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“88% of users are less likely to return to a website that offers a bad user experience.”
It’s no secret that great UI/UX Design plays a very important role in the success of a business. The impression users get from the point they encounter your website or mobile application can either make or mar your business.
Now, unless you have a dedicated UI/UX design department, you’ll need to hire an agency or a UX design studio for your interface designs.
How then do you pick the best Design Agency for your next project? Or avoid Design Agencies that will offer nothing but exploit you?
This article will expose you to red flags you can watch out for to avoid making the wrong call while hiring.
In considering the red flags, we’ll be looking at,
- The psychology of a bad UI/UX Design agency, company, or studio.
- Their Acts (actions known only to bad Design agencies).
- Red flags that are actually not red flags: Some assumptions businesses make about collaborating with other UI/UX Companies.
- How to eventually make the right choice of choosing the best UI/UX Design company?
Let’s begin with,
1. The psychology of a bad UI/UX Design Agency, company, or studio.
The first step to identifying a bad UI/UX Design agency or company is to understand their ideology, and how they think basically. this way you’ll be able to sense danger when suggestions like these come your way:
- Hey, we won’t need user feedback; I have absolute faith in my unerring judgment. or some would say I have enough experience, we don’t have to waste time going through that route.
– They underestimate the users’ involvement throughout the process.
- Hey, Wireframes are just works of art. Its main purpose is to impress clients with their elegance and beauty.
– So, they design artistic wireframes that are not functional ones.
- Any thinking, research, or discovery before wireframing is a waste of time.
– They start their own design process with wireframing and neglect user interface analysis, information architecture, and project goal definition.
- The business/marketing team of the client is always right. The Agency’s job is to follow its directions to the latter.
– This is basically a sign of laziness to do critical design thinking on their own.
- It’s better to show users static documents with a few screens and lots of text than a prototype that works like the finished product. People love extensive text.
– This is absolutely wrong. It’s just a way to always have a design process that won’t stress the UX design company. In fact, Animation is more likely to enhance User Experience.
2. Their Acts (Actions known only to bad Design agencies)
We’ve considered their psychology, let’s now check through the actions they actually exhibit, which you should be on the lookout for.
- They make use of just one wireframing tool and are always quick to talk down on other wireframing tools, they tell you other tools are crap.
– These UI/UX Design agencies are less likely to be subjectable to change or technological advancement.
- Create personas for creation’s sake. They include all kinds of personal details that aren’t relevant to the design project’s goal.
- The personas don’t represent the different user types that might use your service, or product at all.
- Copy designs exactly and don’t even try to adjust them to the project’s specificity.
– Design Agencies like this are lazy and won’t deliver premium.
- They neglect tests throughout the entire process. Do their testing only when they arrive at the final solution.
- When they wireframe, they include all the obvious but do not consider how to handle errors and don’t draw alternative paths.
When you see UI/UX Design agencies act this way, give this body language, or offer this sort of service, then it should resonate within you that this is a Red Flag, and you should better take your design project elsewhere.
3. Red flags that are actually not red flags: Some assumptions businesses make about collaborating with other UI/UX Design agencies.
In our experience of working with clients, we noticed quite a number of them having been burned by bad UI/UX Design companies in the past developed some wrong perceptions or even saw working with UX agencies as a red flag. They preferred having a lone ranger (probably a freelance UX Designer) to hiring an agency.
A few of their assumptions were that UI/UX Design agencies are very expensive (having been exploited by bad firms), they are hard to control, and they won’t deliver on time as they have lots on their hands other than their project.
Well, this wrong perception was changed when they came in contact with us as they could instead now see just how important and helpful a good UX Design studio can be.
They were provided a more complete solution, got more exposure, and had their UX design concept delivered with excellence.
4. How to eventually make the right choice of choosing the best UI/UX Design company?
So, as we’ve seen so far, having the best UI/UX Design agency for your business is absolutely critical to your business's success.
Here’s therefore how we’ll advise you to go about it:
You should first have the scope of your UX Design project outlined, then you can now be on the lookout for Design agencies that,
- Understands Branding.
- Asks relevant questions to understand your goals and user personas.
- Has a portfolio section on its website where you can see previous work samples, evidently.
- Pays attention to details around valuable moments of the customer journey as this is crucial to think through all of the possible cases.
You can also examine their design process and ask questions if you have any doubts. And, once you get a firm that ticks the majority of these boxes, you’re good to go. ;)
To wrap it all up,
Basically, making the right hire is very critical, as the wrong call can hamper your business and maybe even cause it to go down.
It is however important to note that no UI/UX Design agency can be 100% perfect. You don’t have to be on the lookout for the 100% perfect ones, that one that ticks the majority of the box can just be the one to do the magic.
Remember this is an extortionate and critical undertaking for your business. You want to make sure you’re partnering with an agency that understands your needs and can deliver on its promises.
Ask the right questions to make sure you’re getting what you want and need.
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