User Experience Design: 7 Magento Developer Must-Haves

Given that your success depends on buyers appreciating your store’s offerings, the low conversion rate is the last thing you want to find happening with a Magento store that you launch.

We would like to suggest you 7 tips that will lead your website to a real high point. You will learn how to find a professional for your user experience design that will convert visitors into buyers. Here’s an overview of the topics that we will be covering in detail under this article.

• quality of work
• developer’s knowledge
• multi-tasking ability
• awareness of your business
• 24/7 availability
• innovative mind
• marketing knowledge

Assessing Your Magento Developer’s User Experience Design Level

Each of the points above is critical to the success of your venture and will be addressed accordingly within the scope of the following content. This article is meant as a reference source designed to guide you to a successful conclusion as it relates to selecting the best Magento Developer for your project’s solution.

All the customers want professionals they hire to have years of experience with quality that far exceeds any other similar results. However, this is not the way that things take place in today’s world.

In that regard, the quality of work provided by your Magento developer is extremely important. One of the best ways to analyze your developer’s quality of work is by requesting samples of other projects. If your developer is just getting started in this field and they cannot provide you with even a test site that they have builе, then it may be time to look for other web development vendors.

Review the rest of the points that we have outlined in the article to learn how to choose the best developer for your project.

Evaluating the Knowledge Level of Your Magento Developer

One great way of understanding the quality of work provided by your Magento developer is providing an amazing portfolio for you to review.

Along with questions related to their user experience creation abilities, there are additional questions that your developer must be able to knowledgeably answer:

• What certification does the development company have? Can they provide the certificate for your review?
• How long has the company been building Magento site?
• Does the company have customer referrals that you may contact?
• How long will it take for developers to build a Magento project?
• What expectations does the company have for you in the process?
• What is the process for handling billing?
• Should you anticipate additional fees beyond the stated project budget?
• Does the company create mobile-friendly responsive designs?
• Are there any additional costs for your project to be mobile-ready?
• Once the store is launched how will ongoing support and maintenance be handled?
• What is the typical cost for these services?

The more that they can demonstrate solid gold answers to all these types of questions, the greater the possibility that they will be able to provide first-class services for your project throughout the entire event.

Understanding How Well Your Developer Can Multitask

You’ve found an amazing developer who seems to have an excellent knowledge of their craft. Everything seems perfect, what could go wrong? Nothing, except for how many other people may have already found the same Magento developer.

Everyone has only 24 hours a day no matter who they might be. If they have attained a higher level of ability compared to their colleagues, then it may be difficult for them to juggle your project into their schedule no matter how superior their talent may be.

Pros of Hiring a Freelancer

• Low Rates. Most freelancers charge lower rates than software development companies.
• Highly Skilled in One Specific Area. As freelancers run their own businesses, they usually strive to hone their skills and get solid expertise in one specific area.
• More Flexibility. Freelancers can get more work done by setting their own schedules. They can work both day and night, if they’re willing to get the work done faster.
• Easily Spotted. As freelancers are now in demand, there’s been a rise in platforms such as Freelancer, Upwork, Elance, Hubstaff Talent and Guru where you can find an independent contractor to meet your needs.

Cons of Hiring a Freelancer

• Freelancers can disappear. Because of the fact that freelancers work on many different projects at once, they can disappear suddenly. It is important to make sure the freelancer is available on the time you have set. All in all, it is rather difficult to control freelancers.
• Confidentiality issues. There are still industries and companies in which issues of confidentiality mean that it is difficult to work with freelancers. Of course, you can ask that freelancers sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), but you’ll still have to weigh up the risks.
• Freelancers do not care about your product’s quality. Not all freelancers run their businesses to get returning clients. Your company’s individual success may not be their top priority.
• Lack of organization skills. If you’re not going to manage your project, keep in mind that while freelancers may be good at their work, they’re not always great at planning and organizing their own work processes. This can lead to problems with meeting deadlines.
• No Further Maintenance. Freelancers completing a project and then leaving it is typical. So in case bugs appear, you may have to look for other people to fix them.

Pros and Cons of Hiring a Software Development Company

• Better for Big Projects and Startup Development. A professional software development company can offer a full cycle of services such as professional consulting, business analysis, and business idea evaluation, and can even help you figure out your monetization strategy before your product is developed. Each employee plays a unique role, unlike freelancers who are more like all-in-ones.
• Up-to-date with New Technologies and Trends. Software development companies are constantly evolving and improving; they are aware of current software trends and new programming languages and can provide up-to-date solutions.
• Tuned Development Workflow. A well-tuned development workflow will never fail to meet deadlines.
• Diverse Experience. Hiring a software development company means that you hire a whole team of professionals (developers, designers, managers, QAs, etc.) with different skills and knowledge. They have worked on many types of projects and therefore have much greater expertise.
• No Legal Issues. Software development companies are legal business entities, and therefore they offer greater stability and less risk. You can always check the track record of a company in an external database or simply ask for its financial record. Companies Care About Their Client’s Products. Software development companies value their reputations and strive to develop high-quality products that get positive feedback after they’re launched. While freelancers can become ghosts, companies cannot.
• Long-term Relationships. Companies prefer building relationships of trust with individual clients and implementing projects for those clients over the long term. This is more efficient for companies than focusing on the number of incoming projects.
• Constant Updates and Support. When we talk about long-term relationships we don’t only mean new project development, but also the constant maintenance of current products, regular updates, and bug fixes, and maybe even adding some additional functionality.

