Massachusetts Web Designer
There are many qualified webdesigners located in and around Massachusetts.
Have you ever thought of hiring a web designer located in Massachusetts? If so, here are some things that you should consider.
The necessary skill set
The key to hiring the right Massachusetts Web Designer is deciding in advance what skills you need. If your site relies heavily on server-side or database components, you may not be as concerned with a candidate’s lack of experience with JavaScript or other client-side technologies. You would never hire a plumber to paint your house, but I’ve seen hiring managers make mistakes almost that drastic in hiring the wrong kind of coder.
Knowledge of when and how to implement multimedia content
Multimedia is a big issue when it comes to hiring web designers. I can think of only a few more frustrating Web experiences than the gratuitous use of Flash animation—such as the massive, useless pre-loader whose only purpose is to toss your company logo around the screen and add some tasteless music that guarantees you lose some impatient visitors.
Flash and video content definitely have their places in Web development, but they should be used when other functionality cannot do the job. You may be viewing the mocked-up site in a controlled environment where you don’t have bandwidth limitations. But you have to consider how the page will load and what kind of experience 50 percent of your users will have.
A firm grasp of the basics
If you're hiring a Massachusetts Web Designer who will be responsible for client-side development and presentation, you'll want the candidate to demonstrate a strong understanding of the basics. The hire should be able to demonstrate advanced experience with HTML 4.0, document object model (DOM), JavaScript, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). You should look for knowledge of techniques that make your pages load faster and behave consistently across browsers and platforms.
So how do you determine whether candidates have those skills? First, ask for samples of work they’ve already done. Then, look for less graphic-heavy pages, especially using spacer gifs to smooth page layout. Candidates should be using CSS2 to position copy and page elements, not gifs. If the highlight of their Web page is the marquee tag, you know that you are in trouble.
An understanding of accessibility and user interface issues
Maybe it’s unrealistic to expect every designer to be well-versed in Section 508 guidelines—at least, for now. But take my word for it: Accessibility is becoming increasingly important, and making a site accessible entails more than just adding alt text to image graphics. Again, CSS and CSS2 address some of the traditional accessibility issues, such as the reliance on a million table tags to organize content on a Web page. Your designers should be able to discuss those issues and code to them.
In a similar vein, I wouldn’t expect every web designer to be an information architect. However, a good designer understands the importance of how pieces of content relate to each other on the site. This understanding will separate Web designers who know you have to craft the user experience from those who just slap graphics on pages.
Competence with graphic tools
Even if your site is not graphics-heavy, you should expect your webdesigner to have some experience with Photoshop, Fireworks, or the like. Good webdesigners should be able to create graphics appropriate for your pages from scratch or modify existing images.
