So, how do you find the top ones? Here are five tips to help you select a web development company that’ll take your business to the next level:

1. What are the costs?

Firstly, you have to work out the costs of hiring your web design agency. Realistically, this begins with finding out what you can afford. Weigh up your finances and consider a budget for web design services.

From here, you can get quotes from different brands and see how much everything will cost. Some agencies charge a flat rate with add-ons for different design elements.

For instance, some agencies might charge for web design and then charge extra to improve your SEO. Others may have additional charges for prolonged support after the website has been created.

You even get instances where they charge separately for bespoke landing pages. It varies from agency to agency, be sure you know the full costs before committing.

Adzooma Marketplace offers a wide range of web design agencies to suit all budgets. Find your perfect agency or service provider today.

2. What does the agency’s portfolio look like?

Telling potential clients you’re great is one thing—but showing them is another. That’s why having a strong portfolio is so important. It demonstrates a web agency’s talent, style, innovation, and how they handle a brief.

Things to look out for include:

1. Interactive features
2. A varied-looking portfolio
3. Consistent branding throughout a website
4. Unique extras (detailed case studies, project timelines, words from the client)

It also helps if an agency can show the impact their work has had. What were the results of their work? That could be the deciding factor.

3. Who can you call?

Communication is essential when working with a web design agency. You need to know who you can call to speak about any issues or track progress.

There must be a solid point of contact that’s readily available whenever you need it. Usually, this comes in the form of a team including a project/account manager, a client support executive/manager and web designers.

Some agencies may be hard to get in touch with them, or they are slow to reply. Make sire you establish who your points of contact are whenever you speak to an agency.

4. What kind of support will you receive?

Once you know who you can call, you need to understand what kind of support is available.

Most agencies will offer continued support during and after the web design process. However, you must be clear about what kind of support you’re receiving.

For instance, are you receiving maintenance support behind the scenes? Will the agency monitor your site and continue to keep it in perfect condition after it has been produced?

For example, S’more Brands offers ongoing maintenance—because “stuff eventually breaks”—with cost-effective monthly maintenance plans.

The location of the agency plays a key role here. If they’re local, you know that you’re both operating on a similar schedule. But, if they’re based in another country, it can throw the support out of whack. You may need answers to a pressing question, but won’t receive them for twelve hours due to time zones!

Always be clear on what support you get from a web design agency before you hire them. If they offer no support, that’s an instant red flag.

5. What tools do they use?

Effectively, this refers to the technology and platforms the web design agency uses to create and monitor your site. Many companies will use a CMS like WordPress, but is this ideal for your website?

Therefore, you want to see what tools and technologies each web design agency calls upon. Ideally, you should look out for tools that emphasise UX design and customisation.

This will ensure they can develop a website that’s unique and offers a great user experience for everyone that visits. Responsive web design is also vital, so they need to use tools that can adapt your site for different viewing platforms. 

Let Adzooma Marketplace be your agency finder

Take all five of these tips into account, then use Adzooma Marketplace to find the best web design agencies around. We have an extensive catalogue of the top web design companies in the world.

You can view many different brands and check out their portfolios via our site. To make things even better, you can refine your searches based on budgets, business type, industry specialisations, locations, and much more. It lets you create strict parameters that show the best agencies for your specific needs.

Regardless of how detailed your website will be, we can help you find a web development company that ticks all the right boxes. Check out our marketplace today to start your search!

Fortunately, we’re at hand to help you pick the right one for your latest project. Here’s everything you need to know before choosing a design agency for your website.

1. Look at their portfolio

Any web design agency worth its salt will have a diverse portfolio to showcase their past projects.

A portfolio is essential as it gives you insight into an agency’s design style. This enables you to gauge the agency’s compatibility with your business. In addition to looking critically at an agency’s portfolio, take a good look at its website too. You ought to at least like what you see on the agency’s site before you settle on it.

Does the company do for its site what it proposes to do on yours? For instance, do they follow the best practices when it comes to UX design? Are they using up-to-date technology and tools? If the answer to these questions is yes, then you should consider hiring that agency.

For example, The Hatch has worked with the likes of Ted Baker, B&Q and the V&A on their websites.

