I have been asked this question by a lot of clients since some of them are interested in giving their children an extra education outside of school. Answering this question, I have to look to my 14 year old daughter as well. The short answer is it is fine to let a teenager design your website (or your friends). All through my 22 year web design career, I have encountered some clients who decided to go the inexpensive route and hire their children for cheap or no money. The quality is usually not professional at all. That does not mean that all teenagers will produce a mediocre website design. Teenagers are like the rest of us. Some are talented. Some need more practice. Looking to my daughter, I would DEFINITELY would hire her as a professional Snapchat consultant. She knows it much better than me.
If you are thinking about hiring a teenager to design your website, here are some questions and concerns you may want to consider first:
- Portfolio
Like any designer in any field, everyone needs a portfolio. Whether professional or not is not a question. Whether a teenager or mid-age designer, it does not matter. Ask to see samples of their work. Do you like what they designed? If so, pay them a little more. If you LOVE their design, sure, pay them as a professional and give them some confidence.
- Deadline
After all, they are in school and are not doing this full time. Kids have homework and even more in high school. Will the teenager be able to meet the date when you need the site released?
- What about responsive web design?
Thanks to mobile devices, everyone needs a responsive website. I have seen teenagers produce websites that only look good on desktop computers, because let’s face it, it is hard to design a website on a mobile device, although I have seen people try. If the teenager can design both desktop and responsive, then definitely up your offering for the design.
This blog post is in response to a Quora question. Please upvote my answer at https://www.quora.com/Would-you-pay-a-teenage-freelancer-to-make-you-a-website-If-yes-would-you-pay-him-as-much-as-you-would-to-a-professional
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