Do you have a great idea for a web application, but you can’t make it yourself? Creating a custom website is not a toy and its preparation must be well thought out. We will advise you on which professionals you should contact and where to look for them.
Before you start preparing your website, it’s a good idea to find out what you expect from it and how much investment you’re willing to make in creating your website. If you just need a simple web presentation without advanced features, choose web Business Card and creating a website will cost you almost nothing. But if you expect more from the web, contact the supplier – web agencies or freelancers.
Who are they?
Let’s get acquainted with professions that will help you with the website . We will describe their role in creating web applications and the continuity of their work.
UX designer
Or User Experience Designer makes sure that users use the site well and love it. It designs screens in the form of prototypes and tests their usability with the target group of users. He is also an analyst, working on data and trying to improve things.
You will especially appreciate his work at the beginning of the project , when he will help you design the application so that it is understandable to your customers. If you feel that your existing website could work better, we recommend consulting the UX designer. The output of his work is the architecture of the website, often in the form of a prototype (so-called wireframe), which serves as a basis for the web designer.
Tip: UX design is not just about the web or online applications. The work of the UX designer will also be appreciated by brick-and-mortar stores, authorities and institutions, which hire these experts to improve the customer experience on site.
Copywriter
Writes texts for the web, advertising messages, newsletters and articles. Complements the work of a UX designer and gives the designed prototypes a “voice” to speak to users. The texts are then tuned during user testing as well as the usability of the application. For a perfect result, it is therefore appropriate for them to work together when creating a website. A copywriter will help set up your brand’s communication style that is ideal for reaching a target audience.
Web Designer
The icing on the cake is when your application gets the right visual form . The web designer (sometimes also the graphic designer) will take care of this. Attractive colors, page layouts, illustrations or animations indicate the overall style of the site and how it will feel when users browse.
Tip: Design evokes emotion. If customers can recognize your website from a distance by simply looking at the monitor, it means that your brand has a strong graphic style. You can be inspired by current design trends .
Programmer / Developer / Administrator
Do you have a tested design proposal? The implementation itself comes into play. To do this, you’ll need a developer who graphs the design and helps you deploy the application to your domain.
Web Agencies
You can also hire a specialist agency to handle all the work associated with web design and often help with follow-up activities such as marketing communications. Agencies have a well-established web design process and know what and how. The downside may be the difficulty of changing vendors if you choose to do so in the future, especially if the application runs on the agency’s own systems.
You need to keep in mind that the site is not a one-time affair, but it is necessary to keep it in shape, update the content, improve the user experience. For applications, you will also often find that some things may have been done differently, better, and will need to be fixed. Therefore, agree with the website supplier whether he will maintain it after commissioning (often a so-called service contract is signed) or whether you should get someone else for later modifications. Then it is necessary for the website to be built using technologies that can be easily linked to.
Tip: If you are developing a more complex application , try looking for a vendor that uses so-called agile approach . This is the fastest way to validate an idea and not waste too much money. You will receive outputs sequentially (for example, every 14 days), sorted by priority, so that each step (iteration) brings some benefit to users. This will give you a better overview of the progress of work and at the same time you can flexibly decide which way to go. But don’t expect the contractor to be able to price the work in advance.
The application is in the world – what’s next?
Working on the web never ends. Your sales ambitions and your desire for people to know about your site will require further effort. marketing specialists will help you. There are a number of marketing professions, PPC specialist focuses on search engine advertising, PR specialist will help build relationships with your target audience through the media or various partnerships. You can also delegate all communication on social networks to marketing agencies. Here, too, it pays to re-engage a copywriter who will set the tone for your communication.
How to be better searchable on the Internet will help you SEO Specialist . It’s often about using keywords correctly and setting up your site.
How to know quality?
Whether you work with individuals or an agency, always try to find out as much information as possible about their practices and references in advance. It is very difficult to distinguish whether the supplier presents you with a quality solution or not. A good sign is that he will want to meet you in person and ask you a lot of questions to reconcile your ideas about the future of the site. Don’t be fooled if the contractor offers you a low price per hour of your work. One supplier can take the same hour, another to twenty.
Tip: You can find many more tips for planning your website in our e-book series How to Build an Online Business. They are free to download.
Where to look for web design experts?
Of course, the best is a personal recommendation from someone you trust. If you don’t get vendor tips, you can try the proven online databases:
Freelance – a catalog of entrepreneurs of various professions with listed availability and references.
Profinaut – mobile application with a database of professionals who are available for consultation or collaboration.
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