Read: 9 Best Web Design Agencies in London

2. Consider the costs

Pricing for web development services can be something of a challenge, especially if you are not particularly tech-savvy. It would be best if you asked about the cost to make an informed decision with questions such as:

• Do they charge at an hourly rate or for the project as a whole?
• What is the estimated final price, regardless of the pricing model?
• Once you pay the agreed sum, will you own the website fully?
• Is the total price inclusive of SEO and a content management system?
• Does it also include designing and coding the site, or will you need to hire an independent programmer to code the site?

When it comes to choosing an agency, make sure you get exactly what you have agreed to pay for.

Read: The Average Cost of UK Marketing Agencies in 2020

3. Think about support

Another consideration while shopping for a web design agency is the kind of support they offer their clients. You want to choose an agency that is responsive to your concerns and needs.

Ask the agency how they handle client support:

• Do you need to get a ticket and wait in line?
• Can you call and have your issue addressed promptly?
• Do they offer a warranty?

A warranty often points to a trustworthy agency that is willing to guarantee the quality of their work. Besides, having a warranty ensures that you will get free corrective services if you encounter problems with your site after launching it.

Read: How Much Time Can You Save By Hiring An Agency?

4. Is the company approachable?

Make sure the agency you choose makes you feel comfortable if you bring up any concerns.

Consider the size of the agency you’re looking for and the level of growth you want to attain. If you are a small business owner and choose a bigger agency, you might feel overlooked as they have more active clients, which would make it harder for you to raise concerns as they come up.

Also, pick a company that encourages face-to-face meetings (or video conferencing during the pandemic!) People tend to communicate better when they meet in person.

5. What tools does the company use?

There’s a host of tools that web designers use to make websites and wireframes, and manage their projects. Ask an agency what they use. For example, at Adzooma, we use Jira for project management but other agencies may use:

• Paymo
• Monday.com
• Backlog
• Wrike
• HubSpot
• Teamwork.com

The same goes for CMSs such as:

• Squarespace
• VEVS
• MotoCMS
• Web.com
• Webflow
• TemplateMonster

The best web agencies will have experience with popular tools and work with you to make sure communications channels remain clear and open.

If you’re looking for a tool or software provider for your business, Adzooma Marketplace have the solution.

6. Is the agency receptive to new ideas?

You want to hire a design agency that listens to your ideas and needs. This is important for two main reasons. First, you know what you want and what your business goals are. Second, you know how best to sell your product to your intended audience, so your input will be invaluable to your website’s success. It’s still a two-way street with ideation so make sure you’re receptive to their ideas too.

The designer should also generate ideas about how best to meet your needs and increase your online presence. They should seek to integrate your ideas into the project and know how to do it well.

Read: How To Find A Good Marketing Agency

7. Recommendations

Before you choose an agency, ask for at least three references. Listen to what past clients think of the company. Were they happy with the work? Were the designers easy to get along with? Did they deliver the work on time? Did they create responsive web designs? What about accessibility? Was it easy to contact them when they needed to?

The answers to these questions will help you in choosing the right web design agency.

8. Do they have experience in your niche?

When it comes to design, nothing can substitute for experience. Choosing an agency with expertise in your niche is advantageous.

Will the company outsource some of the services? Or will they delegate your project to junior staff who have minimal experience?

You may also consider getting a designer who has worked on diverse projects because they will be better able to reach a wider audience.

9. Have they worked with major brands?

Although working with leading brands does not equate to the perfect fit for your business, it is an indicator of the quality of work they do. It shows that they are respectable and you can expect excellent services from them.

Check an agency’s case studies to see who they’ve worked for and what results they achieved. The latter will always be more important because it shows evidence of how they work. The fact they’ve attained that level of success with a major brand is an added bonus.

Conclusion

This checklist will help ease the burden of choosing a design agency for your business.

If you follow the tips shared here, you will find it easier to pick a company that is an excellent fit for you.

If you need a web design agency, we have a fantastic selection on Adzooma Marketplace, check them out today.

If you’re looking for inspiring photography portfolio examples, then you’ve come to the right place. Here are 9 creative photography portfolio examples.

1. Pedro on the World

• Based in: USA
• Languages: English, Portuguese

Pedro is originally from Brazil and moved to the USA to study from the age of 22. His work is a great creative photography portfolio example, as it shows his imagery skills.

His work also contains plenty of examples of photography portfolio criteria expressing beauty, soul, and emotion. You can see his imagery skills in his online portfolio, and it’s an inspiration to any of you who are hoping to create your own.

