Greenguy's Board - View Single Post - Recommendations for Good Website Designers

Simon · 2008-10-09, 10:49 AM

We've been talking about this in the chatroom lately and I'm starting this thread to see if we can clear the air a little and maybe come up with a list of good site builders for those of us who want certain specific kinds of sites created for us.

First, let me be clear that what we've be talking about in chat is building sites which may contain several different sections, all under one coherent design concept. The sites may contain a Blog, a section with Galleries, another with listed Free Sites, a place for Dating, maybe a Live Cams section, a Theater, plus whatever else the webmaster may want included. I believe the term coined here some time ago was "Morphed Conglomerate."

This morning we were talking about how we often see designers posting on the board offering their services, but rarely see anything but tgp, gallery, paysite and banner designs in their portfolio samples. Never anything to show that a site like what I mentioned above is something they've ever done successfully.

Also, too many designers seem to still be using Tables in their layouts and don't seem to have a good grasp on why they should have moved away from doing that a long time ago. A lot of designs we've all looked at may seem okay at first glance but are really poorly coded, besides showing a complete lack of knowledge of how CSS can be used to replace tables and add various Human Interface enhancements to ease navigation and improve the surfers' experience on the site.

So what I'd like to see in this thread are recommendations from other webmasters who are happy with the work some designer/site builders have done for them. I'm not interested in whether the designer can make good banners, or galleries, or build paysite tours. I'm looking for those who can come up with or take a basic concept we give them and execute a design which is consistant across an entire site which has multiple, and different, sections of the kinds I mentioned in the second paragraph above.

Also, they must be able to do it using cross-browser and cross-platform compatible layouts using CSS, with no tables and no out-of-date coding. My personall preference is that they be able to code the entire site to the XHTML Strict doctype, but XHTML Transitional would be okay.

I mentioned when I started this post that we've talked about this in the chatroom recently, but I want to mention that this is not just for conversation for some of us. Several webmasters are interested in hiring someone to build sites like this right now, and personally I need more than a few of them built for some older domains that it's time to bring out of mothballs and for some sites which need makeovers.

I know we have a few good designers among the regulars on this board but I'm not going to mention anyone in this first post even though I've used them and been happy with their work in the past because I want to solicit feedback from others and not have this post seem like I made it in order to promote a couple of good designers I've used myself. So please do post information about any designers you've used or know about who can do projects like this.

P.S. If you're a designer yourself and want to post in this thread that *you* can do this, please be prepared to post or supply some examples which demonstrate the truth of your statement.

2008-10-09, 10:49 AM	#1
Simon That which does not kill us, will try, try again. Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Conch Republic Posts: 5,150	Recommendations for Good Website Designers We've been talking about this in the chatroom lately and I'm starting this thread to see if we can clear the air a little and maybe come up with a list of good site builders for those of us who want certain specific kinds of sites created for us. First, let me be clear that what we've be talking about in chat is building sites which may contain several different sections, all under one coherent design concept. The sites may contain a Blog, a section with Galleries, another with listed Free Sites, a place for Dating, maybe a Live Cams section, a Theater, plus whatever else the webmaster may want included. I believe the term coined here some time ago was "Morphed Conglomerate." This morning we were talking about how we often see designers posting on the board offering their services, but rarely see anything but tgp, gallery, paysite and banner designs in their portfolio samples. Never anything to show that a site like what I mentioned above is something they've ever done successfully. Also, too many designers seem to still be using Tables in their layouts and don't seem to have a good grasp on why they should have moved away from doing that a long time ago. A lot of designs we've all looked at may seem okay at first glance but are really poorly coded, besides showing a complete lack of knowledge of how CSS can be used to replace tables and add various Human Interface enhancements to ease navigation and improve the surfers' experience on the site. So what I'd like to see in this thread are recommendations from other webmasters who are happy with the work some designer/site builders have done for them. I'm not interested in whether the designer can make good banners, or galleries, or build paysite tours. I'm looking for those who can come up with or take a basic concept we give them and execute a design which is consistant across an entire site which has multiple, and different, sections of the kinds I mentioned in the second paragraph above. Also, they must be able to do it using cross-browser and cross-platform compatible layouts using CSS, with no tables and no out-of-date coding. My personall preference is that they be able to code the entire site to the XHTML Strict doctype, but XHTML Transitional would be okay. I mentioned when I started this post that we've talked about this in the chatroom recently, but I want to mention that this is not just for conversation for some of us. Several webmasters are interested in hiring someone to build sites like this right now, and personally I need more than a few of them built for some older domains that it's time to bring out of mothballs and for some sites which need makeovers. I know we have a few good designers among the regulars on this board but I'm not going to mention anyone in this first post even though I've used them and been happy with their work in the past because I want to solicit feedback from others and not have this post seem like I made it in order to promote a couple of good designers I've used myself. So please do post information about any designers you've used or know about who can do projects like this. P.S. If you're a designer yourself and want to post in this thread that you can do this, please be prepared to post or supply some examples which demonstrate the truth of your statement. __________________ "If you're happy and you know it, think again." -- Guru Pitka Last edited by Simon; 2008-10-09 at 10:53 AM..