posted by Mark

Calling a web designer and asking "How much for a website?" is like calling an architect and asking "How much for a building?"

posted by Mladjan

For those people who are used to getting them or don't care about them it's simply - awards. Awwwwwwwwwards...(cue child drooling over chocolate ice-cream) if you don't have any. Yet.

In this case, besides having a smart name, awwwards.com is a meeting place for designers, web developers and Internet agencies all around the world. The main goal is recognising and promoting talent and the efforts of the best people in Internet industry while also evaluating web design, creativity and innovation. A lot? There's even more. If you are related with this industry (are there any people still not related?) or you just want to see some cool ideas in action, how the actual execution goes nowadays - you have to check it for yourself. 

For a second year running we've been asked to be judges at awwwards.com. Its an honour to be a part of this community not only because we're judging alongside some of the best in the industry but also the fact that we're be constantly stimulated by a never ending flow of inspirational work submitted from all over the world. 

Is your personal or company website there? 
Is it Awards or Awwwwwwwwwards?

posted by Mark

As we draw the series to a close, we invite you to take a step back from the process of choosing a web designer in Dubai and think about what's really important. In each of these posts, and throughout the questions and issues that have been raised along the way, we've been trying to help point you towards the things that actually matter. That's because, as pressing as samples, coding, and other details might be, they are all only clues... clues that help you figure out what sort of result you can expect working with one designer or another.

Whatever it is your site actually has to do – not just in terms of functionality, but as a marketing tool for your business – make that the forefront of your search. Never lose sight of the idea that the end product has to look as impressive on your balance sheet and future earnings as it does on a computer screen. It's easy for clients to fall in love with the process of looking at spectacular designs, or learning about different ways to code things, or even getting mesmerized by different functionalities. In the end, however, these are all just tools to help you get where you want to go.

Usually, when the rest of the advice in this series has been examined with that perspective, your choice of web design and marketing partners becomes very clear. Of course, we hope it’s Blue Beetle, but even if it isn't, we hope you've found this process helpful because the right fit is more important than anything else.

Finding the right person or team to work with isn't always easy, especially here in Dubai, but it is always important. Choose wisely, and the best of luck to you with your next site.

posted by Mark

Hopefully, by following the tips we've laid out so far and carefully examining a web designer’s portfolio – both on the surface and "under the hood" – you’ve been able to narrow your search down to a few quality candidates.

Now, it's time to get to the part of the process you've probably been anticipating all along: you go back and talk to them.

Don't just let them tell you what they think you want to hear, however. Finding the right Web partner in Dubai is as much about asking the right questions, and setting the right expectations, as it is anything else. Here are a few things you'll want to know before you sign on the dotted line:

How much will the site cost? As we mentioned in the first post, there's really no set standard for fees; what seems low for one firm would be outrageous for another. With that in mind, it's important that you are perfectly clear about how much you're paying… and what you are getting for your money.

What technical features are included? It’s important to specify whether things like a Content Management System (CMS) are part of the package, whether they are original or proprietary, and so on. A great deal can become a terrible waste of money – or vice versa – depending on the fine print.

How much time will be put aside for your project? A medium sized website should probably take around four to six weeks to build. So, if they say yours will be ready in a week or two, beware.

What does your gut say? Of course, this isn't something a designer or creative team can answer for you, but it is perhaps the most important question. When you sit down to meet with your team, do they seem honest? Do you like their approach, and can you see yourself working with them for an extended period of time? These might seem like obvious questions, but lots of clients will toss them aside in order to meet budgets and time frames. Given that your website is an incredibly important marketing tool – and that you'll probably be stuck with this designer for a while, for better or worse – it’s a bad idea to ignore that feeling in your stomach.

posted by Mark

If you were able to check a web designer’s sites for W3C compliance and want to go even further under the hood, there are a few more things you can look for in their samples. Although some of the terms might seem a bit technical, you don’t have to fully understand what you are looking at to be able recognize certain characteristics. Here are two important questions to ask:

Are their websites coded using table-less techniques? The only thing you have to know about designing with tables is that it was once a very popular technique, but isn’t acceptable for a professional solution these days. Most of the designers still using them are either very inexperienced, or lack the coding skills to stay with the times – either way, it spells trouble for your site.