2. Juco

• Based in: USA
• Languages: English

Juco is the online collaboration of the professional photographers Julia Galdo and Cody Cloud. Their online portfolio is a vivid mix of colour featuring a number of bright and daring photos on the front page which really makes it stand out.

The eye-catching colours and quirky designs make this inspiring portfolio a lot of fun to go through as well.

3. Jeffrey Salter

• Based in: USA
• Languages: English

Texas-born professional photographer Jeffrey Salter is now based in Miami, Florida. His goal is to capture the poignant nature of the familiar and commonness in the extraordinary. His passion has led to his working being published in several magazines and The New York Times.

His online photography portfolio opens with a number of portraits you can scroll through, most of which are of professional athletes. You can then investigate further into categories and particular projects.

4. Emilee McGovern

• Based in: USA
• Languages: English

South Florida photographer and journalist, Emiless McGovern has made a particular choice for her portfolio’s frontpage. It’s one empowering solo photo of her amidst the crowd at a rally or protest. It then gives visitors a choice to browse either the photojournalism or editorial section.

This displays the use of creativity to make a political stand, and showcases her talents as a photography portfolio designer. In the editorial section, you can find her recent projects carefully categorised into conceptual, headshots, and corporal events.

This is an inspiring photography portfolio if you’re looking to set up a business as a photographer.

5. Dave Hill

• Based in: USA
• Languages: English

Dave Hill is both a photographer and director with an exciting portfolio. He currently lives in Los Angeles and works on films as well as his online photography portfolio. He’s passionate about many things, including adventure, people, fashion, and cars.

He also always strives to tell fast-paced and energetic stories. Dave Hill has a very energetic portfolio divided into categories displaying both photography and film.

His website if one of the best photography portfolio examples because it inspires creativity, energy, and movement. His first page displays engaging video files as well as professional images.

6. Lauren Naylor

• Based in: USA
• Languages: English

One particularly creative photography portfolio example is Lauren Naylor. She employs a vertical grid layout to display her work. Lauren entices the viewer with a beautiful collection of her most recent pieces.

She uses the first page of her photography portfolio to show these in a full screen layout with large images. If they’re interested in seeing more, the viewer can then choose to navigate to other examples of her work.

7. Lisa Bettany

• Based in: Canada
• Languages: English, French

Lisa Bettany is one of the most influential photographers online. Originally from Canada, she is determined in making creative photography and video accessible to everyone. She has since helped developed iPhone apps, including Camera+ and become an inspiration to budding photographers everywhere.

Her professional portfolio websites are perfect if you’re looking for tips on how to create the best portfolio. She also a range of different photography portfolio examples.

8. Christina Wilken Photography

• Based in: USA
• Languages: English

Christina Wilken is based in Illinois. Her favourite subjects for taking photos include family, children, and pets. Her aim is usually to create a more natural effect using natural light and natural poses.

She believes that the main purpose of a photo is to record a memory, that takes you back when you look at it. Christina Wilken uses a clean and minimalist style, often with a white background. Her online portfolios are available on her photography website.

9. Wayne Holtchan

• Based in: Hong Kong, Japan
• Languages: English, Chinese, Japanese

Wayne Holtchan is known for his wedding photography and is based between Hong Kong and Japan at the moment. Some of his favourite things to capture are light, colour, and geometric shapes. His main subjects often include architecture, cityscapes, and people.

His portfolio website work is incredibly inspiring, as he uses his site successfully as an eCommerce. The design of his portfolio website invites interested visitors to buy his pieces and provides a positive customer experience.

UX stands for user experience and UX design looks at the interaction between users and their experiences with products or services. The best UX design should be useful, intuitive, and engaging to an audience. To make sure that your audience is able to interact with your product in a valuable and meaningful way, you need to focus on different aspects including:

• Technology
• Marketing
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Science

UX designers do a lot and are an important and underrated part of product development.

What do UX design agencies do?

As mentioned above, UX design agencies use a lot of different disciplines to improve the experiences of users. For day-to-day UX tasks, they can include:

• Market research
• Designing wireframes
• Prototyping
• User testing
• User research
• Storyboarding

Note: UX design agencies tend not to manage the visual design of a product, but instead look at the journey behind the scenes.

So let’s have a look at 7 of the best UX design agencies and how they can help you improve your user experiences.

1. Intimation

Location: Dunbar (Scotland), Newcastle

Intimation can help you find the right way of communicating to your audience.

