How to choose a web designer: a practical project checklist

Begin with the job your website must do

Before comparing designers, write down your customer, your main offer and the action you want a visitor to take. A service business collecting enquiries needs a different journey from a shop handling product choices, shipping and checkout.

Choose a few essential requirements and explain your content situation. A designer who asks useful questions about your customers and operations will have a better basis for proposing a project than someone who immediately promises a particular look or search ranking.

Look beyond portfolio screenshots

Open a relevant project on your phone. Can you find the service, read the content and identify the next step? Ask what the designer actually delivered, which parts were supplied by the client and whether the live site has changed since handover.

A store project can demonstrate product organization, while a service website may show an enquiry route. Our Peakera Fashion project and Alltid Redo project illustrate different types of work. Screenshots alone do not establish sales results, so ask for evidence before accepting performance claims.

Ask how content and feedback are handled

Agree who writes and approves the text, selects images and enters products. Ask how many review rounds are included, who collects feedback and how changes outside the scope are priced.

Identify a contact person on each side and a practical way to approve decisions. Remote projects also benefit from an agreed meeting timezone, written summaries and clear deadlines for feedback.

Agree a meaningful testing checklist

Ask how the important journeys will be checked before launch. “Responsive” should include readable text, usable navigation and comfortable controls on smaller screens, not just a screenshot that fits the width.

• Test an enquiry from entry to confirmation.
• Check labels, keyboard navigation and visible focus.
• Review mobile layouts and real-device behavior where possible.
• Confirm image sizes, broken links and metadata.
• Agree how any test enquiries or orders are removed.

If the project includes payments or external integrations, agree how they will be tested without creating unintended live transactions. The scope should state which browsers and devices are covered.

Understand access, ownership and support

Ask who registers the domain and where the website is hosted. Your business should know what credentials, source files, content exports and training it receives. Clarify paid licenses and what happens if you move to a different provider.

Support should name the tasks covered, the contact route and how additional work is estimated. A written explanation is more useful than a broad promise of unlimited support.

Choose a proposal you can understand

Compare proposals against the same brief and ask about missing items. Avoid choosing solely by visual style or the lowest fee. A suitable partner should explain the work, its limits and your responsibilities in language you can follow.

Use our guide to comparing website quotes to review costs, then begin with a scoped first release rather than adding every possible feature.