To check for tables, just right click on empty space somewhere on the sample page and select: “View Page Source” or “View Source.” You can also access the command from the menu at the top. It could be worded or placed differently on your browser, but it should be easy enough to find.

Scan the HTML code that comes up and look for a lot of these: ‹table› or ‹tr›; or ‹td›. Seeing more than a couple indicates that the site may be built with tables, and that you should be looking elsewhere for help.

Are their websites well optimized for search engines? Frankly, this isn’t going to be all that obvious to the naked eye. Still, there are a few things worth looking at, like whether the site has search engine friendly URL’s (something like www.websiteaddress.com/about-us is good; seeing www.websiteaddress.com/?id=294 isn’t). You can also check to see if each page on the site seems unique, and whether they have titles (the text that appears at the top of your browser) that describes them well and accurately. Or, you could even view the page source code again and look for tags like ‹h1› and ‹h2›, since these indicate that the content has been properly structured.

As we mentioned, a trip “under the hood” of a sample website isn’t going to be a familiar experience for most people who are evaluating web designers and firms. By taking the time to examine these clues, however, you can go a long way toward figuring out what sort of value you’re going to get for your money.

posted by Mark

Once you have examined a web designer’s portfolio, looked for clues about their design style and understanding of usability, you can take a deeper look at their work by peeking under the hood.

Obviously, just as a non-mechanic would struggle to gauge how well an auto shop had repaired an engine, it’s going to be difficult for most marketers and business owners to tell a lot about a site beyond its appearance. For that reason, you’ll probably have to be content to use some simple tools to point you in the right direction.

Ideally, you would want to know how well a sample website had been optimized for search engines (SEO), how secure it was, whether it featured a content management system, was easy to maintain and update, and so on.  Unfortunately, these issues are a bit too technical to dig into in this short post (although we may revisit them in a future series), but one thing you can quickly and easily determine is whether their sites conform to W3C standards or not.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with W3C, check out our post from a couple of months back that explains the concept, or simply know that it’s a way of measuring how well a site is coded for access and usability for different platforms and devices. Checking any website’s score is easy: just type or copy and paste the address in the form field at: validator.w3.org and hit “Check.” One or two errors/warnings here or there is not a major issue, but when you get a report with hundreds or errors, beware.

Another quick way to tell whether a site really works well, instead of just being a pretty sample, is checking whether it loads as it should in other browsers. Good web design companies will make sure that their sites work in all the major browsers (Internet Explorer v6 or 7 and upwards, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari), and on both Windows and Mac systems.

You don’t have to use sophisticated tools to get a sense of whether a web design team is doing quality work behind the scenes – you just have to know what you’re looking for, where to find it, and why the answers matter.

posted by Mark

When evaluating prospective web design and online marketing companies here in Dubai, another good idea is to stop thinking about someone interested in getting a website for a moment, and look at things from the perspective of someone who would be using one.

What this really comes down to is usability. For any vendor you are thinking about working with, assess some of their finished projects with an eye toward thinking about how easy they are to navigate and use. Do they load quickly? Is it easy to get from one page to another, and are the content and links clearly marked? These might seem like minor points, when you are looking at page after page of dazzling designs, but they aren't. Usability isn't just one more issue – it’s a key issue that can determine whether your new site helps you to reach any of your marketing goals.

Not every shortcoming in usability is going to be the design team's fault. There certainly are times when, even though one idea or layout is recommended, the client makes a final decision that forces the design in another direction. But if you are seeing page after page of Flash intros that take forever to load, nearly hidden navigation bars, and other issues that make it hard for the site to be useful, then it's fair to wonder why the designers didn't warn or inform their clients to make better choices.

It doesn't matter how wonderful your pages look; no one is going to stick around to view them, read them, or find the information they're looking for if your site doesn't feature the highest level of usability. That's especially true if they haven't done business with you before, since they aren't likely to stick around and see whether you are worth the time and effort.

To know whether a design firm is doing their job, you have to think like your own best future customer, and that means keeping usability at the front of your mind. Remember that, make sure you look for obvious clues, and look for vendors that make sites that are as easy to work with as they are to look at.

posted by Mark

In the last post, we looked at why it is so hard to choose a quality web design firm in Dubai, and how it can be difficult for businesses to tell what they are really getting for their money, given that so many web design samples look the same.

