Website design - what do i need????????

Lmnover

hi
I set up a furniture company last year and really need to get a good website that i can take enquiries from and sell through up and running. I have the opportunity to employ someone through the FAS work placement programme for nine months for this task but because i am no way technical i dont know what skills this person will require.

I basically need someone to start at the very beginning and with input on content, images, systems etc - create a professional looking website with a good hit rate.

Are there college or computer qualifications that the person needs to have? What type of experience would then need to complete this project successfully - its very important that the end result is impressive.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated - because i dont have the first idea as to what to ask for ????

Thanks in advance,
Lmn

Pixelcraft

There are no qualifications that mean much, sadly the education in the sector is woeful. Look at peoples portfolios, decide whether you want a freelancer or agency, and what your budget will be.

You will get some people telling you they can do it for 250-500, and some 5-10k. Generally you get what you pay for, although there are exceptions to that rule. Many designers will guide you through a brief to gather enough information on what you & your users need/want.

If you're keeping it in Ireland, there's a good list to start from here:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/23/showcase-of-web-design-in-ireland/

They're all independently picked by a leading designer from Belfast.

Code quality, aesthetic style, and a solid portfolio are all what you should be looking at.

I would also suggest that SEO and design are separate industries. SEO is Search Engine Optimisation which will lead to traffic on your site. Good designers will code a site in such a way that it should perform well for search engines, but a separate SEO campaign would be advisable. Be ware of people that say the can do everything, or guarantee ranking results.
Best of luck.

Lmnover

Hi Pixelcraft,
thanks for the response.
I have to apply to FAS for a suitabily qualified person that would be able to complete the website from beginning to end - and need to provide a job description of the skills and qualifications that this person would need to complete this project on their own at my offices - any suggestions for this???

Pixelcraft

Ah right, so it's an inhouse position? No idea what FAS will require from your desired employee, probably some sort of completion of their courses? or presumably they'll be in a program with FAS? It's a different situation in that case as you're not really free to choose who you want. Employing a quality designer for 9 months for 1 site would be incredibly cost prohibitive.

p

Lmnover wrote: »

I have to apply to FAS for a suitabily qualified person that would be able to complete the website from beginning to end - and need to provide a job description of the skills and qualifications that this person would need to complete this project on their own at my offices - any suggestions for this???

Honestly, I don't think someone's who's done a Fás course will be able to do a website that will really help your business. Usually online shops are setup by a team of at least 2 people, usually more. Usually you need a designer, a computer programmer and a business person.

If you do go down the Fás route, then you'll need someone with some of the following skills:
- Web development experience. Some programming experience with PHP/ASP or something like that.
- Most importantly, experience, or the ability to set up some ecommerce software. In order to do this, they'll need to have some programming experience, knowledge of web servers and web hosting and a lot of general cop on technical know-how.
- Visual web design (if they don't have that, then you'll need them to use some design templates so it looks good)


I hope that helps!

28064212

They won't be a quality designer. The Work Placement Programme is for graduates with little-to-no experience (and isn't it only a 6 months placement OP?). You get what you pay for, and in this case you're not paying anything. You may get someone who turns out to be talented and puts together a great site, but it's really going to be pot-luck.

Your best bet is going to be a computing graduate, and then make your judgement based on the interview. They're unlikely to have many of the skills necessary to build a top-notch website, but they'll most definitely want to learn them

Kinetic^

Lmnover wrote: »

I have the opportunity to employ someone through the FAS work placement programme for nine months for this task but because i am no way technical i dont know what skills this person will require.

28064212 wrote: »

They won't be a quality designer. The Work Placement Programme is for graduates with little-to-no experience (and isn't it only a 6 months placement OP?). You get what you pay for, and in this case you're not paying anything. You may get someone who turns out to be talented and puts together a great site, but it's really going to be pot-luck.

Your best bet is going to be a computing graduate, and then make your judgement based on the interview. They're unlikely to have many of the skills necessary to build a top-notch website, but they'll most definitely want to learn them

Read the above OP. The FAS work placement programme is for graduates or unemployed people looking to gain experience & knowledge to help them gain employment under the supervision of someone who knows what they are doing. As you said yourself, you don't have the expertise and thus you will be of no service to the person you will be taking on. Do not waste this person's time.

