Hire Only Web Designers With a Website

Published on Mar 6, 2007 (updated Feb 5, 2024), filed under design, development (feed). (Share this on Mastodon or Bluesky?)

This and many other posts are also available as a pretty, well-behaved ebook: On Web Development.

…is a good rule of thumb when you need a web designer or developer.

Though it’s not necessarily the most important criterion, the benefits are obvious. Web designers who also own websites are more likely to be close to the medium, to possess enthusiasm, and to have experience around all the other issues and challenges that websites bring with. They’ll more likely have a basic understanding of processes, of customer and business needs, and of what makes a website more successful since website maintenance is exactly about that.

Focus on the “more likely” since this must not always be the case. However, it should be suspicious when a so-called professional web designer or developer rings and can only tell you that they designed parts of “foo” and created the former interface of “bar”. An own website can—should—help a lot. This is meant to be encouraging, not frightening, as human resources managers should also keep in mind that web design is a process. Personal websites must not be treated as professional services, and some decorative effects are surely okay.

By the way, the entire issue somehow reminds me of 37signals’ Getting Real and the “Race to Running Software”:

With real, running software everyone gets closer to true understanding and agreement. You avoid heated arguments over sketches and paragraphs that wind up turning out not to matter anyway. You realize that parts you thought were trivial are actually quite crucial.

This applies to web design and web development as well. Go out and create a basic website with some basic content. To the potential bosses and customers, please appreciate employees and partners who do their own stuff online. They are serious. They are professionals.

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a web developer, manager, and author. I’ve been working as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you’ve never heard of and companies you use every day, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and views. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)