Last year, I hosted FaceBook Fridays, where I posed a question at the INDIE FaceBook Page and shared the insightful answers people shared at this blog. You can read some of the more popular FaceBook Friday posts here (about joining competitors's FaceBook Pages) and here (about attracting more fans to your FaceBook Page).
In recognition of the fact that we know more collectively than we do alone, I decided to ask and share more questions and answers. I think it adds great value when people can quickly and easily share how they meet the challenges of running a small business. Last week's question was: What are the most important things you look for in a website designer. It was hard to choose which one to feature at the top of this post, but after careful thought, I selected Emily Caswell's tip.
The best website designer doesn't let the “design” get in the way of the “purpose”…if it's an e-commerce site, it should facilitate sales. It should be search engine AND customer-friendly. It should NOT be a “whiz-bang” addition to someone's portfolio.
This comment made me think about hair dressers who are determined to design a style they like without a thought for what their clients are comfortable with and can actually incorporate into their lives and complement their goals and help them present themselves comfortably to the world.
Website design can behave in similar ways. Designers like to try new things, that's why they are designers. They tend to stay up on the newest “whiz-bang” options and are eager to find opportunities to try them out. Emily's comment reminds of our responsibility as clients to clearly articulate exactly what we want so our designer does not have free reign to experiment at our expense.
An e-commerce site should facilitate sales. A blog should make it fun and easy for readers to enjoy content. A speaker's site should make it easy to see the speaker in action and hire her for your next conference. Etc.
Thanks for the tip Emily, and thanks to everyone else who contributed super useful tips. Come on over and read all the tips, and learn from the experiences (and mistakes) of others.
And while you're at it, you may also like these other recent conversations:
* what women would you like to see on the cover of Success Magazine?
* why haven't you reserved your name as a dot com?
* and much more INDIE fun all the time!
Question: What do you think are the most important things to look for in a website designer?
