If you are a business owner, you will understand the importance of collaboration. It may be your business, but when building something fantastic, you never do it completely alone. The same is true for your website – regardless of whether it’s an e-commerce store, a portfolio page, or a business site.
Building your website on WordPress.com, you have infinite possibilities to create the site of your dreams. However, depending on your skillset and availability, you may choose to hire a web designer or our Built By WordPress.com experts.
We have put together some tips and best practices for working with WordPress.com designers to help you get the most out of your website. This list works for any designer you choose, but we’ll concentrate on those we know best – those from our Built By WordPress.com team. Let’s get started!
The Number One Reason You Need A Well-Designed Website
Not having a website for your business today doesn’t mean you will fail. But being discoverable online and reaching more customers beyond your location can be helpful when growing your business – that’s for sure!
With your website being a peek into your business, people will take whatever they see at face value. They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. However, 75% of consumers admit they are judging a business’ credibility based on their website design.
What does that mean for you? It means that a well-designed website can help you grow your business, but a half-heartedly designed website with a bad user experience will drive people away.
You Need To Know About These Design Elements
Responsive Design
When future-proofing your website, a responsive design should be at the top of your priority list. As more and more people discover businesses online on their mobile devices, your site’s user experience should be spotless and fast on any smartphone. Experienced WordPress.com designers will focus on creating responsive designs. You should avoid adding complicated and performance-heavy plugins and themes to your website. These can sabotage your site, making it less mobile-responsive or diminishing the user experience in various ways.
Converts Well
Another critical aspect when designing your website is to focus on conversion. Most websites are designed with a goal in mind, such as selling products (e-commerce), lead generation (business site), content consumption (blog, web magazine), or similar. Keep this goal in mind when designing your website and the way people interact with it. After all, you want the site to be as easy as possible to navigate for your visitors. Always try to take a step back and imagine visiting your site for the first time.
How To Communicate Your Design Vision
To get your dream website built, you need to communicate your vision to the designer. The more details you can offer, the better the result will be. Be sure to discuss the look and feel, site functionality, and, most importantly, your website’s goal. Your goal will have an impact on the site’s style. A site focused on educating users on your product will likely need to look different than a site focused on selling more of your product. Just like with any collaboration – this process is a two-way street. It’s important to remember that, so be prepared to give your designer input.
Start by researching and finding websites that you like, as well as those you dislike. Pay attention to the navigation, contact forms, layout, product pages, and more on other sites. This will give you some inspiration for what you might want on your own website. Give your designer your curated list as a reference.
Then, write a detailed description and brief and ideally send it to the designer before your initial interview. That gives them enough time to process your ideas and envision how they will build the site. It also gives them the chance to find possible problems and issues that might arise.
Essential Questions To Ask Your WordPress.Com Website Designer
To find a suitable WordPress.com designer for your website, you should ask these questions first:
- What is your experience in building sites like mine?
- Can I see a portfolio of your work?
- Are you available right now?
With those initial questions answered, ask these questions next:
- Will this design fit within my budget? (It is important to know what your budget is and to communicate that with your designer. Feature adjustments can be made if necessary to work within your budget).
- What is the timeline I can expect for this project?
- What are the exact deliverables of the project?
Finally, one of the most important questions you will need to ask your WordPress.com web designer is this:
- How can I access the backend of my website so that I can make changes to it in the future?
You won’t want to be forced to rely on a developer every time you need to make changes to your content. That would usually result in a long wait and an expensive bill. Luckily, the WordPress.com interface and the Gutenberg editor make it easy for you to make changes to your site.
It’s crucial to discuss this with your web designer beforehand. When your designer understands that you will make future changes, they will design all major functionality with user-friendly accessibility in mind.
That covers the basic questions you should ask your designer, but what kinds of questions can you expect your designer to ask of you? In general, if the designer asks a lot of questions about your business, your customers, and the goals of your website, that’s generally a good sign. It shows that they want to fully understand your business needs so they can create a site that works for you. This also enables the designer to anticipate any potential kinks in the project. It’s not always a red flag if the developer doesn’t ask any questions, but it could mean that the site won’t meet your specific needs or that potential problems will crop up later in the project. Clear communication in both directions will help your website project succeed without a lot of hassle along the way.
3 Reasons To Choose Built By WordPress.Com To Design Your Website
When working with Built By WordPress.com, our premium website building service, you not only have access to one web designer but to an entire team of designers, developers, and WordPress.com experts. You will be working with individuals that are best suited to the needs of your website. For example, if you plan to create a small web store, your “Built By” team will include a web designer that specializes in building e-commerce websites.
A Dedicated Account Manager Facilitates Communication With Your Design Team
As it’s always better to have another pair of eyes, your Built By WordPress.com team will include both a dedicated account manager and an experienced web designer. The account manager will help drive the progress, while the website designer’s singular focus will be to create a website according to your needs.
Working with you each step of the way, your account manager keeps track of the overall project timeline and ensures that the web designer has all the information they need from you. Your account manager is also your point of contact for all questions, issues, and concerns.
The Built By WordPress.Com Team Offers Font And Color Choices To Match Your Brand
To capture your vision as accurately as possible, the Built By WordPress.com team will first work with you on the website’s overall design. This starts at the very beginning, taking your personal preferences and your business’ brand into consideration.
Cementing your website’s overall look and feel will drive the process to the next step. The designer will create the basic wireframe and visual design of the website’s homepage first. You will then be able to comment on the framework in two rounds of feedback. Once the design and functionality are finalized and confirmed by you, the web designer will fully build out the actual website. This process ensures your website is the way you envisioned it, and it reduces unnecessary back and forth changes at a later stage.
Several Rounds Of Revision Ensures We Get It Right
Another important question you need to ask your WordPress.com designers is about the rounds of feedback. Anyone who has ever worked on a website will know that it usually takes some iterations to align your vision and test the site’s functionality. You may also get another idea or require a change in the process.
If your designer doesn’t allow for several rounds of feedback, you are likely to pay extra or hire another designer. Creating your website with the Built By WordPress.com team provides you with at least four rounds of feedback – two rounds in the design phase and two rounds when building the site. This will allow for sufficient time and space to evaluate your website along the way.
Great Design Starts With A Great Team
Strong individuals have the capabilities to envision greatness, but even the best and smartest among them know that they can’t achieve it all alone. Whether it’s creating a successful business or building a website that converts – web designers, such as the Built By WordPress.com team, can help you turn your vision into reality.
Collaboration is key in most aspects of your business. Following the best practices as outlined above, you have all the tools to build a successful website that creates trust.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Go WordPress 