It's not often we're astounded by the trends shaping the web design world, but a recurring theme we see time and time again is starting to make our heads spin: Quality web design is undervalued.
Sure, business owners understand that they need a website, and they may have a general idea of how they want that site to look, but things change when the time comes to commit to a designer. Once the concept of web design turns from an abstract concept into a real decision, questions about the bottom line inevitably hamstring the process.
We get it—nobody wants to be left holding the bag when an investment falls through. This understanding leads many site owners to hedge their bets by going with discount developers, with the rationale being that cheap is safe. But here’s the catch: While cheap is safe from an investment perspective, it’s no way to achieve high-impact web design.
The Web Design Process
The truth of the oft-quoted wisdom “you get what you pay for” is especially evident in the creative arts. Few creatives charge less than they think they’re worth. Hiring a cheap developer means receiving products commensurate with the price.
The top web design firms may have a higher price tag to start out with, but this doesn’t mean they’ll be more expensive over the entire life of the project. Chalk it up to how involved and complicated the web design process is. Cheap developers often lack the necessary expertise and force their clients into inefficient workflows that drain time, money, and patience.
- Step one of web design involves planning and performing research on the client, his/her technical considerations, the needs of the brand, and data about the target audience. Cheap designers may lack an efficient system for gathering this essential information and may omit critical branding details that will come back to haunt the client later.
- The next step involves idea generation based on the customer's specifications. This concept is where the top web design firms shine—and where the worst tend to stumble. The best web design companies may be expensive, but provide completely original concepts that make them worth the cost.
- After ideation, designers must establish workflows, wireframe sitemaps, and benchmarks that inform project development. If you’ve ever worked with a less-than-stellar developer, you know that this phase is where errors from steps one and two come home to roost. Without the established systems of data gathering and creative exploration, cheap developers are often forced to piece together sitemaps with what little they have. And in the long run, this means that developers will need to commit more time and energy to achieve the same result as developers that understood it on the first go.
- As the project progresses, testing, deployment, and ongoing maintenance will be necessary. These processes can involve technical considerations related to checking HTML/CSS code, optimizing the site across browser and platform, and establishing a working relationship after deployment. Hiring discount developers exposes site owners to increased risk during each of these phases. And if the final product isn’t what they were expecting, it’ll be back to the drawing board for another iteration of this process.
Getting it Right the First Time
While site owners might be turned off by the price tags of the top web design firms, they need to take the costs of the entire project lifecycle into account. Yes, it’s an investment up front—but it’s an investment that offers guarantees of quality and protection throughout the whole design process.