In today’s increasingly popular gig economy, hiring a freelancer can help you to complete your projects on time, and often at a fraction of the cost of employing a full-time professional.
If you’re looking to hire a web designer, Legiit is one of the best platforms you can trust as it offers you access to a vast pool of skilled web designers, with proven expertise and experience to deliver a top quality project.
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In this guide, you will learn how to hire a web designer for your next web development project in a simple, step-by-step process. More importantly, you will learn the qualities you should look out for when hiring a talent to work on your project and avoid common pitfalls in the process.
Before diving deep into the details, let’s start with the basics.
Why You Need a Web Designer
Owning a website and ranking on search engines like Google are no longer luxury possessions, but a necessity, for any business that wants to compete and thrive in today’s crowded market. However, it’s not about creating just any website. Customers today are more informed, choosier than ever before, and having poorly designed websites can have a negative impact on your business online.
According to a customer insight study, the average consumer consults more than 10 sources before making a purchase online. To attract the right audience, you need a well-designed, optimized and aesthetically appealing website. You also want to look at other important features such as your site’s load speed, mobile-friendliness and the overall user experience of your website.
Choosing a professional web designer helps ensure that your website is properly designed with the user in mind. An experienced web designer pays attention to user experience (UX) by implementing an intuitive, easy-to-navigate user interface to increase engagement on your website.
A good UI/UX according to this Forbes post can raise your website’s conversion rate by up to 400 percent, but a low quality, a poorly-designed website can discourage people from staying long or returning to your website.
Your website isn’t just a brochure that catalogues the products and services you offer. It’s an extension of your brick and mortar shop or physical office. Investing your resources and time to ensure that your website aligns with the quality and excellence that your business stands for can place you ahead of the competition. The secret is designing a website that loads fast and creative positive user experience and sees your web traffic grow exponentially.
You need a skilled web designer to achieve all this. However, not every business can afford to hire a web designer in-house on a full time basis. As a result, they turn to freelancers for their projects. Web design is one of the most sought after services on Legiit.
Do You Need a Designer or a Developer?
When hiring a web designer, it’s important that you have an expectation based on your needs and the typical job descriptions of the professional. Oftentimes, many people can’t seem to differentiate between the job roles of a web designer and those of a web developer.
In fact, some people wrongfully use the two terms interchangeably. While both web designers and web developers work together in building a website, their jobs are distinct and different.
So what’s the difference between a web design and web development?
A web designer is a graphic artist whose job involves designing the layout, visual appearance and usability of a website. A successful web design must demonstrate expertise in creative, graphic and technical abilities.
A web developer, on the other hand, is responsible for building and maintaining the core structure of a website. They convert the design coded by a web designer into a functional website, using computer languages such as HTML, PHP, Python and JavaScript.
That said, a web designer’s job is to create the design and layout of web pages and the entire website. They can work on a brand new website design product or update an existing site. But a web designer performs a lot more roles than those. The following are some of the responsibilities the job of a web designer entails:
- Creating website designs
- Producing sample sites
- Creating websites that are user-friendly, appealing and intuitive
- Meeting with clients to discuss project requirements
- Providing regular updates about the progress of the projects
- Working in collaboration with the web developer for seamless implementation of designs
- Developing and demonstrating expertise in appropriate programming languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.
- Helping with digital retouching and image editing
What Can You Expect from Your Web Designer?
Aside from the technical competencies expected of a web designer, he or she must be able to demonstrate certain professional qualities and traits. As the work of a web designer transcends the core technical skills, employees should look out for the following skills when hiring a web designer:
Strong imagination: It requires a strong imagination to visualize a project in a proper perspective. A web designer should be someone who can think in a vast and diverse way to bring thought and excellence into the projects they manage.
Creativity: Most successful web designers tend to be artistic individuals, which means they are creative, expressive and articulate. Possessing these qualities enable the web designer to create a design that not only appeals to the users but also helps them to find information easily on your website.
Attention to details: The web development process can be complex, depending on the nature of the project you’re working on. As more requirements and insights are coming from your team, you need a web designer who can pay attention to the minutest details to ensure that the website is truly designed with the user in mind.
Communication skills: Effective communication is required to work successfully. The freelance web designer must be able to communicate concepts and ideas to their employer in a clear and straightforward manner.
