Why Hire A Web Designer?
You've been researching. There are so many options available to you. There's software that
can produce a complete website with just a few mouse clicks. Hey! You don't even need to
know anything about HTML or scripting. It's all right there for you!
It's true, there are many WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) website builders around.
Some are free and some cost in the "take a second mortgage on the house" range. I've worked
with many of these applications and do have a few that can be useful, but the fact is, if I
do use one, I will spend many hours repairing the source code of the page.
WYSIWYG applications generally had what is called "proprietary tags" to the HTML code and
these tags may work in one browser, but totally destroy the appearance or functionality of
the site in another.
Some WYSIWYG applications allow for very little, if any, true creativity in the design of
the site and instead rely on "templates" or "themes". Using templates is certainly fast,
but the results look like so many other sites on the web. Your individuality, your
business' individuality can't shine through. Think of the confusion to someone who searches
the web for a product and turns up 20 different sites that look almost precisely the same.
I know when this happens to me, my first assumption is "this looks to me like a ripoff".
Having a site that looks like everyone else's establishes distrust in a web user and loses
the sale.
What is involved in building your own web design without a WYSIWYG program? Let's see if I
can take this back to when I began working with the web when it was still young.
The obvious first step was to search the web for site building tutorials. There are many of
them available but of course, these too have their limitations. Tutorials are normally set
up to teach you how to do one layout, for instance, a layout with a logo at the top, a menu
on the left, some text and perhaps an image. they will show you how to do a simple link or
two. What if you want your menu in the center, or at the bottom, or right side? How do you
split up the page into columns? What about those cool effects that make the links change
colors when you run a mouse over them?
The next step is to head for the bookstore and find books about HTML. On the surface, HTML
is a fairly simple language to learn. But, like every other language, it has it's
idiosyncrasies and nuances that are only learned with time and experience. There's also the
problem that code that works in one browser, Internet Explorer for example, may produce
nothing but a blank page in another. Believe me, I learned this the hard way.
You can build a site using HTML books as a reference. You might even have something you
really like and will keep for awhile. HTML, however, does not do everything that you see on
a website. For instance, you can't build graphic elements like navigation buttons using
HTML.
Graphics creation and editing requires software meant for the purpose. These can be quite pricey and, even more so, difficult to operate. Graphic design carries with it its own language. There will be new terms and techniques to be learned and the process of turning out web worthy graphics is often very time consuming. A friend of mine, a professional traditional artist, recently told me of his decision to attempt digital artwork. This man who makes his living as a painter had only one comment: "I can't draw a straight line!"
Let's say that you have gotten through the HTML and graphic design of your site. Congratulate yourself, it was no simple task. You show your site first to a few friends, your spouse, your family. Your ten year old is quite web savvy (aren't all kids?) and says "yeah, that's nice dad....but....Justin's dad has a website and his buttons change colors when you point to them." Guess what? Yep, you guessed it. More languages to learn.
Javascript, CGI, PHP, and DHTML, just to mention a few languages, are what bring a website to the next level. In order to have your pages not just sit there, they need to have some interactivity. Now, I'm not promoting websites that flash and jump around. Those take too much time to load and the visitor gets too distracted to notice what the point of your website is. I'm talking about the simple things: links that change color when you point to them, forms that actually do send you an email, pages that interact with a database, and pages that act as a shopping cart for your products. These increase the functionality of your website and make the site more interesting to the user. Remember, the goal is to have your site be memorable, yet usable.
Let's say that you've gotten through all the above aspects of building your own site. Now what do you do with it? It does no good sitting on the computer in your den. You need to make it visible to the world. I remember the week that I finished my first website design. I searched the web until my head was spinning for the elusive web host. Now, you might think this would be fairly straightforward. It isn't. I want to say there's a whole new language to be learned here but I'm afraid you'll roll your eyes, so let's just say that you'll need to learn a whole lot of new words. The worst part is, all web hosting companies make promises at least until they have your money. The trick is finding a host that actually delivers what is promised.
I could go on like this for many more paragraphs but would have to list this as an e-book rather than an article and would probably put you to sleep.
If someone has the patience and perseverance to learn what it takes to build his/her own website then I am all for it. I take great joy in the web and love it when users become doers. For most people, those that have lives to live and businesses to run, building a website is just not practical. It is time consuming and patience trying. Often, the result is less than desired. It makes much more sense to hire a web design expert and spend your time running the business that you so want to thrive.
A professional web designer will take your ideas and turn them into reality and have your website bringing you new customers, new sales, and new friends quickly and efficiently. A web design expert is well versed in not only the ways to achieve the look, but in color psychology, sales approaches, marketing, copy writing, and hosting issues. You already know your business. A web designer knows the world wide web.
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