6 Tips to Stay Within Budget While Designing a Website

Are you considering hiring an agency to help you design from scratch, redesign, or improve the usability of your website/app or product? Welcome then!

The Goal of This Blog Post Is to Save You Some Trouble and to Keep You From Overspending.

Here are 6 very practical and proven tips to boost efficiency while cooperating with a creative company. If you are the kind of person who does your homework before kicking off a new project, then you are in the right place.

I take️ the homework and prep work very very seriously because it means fewer issues and better productivity when it comes to getting the job done.

Before the website redesign, we completed lots of things:

• updated mission, vision, and values
• came up with a new slogan
• researched personas & all the competitors
• conducted brand interviews with the team

Basically, I had a ton of information to give to the agency that was going to redesign our website. It helped us a lot, and it saved time (read money) that they would have spent on getting to know us.

So, here are the 6 tips to keep you within budget while working with a UI/UX Agency.

Numero 1 — Start With Setting Your Primary Business Goals

☝️Ask some very basic but important questions:

• What is the primary goal of the website or app?
• Is it converting users into customers, selling products, and getting registrations? What is the key goal?
• Why are you creating this website/app?

Example:

Goal #1 — convert website visitors into MQL (marketing qualified lead), making you capable of contacting the person.

Goal #2 — educate people about your services & expertise.

Goal #3 — showcase the work with case studies and testimonials.

Numero 2 — Do You Know Your Customers? Do You Know Them Well Enough?

Stop the guesswork, do your research. You can not assume what people know or how they navigate your website. This is a template we follow:

If you got some time, reach out to various clients and schedule user interviews. This is the best way to get valuable info on the customer challenges, goals, and pain points.

Also, if you have a hotjar plugin installed, make sure to pull out all the historical data. The same goes for google analytics insights.

Numero 3 — Get a Free Consult From a Ui/Ux Lead Designer

There are tons of agencies offering free consultations. Why not use it?

Talk to professionals, and listen to their advice. Ask around for recommendations if someone has already been working with other agencies. Most of our new clients are from our past clients.

Our Lead Designer Serhii is always happy to conduct an intro call, answer a couple of questions, and provide a better perspective.

Numero 4 — Reach Out to the Top 5 Agencies And Compare the Estimate You Get

Where to look for an agency? If you want to read valid reviews and get all the companies ranked based on customer satisfaction, go to clutch.co.

The alternatives to clutch are:

1. DesignRush

2. Goodfirms

3. Visual objects

4. Awwwards

   
   

Highlight up to 6 agencies, and reach out for project estimates (time & cost). It’s crucial to get different offers to be able to pick the one you like the most.

Numero 5 — Collect All the Visual Materials You Have Ever Produced: Brand Books, PDFs, etc.

Pass to the agency that you have signed a deal with an NDA agreement with all the materials you have. It will help them to get to know you better, to see how the brand was developing.

You can send them everything, it’s going to be their job to look through all the stuff and ask questions if needed.

Some crucial documents to provide are:

• a brand book,
• visual guidelines,
• logotypes,
• case studies.

Numero 6 — Demand a Design Brief

The best way to start cooperation is by filling out a design brief provided by an agency. You will be asked to provide some basic info about services, target audience, objectives, challenges, etc.

I would suggest going very detailed in a brief. Make sure to list website/app examples that you really like as a reference. Normally, people need at least 2 weeks to finish the design brief.

That’s it!🎉

Working with an agency isn’t always about spending lots of money. Come prepared, talk to professionals, and aim for maximum productivity.

Cheers!

Ralabs Design Team 💜

Originally published here