Choosing the Best Web Designer

Question

Design

By what criteria do you think you should choose a web designer?

It can be seen from the comments that the question needs to be clarified: we are talking about objective criteria, whether they exist, which ones and how to determine them by formal criteria. For example, the number of sites made is good, because. this value is formalized, objective and reflects work experience. However, the problem is how to formalize the criteria for the quality of this work. The number of positive reviews is a formalized thing, but the problem here is objectivity.

Answer 1

I can tell you what problems I faced while working with web designers.
1) I am a designer, not a coder. I drew, but is it possible to make it up, it's none of my business.
2) I drew only the main page, do the rest yourself, because everyone understands how the rest of the pages should look, and it's not my business - do it by analogy.
3) I drew the main page using "fish" and text that I came up with (generated by lorem) to look nice with pictures and blocks of the same height. How it will look on a real site with real text and real pictures is none of my business.
4) I drew the design of the menu, but how it will behave when hovering the mouse is not my business, it's the layout designer's business, he also programs the behavior of the menu.
5) I drew a fixed design, but I don’t know how a site with a rubber design will look like, my photoshop is not rubber. Well, let me stretch the design with the transform tool, see how it looks. In general, it's none of my business, let the coder do the programming.
6) What tables, lists, headings will look like is none of my business. Take my colors, color the font yourself.
All quotes are given practically 1 in 1, with the preservation of lexical turns (the coder is programming).
To justify these craftsmen, I can say that the customer chose them because of their low cost (7-10 sput).

Answer 2

The ideal web designer meets the following criteria:
- Knowledge of technology and layout. To not come up with crazy interface elements.
- Knowledge of interfaces and usability. To be able to create a user-friendly design.
— Knowledge of the academic fundamentals of graphics. To be able to make a beautiful design.

Answer 3

I advise you to pay attention to projects in the portfolio that are still alive and hold some decent amount of audience.
What for? So you can understand that the taste of the designer can coincide with a large number of people, and such a project can be profitable.
This is how I select designers, though mostly for services or mini-startups. Everything depends on the goal.

Answer 4

The designer should look at his work not from his own side, not from the side of the customer, but ONLY from the side of the target audience for which his design is intended. For me, a good designer is one who asks me: “Who should see my design?”. Not the designer should like the product, nor me, but those for whom it is made.

Answer 5

Portfolio is the main thing. Do you need a designer for a specific project, or are you looking for an Olympic champion? What is more important - to go or checkers? My IMHO is this: if the portfolio contains works whose level satisfies you and at the same time you find the financial side of the issue acceptable, then “must be taken” (c). If the brand is important to you (“theme”, for example), then this is different.

Answer 6

Maybe you're right! All 6 items in 1 vial are a clinic, although I gave a real example from practice.
However, I have come across situations when the designer drew a simply stunning design of the main page, forgetting about everything else, and he does not even understand that everything else is just as important, and this is his job! Forgetting about the rest of the pages, the style of links, tables, headings, indents, ledges, comments, lists, and so on down the list.