How to shortlist a suitable Web Development Company for your business?

How to shortlist a suitable web development company

So, you’re in the process to get a new website for your business and you have a certain vision for it but not the time. Being a go-getter, coding it yourself, or setting it up on platforms like Shopify or Wix isn’t a problem for you, but is it the best investment of your time? More importantly, is it a practically scalable solution for the years to come? The best option is to hand over your web development project to a trustable agency. But given today’s competition, even searching and selecting the best web development company for your website is a task in itself.

While every agency that you hear of may sound the same, it’s only when you dive deeper that you understand the true values that distinguish them from each other. Here are 5 important things you must know before you outsource your website’s development.

First, let’s understand if you should go for an agency instead of hiring professional freelancers.

Deciding between the conviction of a web development agency and the flexibility of freelancers is never easy, especially when the area lies outside your expertise. Who can be trusted with your website? Who to give this huge responsibility to? Should it be an independent software developer? Or a company that specializes in web development?

Building a website is a lot like building a home. For instance, let’s take up a house, a lot of elements go behind building it – excavation, framing, interiors, exteriors, and so on. All of this, done by a crew of skilled workers. Think about it, would you hand over something as important as your house construction to just one person who claims to fulfill all these elements? Similarly, developing a website is not a one-man job and requires a team of individuals with many different skill sets. Overlooking the importance of hiring a full crew of experts just out of the desire to get to market quickly or simply because of a lack of clarity can be harmful to your business in the long run.

But this doesn’t mean that you should completely neglect the role of a freelancer. If the required work is something like a UI upgrade with motion animation or rethinking your digital branding, then a professional freelancer can be of help. However, keep in mind that freelancers are proficient with a limited skill-set. Rare are those who are trained to work for complex and dynamic projects. It can cost you a lot of time and mental energy to find that one perfect individual.

freelancer vs web development company

Based on the comparison the first thing you should decide is what your priorities are. If freelancers better suit your requirement then go for platforms like Behance and Freelancer to seek out the best designers and developers. But if a website development agency is a better fit for you, keep on reading! Let’s break down the characteristics and qualifications of top web development companies.

5 important questions to ask the shortlisted web development agencies

1. What are you expecting from the web dev firm?

Make sure you clearly communicate your expectations from the website/platform – create a feature list and share references so the agency can share a practical approach, quote, and turnaround time. For instance, if you need a portfolio website at first and then want to translate it into an eComm website at a later phase, talk to companies who can put up suggestions and assess the approach for you rather than just executing it. Don’t ask them for all their work, ask them for their best work and base your evaluation on it. All this will answer one question for you – can this company develop the sales engine you need.

2. How long will it take to complete the web development project?

Once the agency understands your goal and vision for the website or platform, they should be able to give you a timeframe. A website can take anywhere from a week to 3 months and user portals take higher. It can take a longer or even shorter time depending on your goals and requirements. Check to see if the timeline fits your needs or just clearly communicate the project deadlines. It’s always a good idea to spare extra time for unexpected changes or new additions.

3. Do they offer other services than website development?

Apart from developers, if your web development company also has graphic designers, SEO experts, and marketing professionals then they will be able to create a high-performing website that exists to generate leads and not just look pretty. Sometimes web development agencies offer additional services that you may need such as branding, web copywriting, SEO, and more. It is not always necessary but can be a great advantage, especially if you’re looking for a long-term partner who can manage and support your brand in the longer run.

4. Speaking of, will they be able to provide long-term help?

When looking for a web development company, you shouldn’t just be looking for someone that provides a quick service and vanishes. The relationship between you and your chosen agency should ideally represent a lasting partnership, through which you can support other spheres of the business tomorrow and not just the website. Indeed the most important task of any web development company is to provide their clients with an attractive and functional website. But the viability of any website is proven only after 2-3 months after its launch through the collected data and depends on your marketing strategy. Therefore, when choosing a website development company make sure they are willing to form a long-term relationship with you. This way your needs are met, not just initially but for a longer period.

5. How will the communication and documentation be managed?

Communication is the key to any successful web dev project. Every agency has its preferred communication method, and it is a good idea to understand the process for your project. You can directly ask them if they will provide a project manager or one central contact, who that person will be, and how often can you expect them to contact you. On the other hand, the documentation helps you understand the phase-wise breakup of the deliverables of the website and accordingly set up reviews to avoid delays or too many iterations. Make sure you stay in touch with them throughout the process and take swift and hard calls – to make sure you don’t up the work and the project fails to meet its deadline. A quick check once a week or a round-up call after each project milestone can be a good practice to go with.

