How to go about finding the right web design agency for your website needs

How to go about finding the right web design agency for your website needs.
In an ideal situation the first web designer who pitches to you would be the right choice but we do not live in an ideal world and you have to be very careful about how you select the right web design agency for your business needs.

Web design is typically a field where the barriers to entry are very low and anybody can take it up unlike being a doctor or a lawyer. A guy sitting in his bedroom can easily present himself as a web designer. There are no universally adopted standards to measure web designers by nor is there a conclusive organization which certifies them. Web design is not even recognized as a proper profession in some quarters.

What criteria would you use to access a web designer?
While selecting a web designer look for the following:

Credentials - training and qualifications
Skill and experience
Quality of the Portfolio of previous work done
Accessibility (Does he have an office with staff, is he easily available on the phone?)
Affordability ( fees, too less could also be a negative indicator)
Professionalism (does he appear to have a good handle on the entire process)
Does he prepare for your appointment?
Explain the nuances of web designing in layman's terms?
Keeps appointments and values your time?
Manage an efficient business?
Reviews the status and progress periodically? (you do not have to continually call him)
Does the personality and style of the web designer suit you?
This might appear as an odd question; after all you aren't looking to marry him/her. But like your relationship with a doctor or lawyer you will be interacting with your web designer for a long time and it makes sense that you should like spending time with him/her. As your business grows so will your work with him/her.

Some indicators to look for would be

Does he talk to you as an equal? Does he take time to listen to your views?
Is he friendly and easy going? (You don't want a grouchy web designer, trust me).
Does he have the patience to explain things to you in details?
Does the web designer understand your business and have a long term vision for it?
Although web design principles are the same; each business is unique in its needs and challenges. A good web designer should be able to study your business and formulate a strategy best suited for you.

A good web designer will usually:

Chalk out a long term strategy plan for your online business
Will create action points for immediate implementation
Will suggest multiple avenues to market your business online not just the website
Will plan for eventualities and support required
Will be transparent and honest about costs, time and deliverables.

Source: https://www.miracleworx.com/how-to-select-the-right-web-designer-in-india.htm

Read more about: Ecommerce Website Design Agency in Delhi

Three web design trends that are hot right now!

Web design evolves just like technology and also goes through its own fads and style periods. Designing also changes with the evolution of technology particularly CSS and JavaScript evolutions.

1. Pictures tell the story
Large images stretching across the page overlaid with tactically relevant copy is in.

Opening some sites can take your breath away due to the lovely images that blaze across the screen. No longer those thin sliver of images overlaid with a large menu.

All the elements on the page have some breathing room and are specifically separated from each other by wide margins. This is to help with mobile friendliness as well as to reduce clutter. This is the new open design paradigm.

2. Scrolling instead of clicking
There was a time when clients insisted that the homepage should end at the first scroll! That's quite pass © now.

Going from page to page on mobile screens can be tedious. As much information as can be represented is placed in single pages so that visitors only have to just swipe and scroll! Special jQuery/CSS libraries like the Parallax effect can make the pages very interesting and interactive.

3. Action oriented human centric approach
Lengthy narratives are out. Punchy lines with call to action buttons are in!

Gone are the days of the verbose copy filling a page with para after para. Today it's all about the punchline. It's about giving people only the most relevant information and asking them to take an action.

People also want to be spoken to like human beings instead of the normal corporate spiel that populates most sites.

We are lucky to have some clients who have understood this and allowed us to adapt their sites to the new paradigm. As for the rest, well, I'm sure they'll come around.

Source: https://www.miracleworx.com/blog/three-web-design-trends-that-are-hot-right-now

Read more about: Ecommerce Website Design Agency in Delhi

5 Things Web Hosting Companies need to improve immediately

For web designers, dealing with web hosting companies on a number of issues is part and parcel of life. However some hosting companies have such convoluted processes and systems that it can drive the web designer up the wall.

The hosting companies that will get and retain my business are the ones who are ETDBW -  'Easy to do Business With'. This means they need to improve on the following pronto!

1. Long complicated and tedious IVRS Systems for support calls
Recently we had to communicate with a hosting company (hint: non-stationary father) where we had to go through 7, yes 7, levels before we go through to the right person. Now multiply this with 10-12 calls and we have a case for insanity!

An example
Press 1 for English
Press 1 for existing customer
Enter customer id
Enter customer pin
Press 1 support
Press 3 for hosting support



2. More than one support person answering an account queries
Do you remember that movie where the character loses his memory every 10 seconds and literally starts over again and again. Dealing with some hosting companies is like that. Every time you get someone on the line you need to explain your issue all over again. Over and over, till you slowly go insane.