SEO knowledge: While a web designer is not expected to be an expert in SEO, he or she should be able to demonstrate at least basic knowledge needed to set a tune for your website to rank on search engines, like Google. This could be done by ensuring that coding languages, such as CSS, JavaScript and HTML are minified to free up space and increase page load speed.
Experience in using tools like PhotoShop and InDesign: Since the primary responsibility of a web design is to provide appealing design and artistic visuals for your website, graphic design tools, such as Photoshop must come in handy.
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Tips for Finding a Web Designer with the Right Skills
Once you’ve decided to hire a web designer on Legiit, the first thing you’ll realize is that there are a lot of them out on the platform. The demand for web design services are on the rise as more and more businesses become aware of the benefits of building an online presence. According to this report, there are 1.58 billion active websites in the world.
If you use a freelancer marketplace like Legiit, you get access to hundreds of web designers looking for web design jobs online. But how do you know which web designer has the right skills to deliver the best results?
Here are some tips to guide you in your selection process.
1. Response Time Matters
While response time may not be the best measure to determine how competent a web designer is, it says a lot about their responsiveness as well as provides a clue about how they will likely handle communications when you finally hire them.
If you reach out to a freelance web designer and they are slow to respond, this could be many things. They’re either too busy with work, on vacation with a loved one or dealing with some personal issue. If a candidate doesn’t reply to your enquiry on time, you can’t guarantee they will deliver the project at the right time. As a general rule of them, it’s advisable to consider a candidate who responds quickly and communicates not just effectively, but also convincingly.
2. Ask for Their Previous Works
It’s possible for freelancers to overrate their own skills and experience, but their past works are an important indicator to know whether they’re right for you or not. You should ask for the links (URLs) to their previous projects – not just rely on mere written accounts. If a candidate doesn’t have prior experience working with your content management system (CMS) or your preferred programming language, you can’t guarantee they’ll be a good fit for your project.
3. Pricing Isn’t Everything
When searching for a web designer to hire, it can be tempting to look for sellers with the lowest prices. After all, doing so will help you save some money and meet up with other projects. While there are some great freelance web designers that offer affordable prices, your decision shouldn’t be primarily shaped by pricing, instead take the time to look at what the candidate can offer.
Often, it turns out that you get for what you pay for. A web designer is responsible for creating and designing how your website looks to the users. This is an important aspect of the web development process and the outcome can either make or break your business’s reputation online. According to WebFX, 75 percent of website credibility comes from design.
That said, the most important consideration should be hiring a candidate who is truly a pro in the field, instead of experimenting with someone who offers low price and churn out low-quality results. Real professionals tend to offer fairly high prices, but you can rest assured that the result will be worthwhile.
However, this isn’t to say you can’t find affordable freelancers that provide top-quality jobs. It’s best to approach each candidate with a set budget. It’s also helpful to contact multiple candidates and compare rates.
4. Check Their Past Customers’ Feedback
Reviews are a good indicator that points to the skillset, experience and the work ethic of the candidate. Legiit allows buyers to provide reviews about their experience with sellers on the platform. Before contacting a seller, you can spare a few minutes to check through what their previous hirers said about them. This can assist in your assessment of the candidate before reaching out to them for an interview.
5. Start With a Small Project
If you’re working with a freelance web designer for the first time, it’s advisable to start with a test or exploratory project. For example, if you need a design for an entire website, you can start with a page, say homepage. This can give you an idea of what their work looks like and how they communicate throughout the process. If you find the freelancer to be a good fit for you, you can sustain the work relationship and hire them for a bigger work.
How Easy Is It To Use Legiit?
In the past, businesses that needed experts on projects had to look for freelancers by posting on job boards or putting out ads, which could be a little daunting.
Using a freelancing platform like Legiit lets you access a large network of professionals ready to take on your project at the shortest notice. In addition to web designers, you can find web developers, copywriters, logo designers, SEOs, mobile app developers, and much more. The best part is, the platform is very easy to use.
Instead of posting a job on an online job board and waiting for hours or even days to get applications, with Legiit you can easily search through a vast database of freelance web designers and hire the candidate that meets your requirements. The site makes it very easy to specify the service you want, pay freelancers and maintain communication with them as the project progresses.
How Do I Get Started On Legiit?
