Organizations looking to hire a Web design firm need to make sure that the design firm they choose is up to the job of creating a site that delivers on their goals while ensuring optimal customer experiences. Forrester Research, in its recently released "Web Design Agency Shootout," offers these three steps for choosing the right design agency for the job.

1.        Customers come first. Even if the goal of the site is more image-bolstering than transactional in nature, ease of use needs to be a top priority of the design agency. Forrester recommends site owners fund and support customer research before starting redesigns, and then demand usability testing at critical points in the design process.

2.        Get references. Ask to see recent work by the design firms you’re considering. Interview their reference clients, but also check out the sites themselves. Before committing to a firm, gauge how easy it is to accomplishing typical user goals like finding a dealer, opening an account or buying a product on a site the vendor designed.

3.        Check out their personas. Forrester says the sites and design agencies that get the highest marks are those that create strong personas (for typical customer types) and then design to those personas. It recommends asking for samples of a design agency’s personas before hiring them.