Even so, those samples aren't a bad place to start.

Regardless of whether you've come in contact with a design firm by way of referral, a search engine, or some other method, a quick peek through their portfolio should be your first step. Don't simply click on the images; have a close look at each one to see if there are any particular features, stylistic preferences, or tendencies that jump out at you.

Once you've done that, it's not a bad idea to take a look at the "portfolio behind the portfolio." What are we talking about? All of the things that aren't on the web pages you see, but that can be inferred from them: like how many clients the firm has, how recent the samples are, which industries they tend to work in, and who has been happy enough to write a testimonial about the designer’s work. By thinking about the samples in this way, rather than just checking to see if they "look good" or not, you can start to get strong clues as to what kind of work you can expect.

Although, as part of this process, I should point out a common mistake that many prospective clients make: looking for sites that are exactly like the ones they want to end up with – in other words, similar sites from the same industry, or having the exact type of layout you are planning to use. It's amazing how many clients fall for this trap; it's like going to a photographer and expecting them to have a picture of you on the wall already. It isn't important that your prospective designer have exactly the kind of site you want in their portfolio. What does matter is that they have worked on a variety of projects, and that you like the overall feel and professionalism shown in their samples.

While there are a lot of obvious and not so obvious pieces of information you can get from a web design firm’s portfolio, you're still going to have to dig a lot deeper. In the next couple of posts, we are going to show you how…

posted by Mark

It’s often said that selecting a company to help you design your web site, or get your online marketing off the ground, is a bit like buying a used car. Here in Dubai, that’s a pretty good analogy… if the car were sitting in the middle of a minefield.

What makes it so tough to find a company that’s reliable and worth the investment? Some of the difficulty has to do with the fact that there are a lot of different kinds of companies operating here – and each with their own ideas of what things should cost and what standards to work to. It isn’t unusual for a company to look for the standard three bids and get back anything ranging from AED10K to AED100K for the same job.

Even worse, paying more might not get you anything extra, in terms of real quality. The basics of web design and development are actually very easy. Anyone with text-editing software and a pair of brain cells to rub together can arrange a functioning  HTML page; add a little bit of artistic flair, or even a decent-looking template, and they might come up with something that looks passable.

But “functioning” and “passable” aren’t what most business want, or need. To really help them meet their marketing goals, it doesn’t have to simply look about right or feature your logo on the home page – it has to serve a business need properly to have any real impact. That means loading quickly, being optimized for SEO, and working across different browsers and platforms, just to name a few of the details that might not be obvious at first glance.

Over the next few posts, we are going to offer more in-depth advice on choosing the right web partner for your business. As you read through, however, remember this important piece of advice that we are opening with: it takes more than a quick look to choose the right vendor. When it comes to web designers in Dubai, it really is a minefield out there – but we’re going to show you how to keep your business from becoming another crater beside the road to online profits.

posted by Khurram

In some ways, it seems like the Internet has been with us forever. It’s easy to forget that in the midst of our increasingly virtual world, your website might be the first – not to mention last and only – point of contact for an interested customer or colleague. A company with a poorly constructed home page, or one that doesn’t accurately reflect their vision, goals, or unique selling propositions, no longer has anywhere to hide… or anyone to hide behind.

In the “old days,” a smiling face at the front counter or a friendly voice on the phone could be enough to seal the deal. Business was all about relationships, and marketing materials, early websites included, were usually secondary to the people you employed. Now, strategies have changed slightly. Relationships still matter, but they are increasingly built from initial online impressions.

That seems obvious when you stop to think about the ways people use the Internet, but it has some heavy implications for your home page design and message. If you’re going to engage someone to interact with you in some way – and what business site isn’t designed to gather leads, sell products, or promote a message? – then it had better convey some key pieces of information, namely: who you are, what you do really well, and how you can help the visitor, direct from the home page.

What’s more, that information needs to be obvious and accessible, regardless of what type of browser or device they’re coming to you from. If your home page isn’t loading correctly, that’s a problem.

A shortcoming in any of these areas is going to result in a miss; the reader is going to surf along and find what they’re looking for on a competitor website. Wasted visitors are the equivalent of wasted time, wasted money, and a potentially large number of wasted future sales.