Hi Folks,
Firstly, I'd like to say hello and introduce myself. My name is Gareth and I am a freelance web designer and developer based in Cumbria.
I'm currently in the process of redesigning and developing my online portfolio, which will be a major point of contact for potential clients.
I've been in the industry professionally for about 4 years, and working with the web on and off for around 15 years.
My portfolio will be responsive, i.e. it will adapt to various devices and resolutions, showing the most important and appropriate content.
Over recent months I've been tackling projects using a new approach which involves mobile/content first. So the key here is to develop a detailed content strategy plan to then design and develop the website around. As part of the content strategy development, I am performing some market research if you will, to guage businesses opinions and gather information on how individuals and companies go about finding and selecting web designers and developers for their business projects.
The key here is to gather as much information as possible as to what people are looking for in this area. What the most important aspects are, and to find out their thought processes and methods when selecting creatives and developers.
Essentially, what do people percieve as important on a portfolio or company website when searching for contractors. I'd like to cut out the fluff and provide my users and potential clients with useful, targeted information so they can see exactly what I'm about and get to the important information straight away.
I've put some questions together below if any of you guys would be so kind as to answer them for me. Some may be relevant and some may not. That's what I'm here to guage. Thanks again in advance guys.
When looking for designers and developers, do you favour freelancers or agencies? Why?
When arriving at a contractors website, what would you consider to be the most important information that you would like to have access to straight away?
When contacting a contractor would you prefer to use email, fill in a small form, fill in a detailed project brief or contact them directly by telephone, or a combination?
When deciding whether or not a specific contractor would be right for your project, would you like to see a list of skills that they have, a description of what they specialise in, a description of how they can help your business or a combination?
Is it important that a freelancer doesn't use jargon or technical terms? Or would it be wise to use a combination for those that do require more detail?
Is it important that you get a sense of the persons personality, through the use of humour, interests and unrelated activities?
Concerning contact forms, locations and contact details. Would you prefer these to be on the home page or on a contact page, or both?
What would you consider to be the most important when viewing a portfolio of past work, descriptions/case studies of the projects, images, or both?
Do you consider testimonials to be important?
Would you read articles from the persons blog to gauge whether or not they are an autrhority on their subject, or is this not something that you would consider as important? Do you expect to see a blog?
Is having the ability to connect with these individuals socially (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) important to you?
Would you like an idea of overall costs? Most freelancers have a standard pricing model, would this be useful to you and how important is this?
I hope I've made myself as clear as possible, and I'd like to thank everyone in advance for their contributions.
Regards
Gareth
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