Offering consumers a great user experience (UX) through your website, mobile app, or software increases customer satisfaction and builds brand loyalty.
Unfortunately, keeping an internal team to manage your UX and User Interface (UI) needs is expensive and may not be possible for every company.
Thus, many companies use UX design outsourcing and turn to external teams to help with their design process. Not only does outsourced UX design lower your overhead costs, it also provides you with specialized expertise and can help solve UX problems in your industry.
So, can you outsource product UX and UI design for your company? While many agencies offer external design teams, working with external designers comes with its own challenges. To understand the best way to outsource UI UX design, learn some of the fundamentals here.
UX design outsourcing involves hiring a freelancer or external agency to design the user experience aspects of your product or service. Your business might hire a UX design partner to conduct user research and analysis, engage in usability testing, or handle UI design tasks.
Your UX design partner works with you to identify user challenges and come up with solutions for a positive user experience. A website with an optimized UX can help with everything from improving customer relations to ensuring conversions.
Outsourced UX design provides many benefits, including:
In today’s digital market, external design agencies and freelancers can work anywhere in the world. This gives you access to designers with expertise in multiple industries, technologies, and platforms.
By finding a UX design partner with a deep understanding of your field, you not only have someone who can create UX/UI designs quickly, you also gain their unique insights into user issues with your product. A skilled designer can provide innovative solutions to problems you may have not considered yet.
Paying for UX/UI design services only when you need them saves your company money.
External teams don’t need office space, equipment, or benefits. Without the burden of paying fixed salaries, you can adjust your UX/UI investment — putting more resources into your design efforts during your product’s development phase and then cutting back after your launch.
Project needs change quickly, especially for businesses that need to adjust to market changes. UX/UI design outsourcing allows you to adapt rapidly to these changes.
For instance, if you need to improve an outdated user design, you can hire a freelancer to make the necessary changes without straining your regular staff.
Similarly, if you find yourself short-staffed while developing new product features, an external UX design agency can provide extra support for that time.
While UX design outsourcing offers many advantages, it can be risky if you don’t know how to manage your partners. Keep the following issues in mind:
Working with global talent means dealing with time zone differences. If your external team is based in India, for example, they may work on your design project while you’re asleep. This makes real-time collaboration difficult and can lead to communication issues and delays.
You may want to outsource work to a team in a similar geographical location to yours, so you can collaborate during similar working hours. You’ll also want to use web-based project management tools such as Trello where collaborators can provide regular updates and let you monitor their progress.
UX design partners need clear goals to provide you with the designs you need. Companies that do not clarify expectations or have a solid understanding of UX principles run the risk of having UX designers guess your needs and build features users don’t want.
Research your precise needs and share your business goals with your external teams. Schedule regular reviews to assess the developing UI and check user feedback to see if the designs are providing the experience you want.
Choosing an agile partner involves taking careful stock of their qualifications. Ask potential UX design partners the following to learn if they have the proper skillsets.
Learn how long a UI/UX design agency or freelancer has been in business. Review their portfolio to see if their past projects match your design needs. Read customer reviews and case studies to assess their success rate. Ask about their entire team to learn what type of skill sets they offer.
Top UX/UI designers have a clearly defined process for researching, building, and testing their designs. See how structured and user-centered their process is.
Ask about your partner’s collaboration tools. How often do they provide updates? How do they incorporate your feedback into their designs? The best designers work with you every step of the way.
Discuss your project timeline with potential partners. Learn what deliverables you can expect at every stage in their design process and see if they can realistically complete your project within your deadline.
Ask to see clear, detailed quotes on all the services an agency provides to see if they fit your budget.
Even after your product goes live, post-launch updates and unexpected bugs can impede your progress. See if the freelancer or agency will provide ongoing support and solutions.
Pixel Pocket provides you with a dedicated team of designers and developers who can help build and launch your digital products quickly using our no-code platforms. You can submit your design requests and monitor your project’s progress through every step on Trello to ensure our designs fit your branding and business needs.
Most designs can be completed within 1-2 business days, and we offer unlimited revisions until you are satisfied with our work.
Interested in learning more? Book a call with us and see how a Pixel Pocket Subscription can provide your users with the ideal UX/UI design!
