5 Things You Should Never Ask Your Web Designer

Royce Calvin

January 15, 2018

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It is normal to ask a web designer questions ranging from their expertise to their suggestions for implementing someone’s vision into the preliminary website design. However, there are some things that will simply irritate them and hinder the workflow.

Here are 5 things you should never ask your web designer. We’ll also explain why asking these questions may undermine your project.



We Really Don’t Like the Result. Can You Give Us the Files and We’ll Pay You for the Partial Job?

It is surprising how many businesses think that someone pouring massive amounts of time and effort should hand over all of their work for only part of the money that was initially promised. If you don’t quite like the design, work with the web designer to tweak the site. But don’t ask them to give you all of the code, layered files, and templates and refuse full payment. If your website administrator wants to make a few changes, this doesn’t make the website designer’s work less than what you paid for.

This is why working with a local web design team is essential. With a local team, you can directly work with them on what works, and you can communicate what you’re looking for and what you don’t like more easily. If you live in Farnham for instance, a team like those at https://designbypelling.co.uk/ will work with you until you’re satisfied and will be able to guide you towards more feasible options if what you’re trying to achieve doesn’t work. The same can be said about branding, and only a branding team can really work with you and help you reach your audience efficiently.

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Aren’t You Just a Well Paid Graphic Designer?

While graphics design is part of web design, web design itself involves a significant amount of coding. Comparing a web designer to a graphic designer is a minimisation of their skills. Making the comparison in the hope of negotiating a lower pay rate will drive many web designers out of your office. Expecting a fully functional website from a graphic designer means the end result will be a pretty home page without any functionality.

I Know You’re Almost Done … Can You Just Make This Little Change?

An industrial engineering rule of thumb says that the cost and time required to make a change goes up ten-fold as you move from the conceptual phase to the preliminary phase to the production change. Totally revamping the way the site works is much easier when you’re looking at a preliminary design than when you’re testing a website ready to go live.

You can avoid this problem by making a list of all of your requirements, the “must-haves”, for the project, before you meet with the web designer. Discuss your vision for the website and “nice to have” features with the web designer. Don’t add new requirements at the last minute unless it truly is a surprise and a necessity, such as the back-office software update killing the connection between your website and the ERP system. Web design experts can integrate various key business systems with your website to minimize the work your team has to do.

While You’re at It, Can You …

When you commission a web designer to build your website, there should be a statement of work and scope of work. The person designing your new website isn’t there to fix your social media profiles, though you could issue a new statement of work and hire them for that task when they’re done with the website. Someone making changes to the existing website to add new payment options or improve IT security doesn’t necessarily have the time or expertise to fix a computer infected with malware. When you hire a web design expert, they’re there to build a website, not fix your routers or post updates on your social media site unless that’s part of the statement of work.

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Can You Add This Image I Found on Google?

Intellectual property rights for others’ images are starting to be treated as aggressively as plagiarizing someone else’s book and publishing their work under your name. And it is increasingly likely to be discovered due to the deployment of artificial intelligence to compare images on websites and brochures to the images others own the rights to.

Copyrights are also very important for graphics work as well. Your design team may be using a copyrighted image as part of your logos or promo material, which could lead to legal issues down the road. That’s why it would be a better idea to work with a reputable graphic design Surrey team or a graphic design Farnham team if you want to reduce the chances of getting sued.

You should refrain from asking any of these questions to your web design firm if you don’t want to be the ultimate client from hell. Make sure that you keep your expectations realistic and respect your team’s time and expertise. Some things might seem like minor changes to you, but you could be asking for a lot of work without rrealizingit. So, make sure both of you are on the same page and respect your designer’s opinion as to what’s possible and what isn’t.

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Royce Calvin
Royce is a seasoned expert in Internet marketing, online business strategy, and web design, with over two decades of hands-on experience creating, managing, and optimizing websites that generate real results. As a long-time freelancer and digital entrepreneur, he has helped countless businesses grow their online presence, drive traffic, and turn websites into income-generating assets. His deep knowledge spans SEO, content marketing, affiliate programs, monetization tactics, and user-centered design. When he's not exploring the latest trends in digital marketing, you’ll likely find him refining a client’s site—or enjoying his signature cup of Starbucks coffee.

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