Thanks to a dynamic team of creative copywriters, developers, animators, and strategic thinkers, they work to a common goal: to focus on what makes each and every client unique.

We help our clients market, promote and grow their businesses through innovative marketing across a range of media, an understanding of budgets and excellent support.

Intimation is also working to become one of only six WIX Strategic Partner agencies in the UK.

Previous clients: Brightwater, Torcall, The Highland Military Tattoo, Premier Tech Aqua UK

2. PMD

Location: Bristol

PMD is a full service design/web studio that specialises in branding.

The studio breathes life into brand and marketing with a focus on the impact on a client’s target audience.

Services offered include:

• Web design & development
• eCommerce
• UI/UX design
• Advertising campaigns
• Print media
• Brochures
• Packaging
• Pitch decks

Whether you have a consumer product or B2B service, all brands can be broken down into 3P’s, Position, Proposition and Personality, successful brands define these clearly and apply them consistently. The formula for creating a credible brand is simple, the story you tell combined with the experience you deliver has to meet a customers expectations, these expectations are established from your story and the quality of your various brand and marketing touchpoints, and that’s where we come in to help.

Previous clients: Warr + Webb, Alphastream, Nonstop, Mack Legal

3. Temper

Location: London

Temper is a digital consultancy that delivers and unlocks digital growth.

We build digital-first brands – Consumed with technology and shaped by data, our brands fuel commercial growth and make change happen.

Their people-first approach has helped a range of businesses increase their brand engagement, capture valuable customer data and turn users into happy, returning customers.

Previous clients: Diageo, EDF Energy, Europcar, Five Guys

4. VDesign

Location: London

VDesign is a creative digital media company providing services that accelerate their businesses further through design, development and marketing.

With over 25 years design, marketing, and development experience in the design, the team covers a range of services including UX design, print design, web and app development, and SEO

We have built a framework with our creative geniuses to save you time and money.

Previous clients: Fabbri Boots, Arktos, Cyberox, Studiosurf

5. Transition Creative

Location: Gloucester

Transition is a web design agency that specialises in a range of services that help their clients bring in more enquiries and sales. They do this with high-quality UX design and the development of transformative business sites.

With a wealth of experience within digital design and development, we work with a variety of companies from startups to large organisations. Whether you require landing pages that convert customers, a CMS to manage content, eCommerce that sells products or Progressive Web Applications for communicating via push notifications. Our proven processes are tailored to help support your objectives.

Outside their web design services, Transition also offers SEO audits, hosting, support and maintenance, and content (copywriting and photography).

Previous clients: Forestry Commission England, Arkwell & Wills, ATB Guitars, Catch Design Management

6. ActiveWin Media

Location: Manchester

ActiveWin Media works to offer its clients multiple digital options and build strategies that return on investment.

For their UX consultations, everything highlighted is designed to make improve conversions and ActiveWin carefully plans and designs every detail with transparent guidelines and how the potential impact will contribute to success.

The sooner you invest in UX and CRO services, the more successful your business will be online.

Previous clients: Betfred, Wigan Warriors, Moneyplus Group, First Achieve

7. Instrument

Location: Portland, New York

A UX design agency that focuses on the cross-section between brand & communication innovation and product & service innovation. They work on creating, from scratch, the digital products designed to solve business problems, as well as to transform the way your customers interact and communicate with the business.

In creating new UX products, the focus on user-centric design that is insight-driven and systematically tested, meaning a lot of research and ongoing campaign management goes into each service they provide. They also work with a focus on what is most impactful on your bottom line, tracking the performance indicators that matter most to your business growth.

Previous clients: Sonos, Altassian, Nike, and PATH

Do you need UX design?

Without question.

The work of a UX design agency can seem like it is interchangeable with a web designer or app developer and while there is some overlap, UX designers are crucial to driving conversions as the customer journey facilitates that. According to UXCam, for every $1 spent on UX design, a business can see a $100 ROI (return on investment). Alongside that, 88% of users are less likely to return to a website with bad UX.

When you’re choosing a UX design agency, it’s important to make sure you’re aware of what kind of services you need. If you have a specific app, website, or other digital product in mind, for example – page or website builder, then there are many above that can help you create them, with different specializations on different aims and mediums.

If you’re less certain of what you need, others can provide the research and conceptual services that help you find out what your approach should be. As such, make sure you know where you are in your UX creation journey and partner with the team that can help you from there.