Cons of Hiring a Software Development Company

• Higher Rates. We find higher rates to be the most realistic disadvantage of hiring a software development team over a freelancer. Freelancers are indeed cheaper; a company’s services nearly always cost more. However, company rates strongly depend on the region. Indians are famous for their low-cost development services. Сompanies from Western Europe and the US will cost you a fortune. There’s a reason why so many successful startups choose to work with companies in Eastern Europe. This region’s IT industry is quickly evolving, and you can hire experienced and skilled developers for reasonable rates. It’s far better to find a reliable developer with middling prices than to accept the cheapest offer. You get what you pay for: a low-ball offer will mean a cut-rate product. Make sure you get the quality you need.

However, before casting everything aside, ask developers to explain how they can manage a workload. They may have a team working with them as we here at GoMage do. If so, then it needs to be taken into consideration along with all the rest of the points outlined in this series of reports.

Does Your Magento Developer Know Your Niche, Business & Industry

Magento developers are in the business of building eCommerce websites across a wide variety of niches. There are many such experts who know how to put the right solution together for you while understanding very little about what moves your audience forward. This should be relatively obvious.

However, what if you could find a Magento Developer that knew all the ins and out about your market? Imagine their ability to enhance user experience design principles based on their own industry knowledge. It’s a unique win-win situation for you.

Therefore, look out for clues to their actual field knowledge:

• Do they have previous experience working in the field of your interest?
• Have they showed in-depth knowledge of specific details that may influence the development of your website?
• Can they provide you with an innovative stack of technologies specific to your niche and offer insight into the best development practices?

Simply put, your trying to find out if they have a pulse on the heartbeat of your niche. If they do, then this should be one of many factors that propel them to the next level of selectability based simply on their own individual involvement.

How Easy Will It Be to Connect Up with Your Developer

We’d love to think that everyone answers their phone on the first ring but that just isn’t realistic. It’s an advantage too and for you that they can get their time away.

Just think of how much benefit you receive when you can take time off and use that as your measuring stick of import for them. That said, find out how easy it will be to connect with them when necessary. Can you reasonably expect a response from them within 24 hours or will it be more like a week?

For the overall success of the development process and your project in general, it is important to have constant communication with your development. At the first stages of discussing your future project, learn about the established communication process. Find out who you will be discussing all details with and how fast your requirements will be redirected to the development team.

When we look at the best software development companies, we can clearly see that they do not make customers wait for a week to get an answer or update.

How Creatively Inclined Is Your Magento Developer

So far, we’ve looked at the functionality and experiential knowledge factors of choosing your right developer. Having a firm understanding of all the factors covered up to this point will help you make the right choice and select a company that will be able to build a project in accordance with your requirements and expectations.

However, there are a couple more areas that should be considered as attributes of user experience. First, and foremost, is innovation.

If your Magento store goes to market looking like the next cookie-cutter, then you might find yourself fighting an uphill losing battle on the way to your ultimate success. This would be a problem.

On the other hand, if they are a creative thinker that knows how to take the success of your project to the next level it can be quite another story. When people arrive and see that you have gone over the top and beyond in providing them a high-quality user experience they will value you accordingly by voting with their digital wallets.

What Does Your Developer Know About Getting Your Message to The Masses?

At first glance, you may think that user experience design doesn’t involve marketing. After all, marketing is something that is done with a site after it goes live. This is a common misconception that we at GoMage encourage avoiding. Here’s why:

Let’s say that you have accomplished your dreams of launching an amazing eCommerce solution. While that’s certainly good if no one finds it you really haven’t done much beyond wasting money. That’s why your marketing plans should start from ground zero. The more that marketing initiatives are woven into the fabric of your launch the greater the possibility of your success will be.

EXAMPLE

Your store gets built but there is no keyword strategy to support its foundation. The pages are great, but the search engine optimization components tied into it are lacking.

What do you do? Ignore SEO in favor of paid advertising?

While you certainly can do that, it is not recommended. In fact, it can end up costing you a bundle if all your traffic originates from paid advertising initiatives. Had you mapped both out from the start you would be in a much stronger position for generating success with your project from both marketing arenas?

Concluding Thoughts About Creating Your User Experience

At the core of providing the best experience for your viewers, you will find a Magento developer that truly understands their craft and your vision. This, of course, generates customer enthusiasm which results in a winning situation for everyone involved, which directly impacts your bottom line ROI results in extremely positive ways.

That’s why we at GoMage understand that focusing on your user’s experience is critical. Not doing so can make or break your project in some very significant ways.

Do you want to take your eCommerce future to the best level and beyond?

Get in touch with us to find out about the steps you should take in the process of bringing your web development project to life.

Let’s talk