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If you have an idea for a website but have no computer experience what do you do? Well, the first thing I did was to go online and type in 'Best Website Designers' I had a list of some local designers so I started to make some appointments. The first web designer that I went to see worked from home, the second, company had just started up and hadn't completed any work for any clients and the third company just spoke about how many thousands I was willing to spend. I realised I'd need to be more specific and do a lot more research first.
I started to think about what questions I'd have to ask and I had to think of how to answer the questions designers would ask me. I went to the local library and picked out some computer-website design books and some software books.
I also visited my local PCWorld. I had a look at some packages that you can buy such as Dreamweaver. From reading some blogs online and from reading some books I came up with the following list that I asked the first few Designers:
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Termination – What arrangements will be put in place if you go out of business. (Contract should allow for all information to be transferred to another host.)
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Reliability – Dependable (Who else have they successfully completed work for? Ask to see some examples, use some keywords and check in Google to see where these sites are listed, bearing in mind that not every developer/designer is fully responsible for SEO.)
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Usability – Must be easy and comfortable to use, navigate, especially any CMS system (Content Managed System, meaning you have the ability to change or update content/text/pictures etc)
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Understandability – easy to test and for administrator to comprehend. (Make sure Developer has fully tested the site before given to you to also test!)
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Modifiability – easy for a maintainer to change (add on links, change keywords etc, see above CMS)
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Proper Estimation
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Portability- Can the website be moved to another host? At any time or at end of contract?
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Copyright – Who will own the copyright in any text prepared for the site? Who will own the copyright in any code? Formal Verification (Proof of correctness of all code) License Agreements for using 3rd part software.
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User/Customer Satisfaction,
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Number of defects found after release
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Do you or your team have Graphic Design Capability?
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Number of change/ change requests/time to identify/ correct defects
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Test coverage of code
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Webhost access to CPanel (web stats)
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Cross web browsers compatible
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Templates or original code throughout
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W3C Standard
Eventually, I found a local software development company who using our page designs and ideas could develop and write the code for the main site, database and CMS. The company www.x402.com developed the popular restaurant booking site 5pm.co.uk.
The site went live on the 10th June 2008 and so far has had over 20,000 page impressions from countries all over the world.
