Web Design - Yourself vs Professional

A Web Hosting Article Contributed by Frances Rhea

Web Design for a Successful Site

Web Design is not for everyone.

After visiting lots of Internet sites, you have decided it's time to get a web site yourself. You have visited lots of places that make it look really easy. You think you can do it yourself. After all, how hard can it be?

Web Design Requirements

What you see is not what is behind a good web design. Sometime when you are browsing the web, in your browser click on View, Source. A window will open in Notepad and show you the inner workings of the web design. See all those words inside the "<>" tags? Those are codes which tell the web browser how to render the web page. As you can see, it is not so simple after all.

Now you're thinking but what about the software editors that say you can design your own web site using WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). Yes, they will make web design easier but they are fallible. Editing software does not write strict HTML. This means that some browsers will not see the page correctly. Some visitors will leave your site because of it.

Web Design Alternatives

You could take the time to learn HTML. There are free and paid courses available at schools that will show you how to do it right. This can take hours. If you don't have the time or resources, this may not be a viable solution.

Your other alternative is to hire a web designer to do the work for you. There are lots of technical job sites that provide profiles of designers who willing and capable of designing a good web site. Just a couple are elance.com and dice.com.

Choosing a Web Designer

First and foremost, you will want to see sites that the designer has previously worked on. If they cannot provide you with links, find another individual. If they provide links, try making your window smaller on the link provided to see if the site still works in the window. A good design should shrink with the window size allowing you to still see the entire width of the page.

Look at graphics they used. Are the images clear and did they download fast?

Now look at the color scheme. Is it pleasing to the eye making it simple to read? Or do you have to struggle to understand the information presented?

Click on some of the links provided. Do they take you to the pages indicated?

Watch the bottom left corner of your browser window. Do you see indications that a scripting error has occurred?

Now, try out their form. Send a message and see if it seems to go through. Do you get an error page or told that the form is incorrect?

If you run into any of these problems, find another designer. There are lots of individuals available who can provide you with the help you need at a reasonable cost!