User Interface and User Experience are often thought of as sub-tasks while creating an online product. But it plays an important role in business growth. Smooth user experience can lead to customer satisfaction at the early stages of the buyer’s journey. User Interface is the component that decides how easy it is for consumers to buy your products or avail of your services.
If you are looking to develop a website that serves your business needs but at the same time brings joy and satisfaction to your customers. Hiring a UX design firm or just a UI design firm will give you the required expertise without the hassle of an in-house team.
The first step towards making an informed decision is to define your business goals and needs. Start by walking a mile in your customer’s shoes. It will give you a perspective on how would a customer want to interact with your product or service. Once that is sketched out to your satisfaction gather development costs from firms that seem like a fair deal. Now you have a list of possible UX design firms. Let’s take a look at some important characteristics that you must look for in a web design firm.
Third-Party Reviews
How do you select which product to buy for yourself? Yes, reviews. There is a third-party review website for every product or service available online. For example, clutch.io, Github are all places where web design firms are reviewed by active members of the development community. A simple Google business page is also sufficient to gather reviews from previous clients.
References from Past Clients
Of course, they have a list of all their happy clients for you to see. But ask for contact information of a few and make sure that they do have those happy clients in reality. Connect to those clients on LinkedIn and enquire about their experience with the UI design firm you are considering hiring.
Experience is Subjective
Do not accept the experience statistics that the website reads. Ask about all available web developers for your product and their work portfolio. It is the experience of the developers working on your project that will affect the quality. A few design firms offer clients to interview their web developers if the need be. Make sure that you are satisfied with the experience of developers working on your website.
What is the Design Process?
Every firm has a detailed design process to serve client needs. You must understand the design process of every alternative UX design firm and select one based on how fast can the development be? And how satisfying is the end product going to be?
After-Sales Support is the Key
Developing a product is half the job. What comes after that makes a huge difference. Look for firms that provide after-sales support for at least 6 months. Once delivered it will take time for you and your team to familiarize themselves with the functioning of the website. Understand how the firm will conduct knowledge transfer sessions for product listing and website information tweaks.
Soft Skills and Software Skills
Software skills are easy to find. With a big budget, you can find the best developers in every field. But what will make the difference is the soft skills that the web developers possess? You want to work with a team that is clear in their communication with clients. Ask about how the timeline is going to be followed and what are the communications they are going to provide at each step.
How Did you Get to this Quotation?
Dissect the development quotation you have received. Ask the UI design firm, UX design firm to breakdown the costing into smaller parts. Ask them to justify the amounts and the need for each cost variable they are quoting.
Ensure the Required Expertise
Make sure that the firm has dedicated UI and UX designers. The best UX designers are not necessarily the best of UI designers. Both these fields are mutually exclusive in the sense that both require equal attention and skills. Hence making sure that resources are dedicated to each will ensure timely development of your website.
What is the Plan for Scalability?
Please do not choose your firm based on costing. Be sure to look a few years ahead and predict the scalability needs of your company. Make sure that all the components of your UI and UX are scalable. Ask your firm to give you a scalability road map for your website. Data migration and website migration cost companies thousands of dollars in revenue. So don’t miss the big picture of developing your website.
Conclusion
These are the basic steps of selecting a suitable UI/UX design firm for your company. With the increasing need to develop an online presence, it is important that your website stands out in terms of customer usability and experience of ease. UX and UI design firms are adept in making that dream of endless leads come true. Additionally, customers are more likely to come back and share your website with their friends and peers. Focus on easing the buyer’s journey and the buyers will tend to your business worries automatically. At Paraminfo we house a dedicated team for UI and UX design ensuring that your website gets the necessary look (UI) and feel (UX). Contact our experts today and get a detailed analysis of your business website’s UI and UX needs.