What do you think?

We hope this read helped you gain some clarity! Your hard-earned money and time deserve to be invested with someone who can help you achieve what you’re looking for.

At Spark Eighteen, we don’t make a website for you, we make it for your customers. This simple difference makes a significant impact on the lifetime sales of any startup or established business.

If you’re interested, feel free to check out some web development projects that we’ve done in the recent past or you can directly get in touch with us here. We’ll be happy to help!

How does digital branding impact your business in today’s age?

How does digital branding impact your business in todays age

Every business wants its website’s users to have the best of experience. To help them understand the company’s core value and offering instantly and seamlessly –  but do all of them succeed in it? If you’re one of those who wonder, then this blog on the importance of digital branding is for you!

Table of Content:

For example, let’s think of owners of a hundred websites getting a decent amount of traffic every month.

Shout out loud, “Who wants more traffic?” You’ll see 101 hands flailing up high.

If you want, you can get good website traffic through hundreds of traffic generation strategies available out there. A simple Google search, and you’ll see there is no shortage of resources out there that can tell you how to bring up the number of visitors to your website. But of what use are these users if they aren’t even interacting with your brand? When they don’t fall in love with your brand or don’t end up buying your product. Do they not understand your brand or just like your competitor better? More importantly, what can you do to turn this around?

This is where digital branding comes into play!

Working extensively towards increasing your brand’s users without clearly telling them who you are, what you do, and what makes you different is one of the main reasons why your brand isn’t generating loyalists or the organic appeal you want to have in the market.

What Is Digital Branding?

Digital branding isn’t that different from branding in general. While branding creates an identity of a company with its name, logo, design, etc., digital branding is how it is presented online through the website, social or digital media. It’s all about understanding what sets a business apart and delivering that message to its online audience.

what is digital branding

Why is Digital Branding important for you?

It is your job as a business to help your online visitors and users understand the value that they might not be able to see, especially since price and time are the two most important factors today. The importance of digital branding comes down to the successful communication of your business belief and value creation for the customer. Think of it as a tool that translates your brand across digital channels. Ever came across a product’s website that isn’t necessarily cheap but provides an even superior experience than most of its competitors? This is an example of a successful digital brand building.

Why is Digital Branding important for you

Your Website = Heart of your Digital Branding:

Your website is the place where all your transactions happen – be it acquiring new leads or directly selling your goods. So let’s take a look at some inspiring digital branding examples!

stripe

When you visit Stripe’s website, you’re instantly drawn in with a headline, “Payments infrastructure for the internet”. The copy hits the brand’s offer and core value in 4 simple words. The explanation that follows up describes who the service is for (online businesses) and what it does (handles high traffic online payments, regardless of the size of your company).

  • Beautycounter
beautycounter

A disruptor in the beauty and skincare industry, Beautycounter uses its website to deliver the brand’s core message. As soon as you get to their website, you already know what you’re going to sign up for. A clear CTA button on the homepage instantly redirects you to a page where you can compare Beautycounter with similar brands in the market and see how it stands out. You will find more informative material about their products and the brand as you scroll through.

  • Sonos
sonos

Sonos’ website teaches us that products or services which are technically complex should be rather easier to explain. A producer of wireless sound systems, Sonos lets their product take the center stage with high-value messaging. With a clean design as well as a strong tone of voice, it’s evident that they understand their audience and know how to pose their product to their audience quite well.

Here’s a list of key areas (apart from the homepage) that will make sure your digital brand building practice ticks all the right boxes:

Website Pages

Just like your homepage, other important pages have the potential to improve your business dramatically. Among these are the About Us, Blog, and Contact Us page. These are the three most visited pages on a website alongside the homepage:

  • Use your About Us page to answer important questions that a visitor may want answers to. Humanize your brand. Who are you? What do you do? How do you do what you do?
  • Your blog page is where your visitors will hang out the most on your website if you’re publishing quality content while targeting your ideal user. Write blogs that either aim to educate your readers about your business, solve their problems, or provide fresh insights that make their lives better. The main goal is to offer as much value as you can through your content.
  • Lastly, the Contact page is an easy way for your visitors to get in touch with your business. A well-designed contact form should be easier for your audience to engage with as well as make a long-lasting impact. For example, look at how enterprise software company Atlassian does this. With an extremely cleaned and well-organized contact page, they make it easy for visitors to find the specific department they’re looking for and reach out.
atlassian

Your digital brand isn’t just restricted to the website. While your website can be a good starting point, it cannot solely portray an image of your business online. Also, how do you get your ideal users to come to visit you there? Your digital brand strategy needs consistency to thrive. Other aspects of a good digital branding strategy include email marketing, social media, etc. Basically, every single touchpoint that your customer can interact with when it comes to your brand.

