Every business or company that needs an online presence requires a web design company. Some larger corporations may have their own project and design teams but small and mid-sized companies would do well to get on board a professional or an expert to help design their web presence because that is the sole means of advertising and promotion at nominal charges. The bottom line of a good web design company is, Value for Money.For the business entity, there is a lot at stake – its online presence, the future of the business, stability and longevity.To choose the best web design agency, there are several factors. However, one of the most important is that agency’s portfolio and what it conveys about the agency’s capabilities. A company’s work portfolio speaks more than mere words and tall promises; it helps the client analyze and understand its skills and abilities.Amongst many aspects, the ones that are crucial are:• The very presence of a portfolio or the absence of it – while every company without a web presence cannot be discounted, a portfolio is like a mirror that reflects what the client wishes to see. Hence, just a well designed portfolio without flashy images and videos is an absolute must. Additionally, the portfolio must be current and relevant with updated information.• Total number of projects – while the number of successfully finished projects is essential, mere numbers cannot satisfy. However, calculating the average project completion time with the number of projects handled, the size of the project and the rollout can give a fair idea of the quantity of work taken and delivered in terms of -1. Areas of expertise
2. Stability in flow of work
3. Schedule of development process
4. Employee count to do specific job functions, etc.• Type of projects – if projects are repetitive in terms of type of web design, look and feel, industry sector category, technology used etc., it is important to know if the agency can handle the kind of work the client expects. This may relate to1. Different industry category
2. Additional technology
3. Skills expertise in features not listed in the portfolio, etc.If the agency does not have suitable capability in a particular industry sector, asking if they can provide a demo is not an unusual request.• Quality of projects – if a HTML site takes too long to load or a site is overly dependent on Flash and videos, it doesn’t make for good web presence. Attention must be paid to user-friendly navigation, combination of colors and pixels and overall impression of the site.• Real owners and real references – it’s not unusual to see the web presence of the same company in two different web design companies’ portfolios. One may have started the work and other finished it; hence it may be necessary to contact the website owner to get an actual reference and testimonial. Many upcoming web design agencies are in the habit of placing common templates in their design portfolio page with fake owner and contact information.• The web design agency’s own website – this is the tipping factor. If the website conveys a better impression than the portfolio of work, then obviously the site has been designed by a professional or expert outside the company. This does not speak very highly of the agency’s own capabilities.There may be other interesting factors to check out but for a start, these should provide a wealth of information about a web design agency’s portfolio to a client.