Like sellers, you have to create an account with Legiit to start hiring professional freelancers. The process is as simple as ABC. Follow the following steps to create your buyer account on Legiit:
- Visit: www.legiit.com
- From Legiit’s homepage, click “login” or “register” if you haven’t created an account on the platform
- Complete the registration form
- Enter your full name
- Input your email address
- Choose your username
- Set your password
- Confirm your password
- Select whether you’re selling, buying or buying & selling
- Set 2-Factor Authentication
- Agree to terms of service and privacy policy
- Register
- Verify your Phone number
- You are now registered on Legiit! Proceed to check your registered email address to verify your email and activate your account
- Within the activation email you receive from Legiit, click Activate Your Account.
Once you’ve successfully created your account, you’ll be able to activate your buyer account. The next step is to set up your account.
To setup your buyer account:
- Hover to the dropdown menu on the top right side and click Profile, and follow the prompt to update your information
- Upload your profile picture
- Write a short description about yourself
- From the dropdown menu, click Setting and update your billing information and security setting
- Fund your account
- Place your first order
How To Hire A Web Designer On Legiit
The hiring process on Legiit is explained below:
Search for a Web Designer
From Legiit’s homepage, you’ll see a wide range of services, from graphic & design to internet marketing and SEO. Each category has several sub-categories that you can choose from. Proceed to browse through the long list of service providers. On the extreme top right corner, you will see a filter that allows you to sort searches by parameters, such as;
- Top rated
- Recently uploaded
- Most popular
- Price (low to high)
- Price (high to low)
Choose your most preferred parameter. Also, remember to check their rating, level as well as reviews from previous buyers.
Contact Candidates
During your search, it’s possible you’ve created a bucket of potential candidates to hire for your project. The next step is to contact the candidate. Legiit makes it easy to start a simple chat conversation with a seller. To contact a seller on Legiit, click on their name right below the service. You will see options to “Contact Seller”, send “Custom Order” or “Follow.” Choose the Contact Seller option to send them a message.
If you like, you can place an order immediately by adding the service to your order cart and proceed to pay. But here’s a caveat: be sure you’ve found the right candidate. You should be specific about the service you want and the scope of your project.
Apart from checking their reviews, communicating with Legiit Sellers is one of the ways to determine whether you’re choosing the right candidate for your project. Therefore, it’s recommended to start an initial conversation so you can understand a Seller’s service. Doing so will also enable the Seller to understand your needs. It takes a few messages to set the ball rolling, but you’ll be more successful in your hiring if both parties understand each other.
Hire a Web Designer
Once you’ve found a candidate, you can go ahead and place your order. As earlier recommended, you can start with a simple project to have an idea of what the freelancer is capable of delivering before committing the full website project to their care. If the small project turns out great, and you start to build a good working relationship with the freelancer, then proceed on to large gigs.
However, there could be times when you need the entire work done as soon as possible. In such a situation, make sure you ask the right questions, such as questions about the Seller’s experience, their sample work, their turnaround time for your particular project, and more.
You can also send a Custom Order. This allows you to attach the details of your project, including the price you’re offering and your desired delivery time. A Seller can also send a Customer Offer. You can start a Customer Order by clicking on the Seller’s username right below the gig you’re ordering, then click “”Custom Order” on the Seller’s profile page.
Note: Money paid for a service is held in an escrow account and it will only be released to the Seller after they’ve confirmed and approved delivery of the order. After delivery, the order will be automatically completed after three days if you neither approve it nor reject or seek modification on the order.
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Manage Your Project
The process doesn’t end at the point of ordering a service. If you’re like most Buyers, you want the Seller to provide regular updates about the order. Once the order is ready, Seller delivers it for you to review. If you like the work, you can go ahead and complete the order. If you need a revision, notify the Seller about it.
Provide a Feedback
Once the project is completed and you’re happy with the outcome, you have the opportunity to provide feedback to the Seller.
You can also rate them on the scale of one to 5. Note that a poor review and low rating can negatively impact the Seller’s ability to get new jobs. If you’re not happy with their service, you can use the Revision process to ask for recodification.
Key Takeaways
- Legiit offers a vast pool of freelancers making a living by offering a wide range of services on the platform. Choose a web designer who is professional and responsive, with a proven track record of delivering excellent services
- A web designer’s previous works and portfolio gives you a good idea of their abilities and compatibility with your project. Don’t hesitate to ask for links to their previously designed websites
- Set a definite budget before you start searching for a web designer. If you want best quality work from an experienced designer, expect to pay a little higher more than the average price
- To get an idea of how a freelance operates, start off with a small projects before entrusting him or her with bigger jobs
- With Legiit, you have access to professional web designers in the United and other parts of the world
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