Before we share some of the necessary steps used to create a professional web design and website, the following question must be addressed: What constitutes a “professional web design”? More often than not, a web designer or web design company claims to offer professional web design services for their clients. However, should they be promoting “web design services” rather than “professional web design services”? When measuring the professionalism of a web design and website, one must take into consideration a number of factors/steps:
- Multi-stage web design process
- Project collaboration tools (if project has more than one person involved)
- High-quality design
- Attention to detail
- Current web design technology (CSS)
- Well written, interesting, grammatically-correct content
- Usability
- XHTML and CSS validation (clean code)
- Standards-compliant
- Optimization
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization) friendly
- Abuse of Flash, Javascript, and sound effects
To put it simply, what separates professional web design from web design is whether or not a designer or web design company takes into consideration the above items when designing and building a website. Other than paying for a respected companies name and reputation, the items listed above are why professional web design services tend to cost more than regular web design services - you’re getting a lot more than a website - you’re getting the total package of web design professionalism that will surely shine through once the website is completed and released to the public.
The good news is, you don’t need to hire a professional web design company or professional web designer if you want a professional web design and website. Although there is a great deal of work involved, if you’d like to attempt to do the heavy lifting on your own, then the following professional web design tips will help you create a professional web design and website.
Note: You might be wondering why a professional web design company would give away their process and professional web design “checklist” for free. The answer is quite simple: there is only so much time in the day, and unfortunately we can’t professionally design every website in the world. The more high-quality, professional websites there are in cyberspace, the happier we as professional web designers and lovers of websites will be.
