What To Look For in a UX Design Agency–A Complete Guide
If you ever visited a website that left you pulling your hair out, you know precisely how vital a good online user experience is. When you are selling a product, the last thing you want is for users to click away, frustrated with your site and, in turn, your company. So, what is the best way to ensure your website visitors turn into conversions and not frustrated users?
The answer is simple: hire a UX design agency. UX design agencies exist to help ensure your customer experience is smooth and efficient. Unfortunately, there are a seemingly endless number of UX design agencies out there. So, how do you go about picking the best one? Check out the following tips to get started.
Read Client and Employee Reviews
Reading client reviews and testimonials is one of the best ways to find out what your UX design agency is all about. While you should take the majority of online reviews with a grain of salt, most are useful metrics for determining if a business is worth working with.
Take a look at Yelp, Google, and job search engine reviews for the UX design agency you’re considering. Do past clients have good things to say about timeliness, quality, and communication? Likewise, what do employees say? Job sites like Glassdoor allow employees to submit reviews on businesses that can offer a lot of insight.
Breakdown Pricing and Services
UX design agencies usually offer a pretty broad product and pricing range. For example, some companies only provide UX design services, while others will delve into app, web, and software development. But if you only need a site redesign and some rebranding help, do you need to go with a more established agency that does it all?
Whether you go with a basic UX design agency or a comprehensive option will depend on your needs. Smaller companies might work perfectly for your needs and budget if you don’t need anything robust. However, if you want your business to grow, you’ll want to work with a company that can offer a well-rounded selection of scalable services.
Dig Into Past Experience
A UX design agency’s experience is another crucial factor in choosing who to hire. Some of the best agencies might not fit your company or design ideas. For that reason, it’s essential to look at what your agency has done in the past and compare it to what you want in a service.
Many agencies will offer portfolios on their website that showcase past projects. Portfolios are an excellent place to start. Once you find the projects, click through each website to see how it compares to your needs. Look at menus, navigation, content structure, and responsiveness to determine if their style aligns with your needs.
Find Out How They Communicate
A major frustration many business owners encounter when contracting work is a lack of communication. With the availability of phone, email, and text communications, it’s easy to question why getting a hold of your designer would be an issue. But unfortunately, communication issues are a too-common problem when hiring contractors.
So, when researching and interviewing companies, find out their communication style with clients. You will want an idea of how often they’ll get in touch to update you about your project. Likewise, find out the best way to get in touch with them if any questions or concerns arise. Most importantly, compare their answers to what past clients have said about them.
Ask About Their Process
User experience is not a simple process. On the contrary, it can be pretty complex and time-consuming, which is why hiring an experienced UX design agency is crucial to your business and website’s success. When researching companies, be sure to ask what their process is.
A good UX design agency will perform proper and extensive user research. This research can consist of surveys, card sorting, and industry comps. Once they have completed their research, they should be able to demonstrate your site’s usability through wireframes or digital models. Then, you’ll work together to ensure their product meets your vision precisely.
Find Out Employee Skill Sets
A UX design agency is only as good as its employees. Designers come in all shapes and sizes, offering various skills to each project they take on. However, even the best design skills will be useless if they don’t apply to your project. That’s why it’s vital to know who’ll be working on your project and what their individual experiences are.
Many agencies will have company bios on their websites. However, for those that don’t, you can simply ask your contact person what each team member brings to the table. A skilled manager will match team members’ skills to your project. Therefore, knowing your design team’s skill sets will also give you a better idea of what you can ask for.
Look Into the Company Culture
Lastly, you should always look into the company culture of your UX design agency. You’ll be able to get a good idea of how the business works based on the testimonials you looked over earlier. However, company culture extends far beyond that.
For example, how does the UX design agency treat its employees? How do they address and correct mistakes? Do they work on a business-first or customer-first model? Have they won any awards or gained recognition for their business practices? Each of these things can directly affect how the agency works with you and the type of final product they deliver.
Final Thoughts on Choosing a UX Design Agency
Choosing a UX design agency can be tricky. Each business is unique, so you cannot simply visit a website and see that the company has what you’re looking for.
However, using the tips outlined in this article, you should have a good starting point for choosing your agency. And remember–do not be afraid to ask questions. You want to ensure you get a return on your investment. The best agencies will always be ready to answer your questions and address your concerns to ensure a successful project.