.

Having a site can be a daunting at first, but if you dip a toe or two in, pretty soon you’ll be able to make a big splash

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:51:16 +0000

I’m glad this strikes a chord. One of the things I struggle against with clients is their feeling that their website should be “one of a kind” and not based on a template or framework. I say if you pick the right framework (which we all seem to agree is Thesis ) then you try to be as creative and original as your budget and skills allow. And then you call it good enough and focus on your content.

By: vona

vona — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:47:45 +0000

I just wrote a post on my site about this. I had a friend just spend £5000 on a site. I had a stern conversation with her about how she could have got the same thing with wordpress.

By: Maureen Carruthers

Maureen Carruthers — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:18:32 +0000

Agreed. Any process where the way to fix something is “e-mail the changes to so-and-so; and she’ll be happy to make them” is a problem. Even if you don’t usually feel compelled to be in control of everything, giving up direct control of your website content will backfire–usually by you deciding that the small changes aren’t worth it (because the process is so clunky) so your site ends up being just a little bit wrong in all kinds of ways. Not good.

By: Rachel Mathews

Rachel Mathews — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:04:44 +0000

I had one of my websites done by a pro and he linked it with Contribute so I could update the text whenever I wanted and add extra photos. That’s great but it’s all I can do. I can’t change the order or content of the navigation, the font, colour or anything to do with how the website looks.

With my new website I’ve gone down the WordPress- Thesis route and it’s so much easier. It took me a little time to get the hang of it because I stupidly didn’t think to getting coaching or it set up properly! I wish I had discovered you, Joe, a bit earlier – you would have saved me masses of time!

By: Iain Gray

Iain Gray — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:29:36 +0000

I agree totally with this – I’ve seen far too many people spend several thousand dollars on stuff that looks nice, but it actually useless for marketing purposes, and nearly impossible to change.

WordPress/thesis solves that problem