A credible web designer's portfolio is one you can verify yourself, on a live website, from your own phone. Screenshots prove nothing, and a PDF full of polished homepages proves no more. Before you request a quote from any designer or agency in Zimbabwe, run the four checks below. Every one of them works from a phone browser and needs no technical skill. If a portfolio fails them, ask a different provider.
The four checks
- Live links only. Open every example as a real address in your own browser.
- Relevant work. Find at least one project doing the job your website must do.
- The phone test. Load each example on your phone, on mobile data, and tap everything.
- Ownership. Ask which parts of one named project the provider actually delivered.
Check 1: only live sites count
Ask for website addresses, not images. Type each one into your browser and confirm it loads. A screenshot only proves that someone once saved an image; a live domain that loads and matches the provider's claim is much harder to fake. While you are on the site, look for signs it is genuinely in use: current contact details, recent listings or products, prices that make sense today. Treat "the site was taken down" as an unproven claim. A provider with no live work at all has no verifiable track record.
Check 2: look for work like yours
A website is a tool with a job: collect enquiries, take bookings, show listings, sell products. Match the job before the look. If your customers reach you on WhatsApp, find an example with a working WhatsApp button. If you sell property, look for a listings site with search and photos. The examples do not need to come from your exact industry, but at least one should already handle the customer journey your business depends on. A portfolio of one-page brochure sites is weak evidence for a project that needs forms, listings or payments.
Check 3: the phone test
Your customers will judge these sites from a phone, so you should too. Open each example on your own phone, on mobile data rather than office Wi-Fi. Check three things. Does the site load without a long wait? Can you read and navigate it without pinching and zooming? Do the contact points work: does the WhatsApp button open a chat with a real number, does the phone number dial, does the contact form accept a submission? For a second opinion, paste the site's address into Google PageSpeed Insights, a free Google tool that needs no login and shows how the site performs on mobile.
Check 4: ask who actually did what
"We designed this" can mean anything from building the whole site to supplying a logo. Pick one named example from the portfolio and ask direct questions. Did you build the site or only design the layout? Did you write the content or did the client supply it? Who hosts it now? Do you still support it? A provider who genuinely did the work answers immediately and will often offer the client as a reference. Vague or defensive answers about credit are a warning that the work belongs to someone else. The person who built a site and still maintains it can do the same for yours.
When to walk away
Decline to request a quote when you see two or more of these:
- No live links at all, only screenshots, mockups or PDFs.
- Examples that are dead, broken or "temporarily offline".
- Nothing in the portfolio resembling the job your website must do.
- Sites that fail the phone test: unreadable text, dead buttons, forms that error.
- Evasive answers about who built, hosts and supports the work.
One of these on its own deserves a follow-up question. Walking away at this stage costs you nothing. Walking away after paying a deposit does.
Try the checklist on real work
The fastest way to learn these checks is to run them once. Every project on TechTribe's portfolio links to the live website, across real estate, hospitality and local retail, so you can test each one from your own phone. Any provider asking for your trust should make verification that easy.
The portfolio check is one step in a bigger decision. For the full selection process, from writing a one-page brief to interviewing providers, read how to choose a web developer in Zimbabwe. When two providers pass your checks and send proposals, how to compare two website quotations shows what to weigh besides price. TechTribe's own offer is on the web design service page.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need technical skills to check a web designer's portfolio?
No. Every check in this checklist runs from a normal phone browser: open the link, read the pages, tap the buttons, submit the form. Google PageSpeed Insights, the only tool mentioned, is free and needs no login.
What if a designer says their best work is no longer online?
One retired site with a plausible explanation is normal; businesses close and rebrand. But offline work cannot be verified, so it carries no weight. A provider working today should have current live sites. If nothing is live, treat the portfolio as empty.
None of the examples are from my industry. Should I walk away?
Not automatically. Judge the job the site does, not the industry label. An example that handles bookings well is relevant evidence for a booking website, whatever the sector. Walk away only when nothing in the portfolio does the kind of work your website needs.
Put the checklist to work
Run the four checks on TechTribe's live portfolio first. When it passes, answer four quick questions and get an estimate for your own website.
About the author
Simon
Simon writes about websites, lead capture, and digital growth for real estate agencies in Zimbabwe.
