How to find a good web design company

Looking for a web design company? This article looks at how exactly you identify a good we design company from its portfolio page.

1. Presence of portfolio

It’s pretty obvious that web design company must have its own web site with a neat portfolio of its previous works. But don't be taken away by the site alone. Portfolio is like a "face" of a web design company. It tells you about what the company did and how well they did it. But this is not all.

2. Total number of works

Though this provides a lot of indications, there is no standard number that can guarantee that you’re going to deal with web design guru. It is true that 50 projects is better than 5, but quality is equally important. Check out on that. And while you do that, do remember that an average website design takes 2 to 4 weeks to be finished.

But what can this information then give you? Firstly, you can see whether the company has enough expertise. Also, it can tell you if it has a stable employee base, a well-oiled development process, and enough staff to enable round-the-clock performance, so as to ensure that when you commit your site design to the said company you can be sure that it won’t be new work for them.

3. Type of work done

Look carefully at each project in the portfolio page. How many of them are similar to the one you need? Analyse this by industry, site, technology used, and look and feel?

2-3? Good!

> 5? Excellent!!

None? There could be reasons for this too – such as the owner not wanting publish it, or web site not being live anymore - so if the company has passed all these tests, you must then ask the company if they have ever done the task that you now need.

4. Quality

Look at all the sites the company has designed/developed. See how long it takes for the home page to load

A few seconds? Fine, the web designer knows how to optimize images.
A few minutes? This is okay for a Flash site since the whole site is loaded at once in case of Flash and can also take longer because of sound and visual effects.

But if a simple HTML web site takes more than 2-3 minutes to load you know something’s wrong. Check other HTML sites from the portfolio - if they too take ages to load, it's better you search for another web development company.

All you wanted to know about net neutrality

As internet users, we’ve all watched with great attention, the current debate and vote on net neutrality. But few of us (apart from geeks) actually know what internet neutrality means. What is it? Why is it of important? And most importantly, how does it concern us? Join us as we discuss some of the basics of Net Neutrality that we believe you have a right to know.

Internet Neutrality is the principle that all internet traffic should be treated equally by internet service providers.

ISPs- They provide you with a connection to the internet. (They are against Net Neutrality)

FCC – Federal communication commission regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable. (They’re for Net Neutrality)

YOU- Who use the internet, (Decide!)

The conflict

You have a computer at home. You are provided with an internet connection by an internet service provider (ISP). Example: Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance etc. The internet service provider lets you access websites such as facebook, Google, youtube, Gmail, blogs, gaming sites etc. The ISP lets you access any website and download information from it at the same speed regardless of which website it is.

The ISPs do not want this. They want to be able to block certain content and charge extra to use certain services. ISPs demand a cut from every website in order to funnel that content to customers. So, you may end up with faster speeds for a few websites and slower speeds (or no speed at all!) for some others.

ISPs want to settings up blocks to

• Discriminate: Smaller sites will be harder to access

• Double-dip: Network owners want to charge you for internet access and then charge extra for content viewed.

• Prevent competition: Start-ups and entrepreneurs will have an extra hurdle to overcome in order to compete with larger providers.

Benefits of Internet Neutrality

• Freedom to access the information you want
• Freedom to create competition
• Freedom of speech
• Protection against unfair pricing
• Ability to innovate

So which side are you? Do you believe Internet Neutrality is a realistic possibility or is it just a pipedream? Please let us know what you think.