User experience, today stands as an indisputable pillar for most of the online businesses, to be successful in the age of customer centricity. Businesses are spending huge bucks to get their customers the right user experience. They are now thinking from the viewpoint of customers to decide what will more rightly connect more with them.
A lot of user experience agencies speaks of providing flawless experience in the market with ideas like Lean UX, Design Thinking, etc. With a lot of changing trends and each agency scaling with its own set of expertise, it is difficult for the business owners to choose the right design agency.
As UX and optimization are on-the-loop tasks in the world of web, it is necessary to involve a systematic path of picking the right partner. The blog post suggests a series of actions for business owners to take while evaluating the design agency.
1. Take a discovery session with the agencies
Discovery session aids a lot in setting the right expectations, and also get clear insights on the level of understanding of UX in the business. Discovery session should be performed through a series of flexible questions, responses to which will present transparency to the agency on the vision, mission and measurable goals of the business.
2. Create a framework for analysis
Use a framework to better analyze the various qualitative and quantitative traits of the UX design agency. The framework should be created in the viewpoint of ideation methodology, detailed research, creative thoughts, resource competency, etc. Ideally, the framework should have assigned importance to various areas in their rank of necessity.
3. Analyze the proposed methodology
Nearly every agency will speak of being confiding and agile, but it is necessary to evaluate that how they bring those ideas on the ground and implement them in an enduring manner. The UX agency that scores more on all the viewpoints of the defined framework will undoubtedly emerge as a number one among the many. Furthermore, it is necessary to check the research methodology the agency follows.
Great emphasis needs to be given to the mode of the user research. User Research must cover buyer persona, customer journeys and information architecture. For the evaluation purpose, Usability testing should also, be considered. For the whole plan to work successfully, in usability testing, it is critical to take care of time, mode and target audience.
4. Evaluate What Other Clients Say
Past work evaluation of the agency must be done to see if the team has significant exposure and expertise in the target industry. Analysis of various cross-industry use cases also determines the depth of the practice. People chose to work the project should be figured out for the expertise level they possess.
5. Analyze the technical compatibility
Usually, UX design agencies work for periodic publications and propose something which is not in connection with development companies. Thus, to achieve what is required, it is imperative to check their technical know-how.
6. Analyze the project performance plan, and time-to-market
Project performance plan needs to be adequately repetitive in every phase. It is also necessary to examine if there is sufficient development support contributed by the partner. UX Design is a constant process, and thus enough visibility should be there in the role of UX design agency in the various phases of the product life-cycle. One more crucial thing here is the time-to-market. In a fast-changing digital-scape, things turn obsolete quickly. Hence, digital agencies need to operate in phases securing the right product is ready to market at the right time.
7. Check for references
Often an overlooked step, yet it is really important to check the attitude of the people you choose to work with. A testimonial from a past client is evident enough to check the ethical aspect of the UX design agency.
Conclusion
Choosing the right UX design partner is a critical stepping stone in the overall digital strategy process for any business. Consequently, it is pretty sensible to check whether the agency fits logically and culturally with your business.