Web designer - who's good

[Benm]

Hello everyone,

I am hoping that somebody may be able to point me in the right direction for a good reliable and creative web design company. I am in charge of getting the web site redesigned for an association which I belong to.

Does anybody know how long it might take, (how long is a piece of string I know but a rough idea as I am clueless).

The web site has a massive database and so the redesign or completely new site would need to be equiped to deal with that.

If anybody has any advice I would be most appreciative.

(serious answers only)

 

[StephanieCordray]

There are lots of good designers... choosing a good designer is usually not the biggest problem but finding someone who is reliable is. There are quite a few good designers who are members here. I would suggest that you look for someone whose area of expertise is content management systems in view of the large database. Further, check out their portfolio, contact a few customers who have used those services, ask for their level of satisfaction with those services. If a designer doesn't provide that kind of information on any site in his/her portfolio, move on to the next one.

Note:
Not all companies will allow the designer to provide that kind of information but at least a few should so don't move on too quickly if the first one or two don't have contact information and you like the designer's work.

 

[Benm]

Thanks for that. It seems sound advice. It's very hard for me to quantify the size of our site but if somebody was to rebuild a site such as Ebay and devote their undivided attention does anybody know as a rough ball park how long that would take? days, weeks months???

Sorry if this seems a rather vague request but I would like to have some kind of rough time scale to go back to my peers with.

All advice is gratefully received

 

[SiteExpress]

The size of Ebay?

I am certainly not qualified for such a project, but my guess is that it would be a process that would take months.

As a designer, there are lots of factors that determine the time it takes to complete a project. writing html and putting together pages is the easy part, and does not take much time. It is the preparation, and the devotion of the client to providing content that seems to take the most time.

 

[StephanieCordray]

It depends on how much of it has to be redone in all honesty.

What platform do the databases use such as asp/MSsql or php/mySQL.
How many and how large are the databases.
How much pruning needs to be done within those databases.
How much needs to be added.
How much other content needs to be written.
And a whole list of other issues that can come up depending on all the information and needs of the client.

Like, SE, I would guesstimate months to launch, and some months to tweak although the tweaking stage of it shouldn't be a full time job.

 

[dkelly118]

hello people i am doing an asignment at collge and i need some opnions why animation is good within a website

 

[Benm]

Once again thanks for coming back to me with that advice. To be a little more specific and having taken some advice from elsewhere the main issue relating to my choice of developer is going to be their ability to deal with the functionality of the site.

It will have over 200,000 classified listings most of which with pictures which will be revised and changed on an ongoing basis.

It is my understanding that there are few people who could undertake such a task successfully. Does anybody happen to know who the companies which deal with such things are?

Many thanks in advance for your thoughts

 

[SiteExpress]

I believe you will have better luck putting together 2 or 3 people for your project. Pick out the areas of experetise needed, then look up different people for each area. It sounds like too big of a task for one person to do efficiently.

Have you tried posting something on Craigslist? You may get some decent responces there.

 

[StephanieCordray]

Once again thanks for coming back to me with that advice. To be a little more specific and having taken some advice from elsewhere the main issue relating to my choice of developer is going to be their ability to deal with the functionality of the site.

It will have over 200,000 classified listings most of which with pictures which will be revised and changed on an ongoing basis.

It is my understanding that there are few people who could undertake such a task successfully. Does anybody happen to know who the companies which deal with such things are?

Many thanks in advance for your thoughts

How do you want the classified listings added? Manually or automatic through a payment system? There are web technologies which can be used to streamline a lot of the tasks of adding classified listings which may cost a bit initially but in the long run will save you maintenance charges.

I'm tempted to submit a quote if you'd like to private message me and trade emails.

 

[StephanieCordray]

hello people i am doing an asignment at collge and i need some opnions why animation is good within a website

dkelly, I know it's a related subject but would you post this in another thread so we can address it more fully without taking this thead off individual topic? I have some thoughts but I don't want to post them here.

 

[gateshosting]

No problem!

Ebay? Let me at it!!!! haha.

Not to advertise, but I can handle a job like that. Of course, the more busy you get, the more developers you will have to have on the project, unless it is designed with automation in mind. I design ecomm/database web sites integrated with accounting so that we avoid multi step processes, paying bills, receivables problems, etc. I have done stuff with really high traffic and not needed more than 1 helper. I used to have 12 employees, and believe it or not, I get more done without them. At least, more efficiently.

www.gateshosting.com. Contact me if interested,and if it is something I can't handle with my team, I can probably refer you to someone who can. I have been in business since 1997. And they are right, reliability is number one. And when I (or another programmer) says 2 months, it means 4 Your ideas change throughout the project as well.

Good luck!

Michael C. Gates
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