Email Marketing

Many online businesses tend to see email marketing solely in terms of sales. However, it is much more than that. It isn’t necessary for your ideal users to be interested in your brand at all times. A compelling email marketing strategy can be the best way to get your brand’s message across, create recall and build strong relationships with your subscribers. Sending out a welcome email as soon as a subscriber signs up for your newsletter can be a great starting point. Informing new subscribers what your business is all about, what can they expect from your future emails, carrying out quick and rewarding surveys, and other such activities as part of your email marketing strategy will make your brand feel much more personal.

Social Media

Think about where your target audience hangs out the most? They can be roaming around on forums, Facebook groups, or scrolling through Instagram. You don’t have to be on every platform, just need to be on the ones where your users are most active. Once you find that out, plan out ways on how you’ll be able to deliver your key values to them using that channel. Videos? Posts? Images? What are they most interested in? Create content that platforms promote organically while keeping in mind the type of audience you want to attract. Make sure you’re not wasting time on channels that aren’t suiting your business needs.

How Digital Branding is impacting businesses?

kpmg

The fact is that no matter which industry you belong to, a percentage of your customers are now online, if not all – especially since the pandemic. As you can see from the statistic above, the internet is a valuable tool for businesses – regardless of how small, big, new, or old. It works as a voice that lets you expand your reach and easily reinforce your brand values.

Shouting and screaming to get your message across online won’t get people to hear you. You’ve got to deliver your message in a way that adds personality to your business so that your customers feel a greater connection with your brand. Your website, social media, and any other digital medium that you work with should do that for you. These digital mediums work as an avenue where you get educate your audience and build affinity among them for your brand while trying to generate as much value as you can for them within your domain.

online experiences
Source: Junto Digital

Your digital presence and searchability build your credibility. Most consumers research online before they head on to make the final purchasing decision. So, your business not appearing on the first searches on say a Google may just end up redirecting a hot lead to a rival.

Still don’t know where to start?

The first and the most obvious step is to enhance and update your professional website. Your website is your identity on the internet. It is where people go when they first hear about you. A website that is tailored for your user can create a lasting first impression. Once you have that in place, your other digital branding ideas can come into play. Connect the dots with other marketing channels and you’ll be well on your way with your own well-distinguished digital brand.

Got questions? Let’s discuss it over some coffee, it’s on us!

Design for the users: 8 Key elements of a great mobile app UX design

8 key elements of a great mobile app ux design

What makes a great mobile app UX design? Hopefully by the end of this blog you’ll be able to answer this question. 

Why do people download mobile apps?

A pretty straightforward question, right?

Users have needs and look for a fast and efficient way to achieve those needs. Apps are that “way”.

Simple question – simple answer. But again, scratching the surface, we can see that it is really not as easy as it seems and requires a bigger and deeper answer.

Table of Content:

  1. A Clean Layout
  2. Easy-to-Flow Navigation
  3. Minimum User Input
  4. Legible Text Content
  5. Big Enough Tap-Targets
  6. Hand Position Controls
  7. Provides Personalization
  8. Well-Tested

According to a study by TechJury, an average person has around 80 different apps installed on their phone, out of which only 9 of those apps are used daily. Further data by Statistics show that users abandon 25% of mobile apps on their phones just after one use.

The main reason why a user downloads an app is that they are looking for a unique experience that they won’t possibly get on a website. An experience that justifies the reason for why they should be downloading an app in the first place. After all, the more usable the app is, the higher user engagement it gets and the lower chance of uninstalls.

Implementing the best of mobile app UX design principles at every step of the design process can help you attain this. Following are the 8 best mobile app UX design practices that you need to consider for your app today!

8 Mobile App UX design principles

1. A Clean Layout

Users aren’t necessarily looking for a meaning behind your design. It’s a mobile app, not a Vincent Van Gogh painting for god sake!

They won’t take much time to drop out of an app that ruffles their feathers. That is why a simple and clean design that makes it easy for users to navigate, explore, and consume content is what we consider the golden recipe of a successful app design. Just have a look at this example below:

clean layout mobile app ux design

Absolutely no clutter! The mobile app layout seems fresh and feels relaxing to the eyes, doesn’t it? A minimalist and simple design is your best defense against the paradox of choice and will help you create the most holistic and satisfying mobile experience for your users.

