It should go without saying, that you should insist on getting your web design exactly how you want it, first time round. When I say first time round, I don’t mean that you should expect your designer to produce exactly what you want in your first concept, I mean, that you should be sure he delivers to your exact requirements after the number of revisions required. In the past, I have foolishly approved a design, finished payment and received the files, only to decide a couple of weeks later, that the design was going in the wrong direction, and wouldn’t be suitable for my site. This, is a pain. It poses two fundamental issues: Time, and money. Not only have you wasted time waiting for it to be completed in the first place, and sheded out money that has now gone to waste, but you now have to wait longer for a new design to be completed, and pay yet more money. We can only blame ourselves in this situation, but there are some ways to avoid it!
Get the opinion of other web developers, and even peers.
Post your design up for critique on forums. See what the buzz is, and what kind of feedback you’re getting.
Choose a design you plan to keep.
When reviewing your design: you should have the mentality that the design you choose will be the design you keep and use for a reasonable amount of time. Don’t think “This bit’s not that good, but I’ll get it redone in the next version”.
Make sure YOU know exactly what you want.
Might seem an obvious thing to say, but if you don’t know what you want: how can you expect your designer too? You need to make sure your designer is clear on exactly what they need to produce for you. Which brings me nicely onto my next point.
Write a fully detailed brief.
Write a document briefing your designer on what you want. It’s good for you both to have a reference to check back to. This makes the design process a great deal smoother, and certainly works much better than briefing your designer over an IM. IM is good for things you missed out or revisions: but I don’t recommend it as a way to brief your designer.
Remember: It’s much easier to change a design before the coding stage, or better still, as a revision. So get it right - first time!
