A designer's main jobs
- Map which pages the site needs and how they connect.
- Sketch wireframes that set each page's layout.
- Design the look in your brand's type and colors.
- Place calls to action where visitors decide.
- Test the design on real phones and screens.
Design rules and their effects
Good designers lean on proven usability principles, not taste alone. Nielsen Norman Group's ten usability heuristics are a common checklist. Two matter most on a local business site. Keep the site consistent, so buttons and menus behave the same everywhere. Match the real world, so labels use the words customers use, like "AC repair" instead of "climate solutions."
Design affects speed and SEO
Design choices set how fast a page can load. Full-screen videos, many web fonts and image sliders all slow the first screen. Google's Core Web Vitals measure that speed, so a designer who plans light pages helps rankings and leads at once.
Designers also shape headings and page structure, which help both search engines and people scan the page.
What to ask a designer before you hire
Good example. A designer shows a past project where a simpler homepage and a clearer contact flow raised calls, with numbers to back it up.
Bad example. A designer shows only polished screenshots and cannot say whether any of those sites brought more business.
Ask to see a site live on your phone, not just in a portfolio. Ask who builds the site and who edits it after launch.
How design and build connect
In some teams one person designs and builds. In others the designer hands files to a developer. Read web design vs web development for the split.
At Rathly, Antony leads design and writes the code, so the live site matches the mockup. Our web design work pairs every design choice with how it will perform.