Let's have a support person who knows our case and history and can help throughout the installation or upgradation process. And give us direct access to that person as long as we are hosted with you or that person is on your payroll.

3. Unnecessary and complicated interfaces for client interaction
There is a kid's game called Find Elmo, where you are supposed to spot Elmo the character on a busy and intentionally cluttered page. It's fun if you are a kid, not so much if you are on the hosting providers website.

Some hosting providers sites are a labyrinth to trap and devour poor unsuspecting web designers. Instead of a straight forward interface it has layers on layers of options and popups and dropdowns that make your head spin.

Busy web developers have very limited time and would like a simple uncluttered interface to access and use the common hosting features. Web hosting companies need to take a serious look at their customer account setup.

4. Customer support persons who are powerless to intervene in issues
After spending 20 minutes trying to get through to a support personnel it is really awful to be told that they do not have access or rights, and we will have to do the setting ourselves. Then they point you to a cryptic and useless instructions page which we have to then figure out and do ourselves.

Wouldn't it be easier if they can quickly gain access and make the settings instead of making the customer spend an hour trying to figure out the right combination of actions to take from a poorly designed and written knowledgebase page?

Empower your executives to quickly solve the customers issues instead of lobbing the ball back into the customers court.

5. sking for unnecessary feedback and ratings of lousy services
Yes, we get it. You believe in feedback and want us to rate every interaction but we really don't care. If your service was good we want to move on, if your service was lousy we really don't want to spare even more time telling you its lousy. If you don't have internal systems to determine how an interaction went, then you have a bigger problem then feedback.

Also please stop calling your service an 'Award Winning Service' all the time. It really grates on your nerves when we are experiencing pathetic service under the 'award winning' label. And btw when was the last time you won that award...a hundred years ago?

As a web designer, we depend on the web hosting companies for our livelihood and vice versa. Web designers undergo tremendous amount of stress delivering projects on time and they really don't need crap from people who are supposed to be their partners and helpers.

Source: https://www.miracleworx.com/blog/5-things-web-hosting-companies-need-to-improve-immediately

Read more about: Ecommerce Website Designing Company in Delhi

Website designing in India - why India is such an excellent destination for website design

Over the last few years India has become a premier outsourcing destination for western developed nations and that is common knowledge. What is lesser know is that India is also quickly becoming a website design destination as well. The same cost advantage, dedicated people and good English skills which contribute to other outsourcing fields is also working in India's favor in website designing.

Website design is such a field that it cannot simply be done by the numbers; it's a function of marketing and needs creativity and understanding of business.
It's much more than data entry or answering a phone with a prepared script. It requires the designer to understand the clients business and then generate a strategy and design which will sell online. This requires the key skills of good command over English (or any other language for that matter), good technical expertise in various web design software and a creative mind. India has tons of such people who have now matured and are capable of taking on ever increasingly complex web engagements.

Cost arbitrage has always been India's strong point
Although this which has eroded somewhat in the last few years, it still remains a significant advantage. Web designers here are willing to work at quite attractive (from the customer's point of view) rates. If the client is lucky they might just get a top class designer at throw away prices. However the bulk of the designers are average and charge accordingly.

Creativity remains a contentious issue when it comes to outsourcing website work to India.
Will the Indian web designer be able to grasp the subtlety and outlook of the more sophisticated western client? I have personally seen (although was not part of) lots of disputes between overseas clients and Indian web designers where there is total miscommunication due to cultural differences. With the advent of tons of foreign channels, magazines and of course the ubiquitous internet Indian web designers are soaking in the western culture and values and are now operating at the same wavelength as their clients.

Day by day Indian web designers are able to deliver more creative work suited to their western client's tastes.

Challenges remain - the perception of India as a low cost destination can be a double edged sword for Indian web designers. Clients will hesitate while giving the more important and substantial projects. But this is being overcome by some very good and proactive networking by Indian web designers as they are slowly building up the client's confidence in them by delivering high quality work on time and at good cost. Perceptions will change but it will take time.

Overseas clients must however be wary
There are a lot of shady characters masquerading as web designers. Many of them are hosting companies pretending to be web design but who have no talented people in their staff or themselves outsource to others. Such bogus web designers take foreign clients for a ride, holding up their work for months on end and eventually leaving the client frustrated and angry. The scene is littered with thousands of such incomplete projects. However thanks to dynamics of evolution many such players are leaving or have left the market. This has left behind a majority of serious and dedicated web designers in India.

Source: https://www.miracleworx.com/website-design-in-india.htm

Read more about: Ecommerce Website Designing Company in Delhi