Nasty_Girl

Ask for experience, portfolio, references and give a precise description of the website you are looking for.

The skills are pretty much as p says.
Server side programming (like PHP), Design(CSS, HTML or xHTML), good knowledge of actually hosting a website, installing/configuring content management systems or eccommerce software on a server. Knowledge of online payment systems.

I don't think it's fair to write off someone who is on the FAS wpp straight away, when I left college I had done 3 paid workplacements and two large projects that would prove I would have been capable of setting up the kind of site you're asking for even though I'd just graduated.
In 9 months a graduate or person who is genuinely interested in web dev could do a great website for you.

On the other hand I worked with technical people who could help me along if I got stuck BUT if you don't have anyone else technical there it might be hard for you should things not work out there could be a blind leading the blind situation.
So there's an element of luck there alright, that is true

tricky D

Lmnover wrote: »

I basically need someone to start at the very beginning and with input on content, images, systems etc - create a professional looking website with a good hit rate.

and converts visits to sales.

Lmnover wrote: »

Are there college or computer qualifications that the person needs to have? What type of experience would then need to complete this project successfully - its very important that the end result is impressive.

Profitability is the most impressive result.

Selling on the web needs certain skills and experience and a college graduate or FAS trainee is unlikely to have the requirements. Try to find someone who can get your business plan moving online (you do have a business plan don't you). They should know what skills are required for the tasks and get you moving in the right direction on those criteria.

28064212

Nasty_Girl wrote: »

I don't think it's fair to write off someone who is on the FAS wpp straight away, when I left college I had done 3 paid workplacements and two large projects that would prove I would have been capable of setting up the kind of site you're asking for even though I'd just graduated.
In 9 months a graduate or person who is genuinely interested in web dev could do a great website for you.

On the other hand I worked with technical people who could help me along if I got stuck BUT if you don't have anyone else technical there it might be hard for you should things not work out there could be a blind leading the blind situation.
So there's an element of luck there alright, that is true

I'm not writing them off, I'm on a placement on the WPP myself, and doing quite well I'm just saying the OP's not going to get a professional, this isn't a cheap way to get the same quality of service that you'd get from paying a top-notch web-design company

Lmnover

Thanks for all the advise! As this is not a comfortable area for me!

Taking all the points on board and looking at it another way - would there be portions of the web site creation that this work placement person could complete comfortably and efficiently and other portions i could enlist an outside company/person to do. would this work??

Obviously being in the start up stages of my business i am trying to keep costs to a minimum!

Any advice appreciated!!
Lmn

Pixelcraft

After reading everything, I've got to say its an unusual approach to say the least. How important will a website be to you? There's not too many furniture places with a good web presence in this country (maybe that's down to lack of ambition, or maybe it's deemed unnecessary, I guess it's for you to decide)

Mixing and matching this approach won't do any favours, as I'd imagine what you'll get from your FAS 'intern' will be a much lower standard, and most likely when you do go to a company they'll be reworking most if not all of what was done.

I've often been approached to add things to sites, or rejuvenate existing sites and sometimes it's so poorly put together that it's not viable.

If a site is valuable to your business, then prioritise it, find the budget to create a professional site. If it's not that important then go for a cheaper option. Simple as that really! The web is instantly something that business' think they can cut back on, just because it can be cheap doesn't mean it should be - you don't always pick the cheapest premises for example. If you've no real budget for this, maybe hold off until you do? (for many customers your website may be the first impression of your business) Only you'll have the answers to all this.

Lmnover

Hi Pixelcraft,
thanks for advise...
the website is going to be massively important to the success of my company so i need to thread carefully here. Being realistic if i wanted to create a decent website that could accept enquiries for now but not make sales - realistically what type of budget should i allow??

Lmn

Ronan007

I would say it is not much expensive now a days to get a fully functional website.. You may get it for 3000 to 5000 euros... You have to find out good professionals who have good experiences... You should ask them to show their portfolio.... Then you can understand their professionalism form their previous works...

TitoPuente

Lmnover wrote: »

realistically what type of budget should i allow??

It's impossible to say at this point. You need to sit down with a professional Web agency and discuss precise requirements and options and get an itemised quote for the work to be carried out.