2. Easy-to-Flow Navigation

Good navigation is a vehicle that directs users where they want to go. You know navigation is bad if you have to stop and wonder “How to reach a specific function?”.

To avoid this bummer, make your UX navigation intuitive so that users can immediately figure out how to get around your application. Use familiar icons (such as a “home” icon for the home page or “speech balloon” for messages), fewer options on the menu bar, and give users a visible indicator of which screen they are at the moment.

navigation

This is one of the most important elements of UX for apps. If a user finds it difficult to navigate through your app, they’re more likely to disengage and close or even uninstall the app before even using it.

3. Minimum User Input

The biggest challenge with smaller devices isn’t the screen size, but the typing experience. Typing on mobile screens isn’t always the most comfortable experience as in most cases the keyboard takes up more than half of the screen. With this situation at hand, you would not want to overwhelm users with a form that contains endless amounts of fields. Try and reduce the number of fields in a form by asking only the most relevant details.

Minimizing the number of fields isn’t enough – also focus on the areas where extra user effort is being put. For example, filling out an address is often the most difficult part of any form. Make it easy by using smart features like autocomplete which uses both geolocation and address prefilling to provide correct suggestions based on the user’s exact location. Similarly, customize the keyboard for the type of query like displaying a numeric keyboard when asking for a phone number or including the ‘@’ sign when asking for an email address. Ensure that these features are applied consistently throughout the app instead of just certain forms.

4. Legible Text Content

Text is one of the most critical elements of mobile UX design. If users are unable to read your content, then how will they use your app? As screen sizes are getting smaller, the strain on our eyes is increasing to read texts. This is why legibility is everything. This means that your texts should be easily distinguishable that the users do not find it troubling to read or analyze them. In fact, they shouldn’t feel the need to re-read it. Adjust the spacing, length, font, and style to find the most legible tuning for your mobile app.

5. Big Enough Tap-Targets

Ever played darts? Hitting the bulls-eye is way harder to do than hitting any other part of the dartboard. This is because bulls-eye is the smallest target on the board.

The same principle can be applied to mobile UX design. Smaller touch targets are hard for users to hit than the larger ones. So when you’re designing your mobile app, it is best to make your targets big so that they’re easy for users to tap If a user clicks on a tiny portion of the screen and if that doesn’t create the expected action, the user might get annoyed and exit the app. The solution is to make the tap-size at least 7-10mm so that they are able to locate the button and easily tap on it.

6. Hand Position Controls

Are you reading this blog on your phone? Even if you’re not, pick it up and see where you naturally place your fingers and thumb. Where can you tap? Which areas do you have to stretch your thumb to tap?

Hand positions and grip influence a large part of mobile UX design. In a research on mobile devices usage, it was found that 49% of people rely on one thumb to get things done on their phones. Even when you look at the image below, the colors indicate the areas where a user can reach their thumb to interact with the screen.

Green shows the area where they can easily use their thumb, yellow are the areas where they have to stretch a bit to reach, and red requires users to change the way they are holding their device. This means:

  • You need to place common actions in the easy to reach the green zone;
  • Place negative buttons (such as delete or cancel) in the hard to reach red zone so users do not accidentally tap on it.

7. Provides Personalization

We’ve been hearing the word ‘personalization’ a lot nowadays. It has become an integral part of designing in the digital system due to the ability to build a connection with the end-user. It gives users the content they’re searching for in the first place and eliminates any distraction in-between.  The best part is, even the user is looking for it!

Personalize the user’s journey by allowing them to change settings, control push notifications from the app, and cancel actions. Apps can suggest or provide warnings but the end decision should be of the user to make.  Let them ask questions or queries by integrating various types of feedback into your interface. Give users a sense of freedom and transparency.

8. Well-Tested

A thoroughly tested app prevents any future user problems.

The earlier you test your app, the earlier you fix any problems and win the trust of your users. Review different features, layouts, and variations of your mobile app design to see what is working best. Build a user-centered approach by testing your app with real-users, With each round, you’ll uncover different ways of improving your app design to meet the user’s needs.

Conclusion

Congratulations! Now that you’ve made it to the end of it, we can assume you’re equipped with the knowledge of creating an extraordinary design for your app. We hope now you understand the importance of UX for mobile applications. Following these mobile app ux design principles, you will be able to give users a better overall experience.

Get one step further to your dream app by joining hands with a great team like Spark Eighteen. Take a look at our work here!