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Whether you’re running a web design agency or working as a freelancer, you will encounter various challenges in web design. Creating smooth user experiences and attractive visuals is just one aspect. Dealing with tight project timelines, budget constraints, and finding the right balance between quality and scope are common hurdles for website designers.
The pressure to perform well comes not only from clients but also from team members and stakeholders. For website designers, it’s not only about making impressive websites but also about being skilled in project management, website maintenance, and ensuring clients are satisfied.
Challenges faced by web design agencies and freelancers
1. Multi-layered Approach
When creating websites, web design agencies and freelancers deal with a tricky task. They must bring together various design parts, functions, and improvements throughout different levels of a website. Doing this smoothly, while keeping the website looking and working well, needs careful teamwork and a close focus on the small things.
Solutions
The solution to the Multi-layered Approach challenge in web design involves clear communication, streamlined project management, and collaborative tools. Establishing well-defined roles, utilizing project management software, and fostering open dialogue among team members and clients help navigate complexities and ensure cohesive design implementation.
2. Ongoing Maintenance
Do you ever feel like you’re spending too much time and money fixing systems that aren’t working efficiently? Well, that might be exactly what’s happening. While focusing on maintenance might seem like a simple choice, if you prioritize it over coming up with new ideas, your digital framework could actually keep causing delays in your website projects.
Solution
To address the challenge of ongoing maintenance in web design, establish clear post-launch agreements outlining maintenance responsibilities, schedule regular updates, offer maintenance packages, and implement a content management system (CMS) for easy client updates. Prioritize open communication and provide training to empower clients in managing their websites effectively.
3. Choosing the Right Tools
The Paradox of Choice idea suggests that the more choices we have, the harder it is to make a decision. With all the options available due to advances in web and computer technology, you’re in a similar situation.
Web design isn’t just one skill – it involves creating appealing and useful interfaces, which isn’t simple. A designer needs skills in style sheets, PHP, databases, and tools like Photoshop. But that’s just the beginning.
Designers nowadays have lots of extra tools to make their work better. There are tools for planning, sketching, making user interfaces, animations, and more. Plus, there are different programming languages to choose from.
Having the right tool at the right time is key to success, as the saying goes. But here’s the catch: Every tool has its own strengths and weaknesses. There are many tools that can do the same job. Designers have to decide which tool fits the task they’re working on.
This situation is both good and bad. Above all, it’s a challenge that every web designer must confront.
Solution
To solve the problem of choosing the right web design tools, agencies and freelancers should first understand their project’s needs. Look at how complex the design is, how well the tools allow teamwork, and if they can grow with the project. Try out different tools and ask others for advice. Pick well-known options like Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, or Sketch. Choose tools that match your skills and keep getting better over time.
4. Communication Challenges
If you’re a project manager, you’ve likely faced problems stemming from “misunderstandings,” “misinterpretations,” or “miscommunications.” Poor communication is a major threat to any project. When project managers struggle to assign tasks effectively, give or explain instructions, share important project goals and milestones, or clarify roles and responsibilities—when it’s unclear “who’s doing what”—it creates a big mess of confusion among everyone involved.
Solution
In this regard, powerful tools like Plesk’s SiteJet website builder ensure that everyone working on the website design project can communicate seamlessly. It comes with the Project Management Tool (Sitejet Manager), Professional Website Builder (Sitejet CMS), and End Customer Portal, which allows even the client to comment on the website and request revisions and changes.
5. Slow Process
Web design agencies often encounter significant challenges in designing and developing web applications. Users dislike when processes are slow, apps take forever to load, or encounter other slowdowns. Yet, providing unwavering and steady performance across the entire app experience is tough. Plus, monitoring this performance is quite complicated.
Frequent speed and performance problems can harm your search engine rankings. They might result in unsatisfactory user experiences, leading to fewer conversions and affecting user retention.
Solutions
Web App Metrics: Make sure to keep an eye on important performance indicators and user metrics like app installations/uninstallations, growth rate, mobile downloads, app crashes, upgrades, Lifetime Value (LTV), and cohort analysis. This helps enhance overall performance.
Tools: Utilize app analytics tools such as Google Analytics, App Store Connect, Flurry, Mix Panel, Localytics, Firebase, UXCam, Adjust, and more. These tools allow you to track the metrics mentioned above and enhance both speed and performance.
Google Core Web Vitals: It’s crucial to adhere to Google’s Web Vitals. Focus on metrics like Your Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) of your web pages.
Optimization: Trim down your app’s size and utilize a Content Delivery Network (CDN). Be cautious about using third-party sources, and instead, concentrate on using an Application Performance Monitoring (APM) System. Additionally, optimizing images, code, and other content is also essential.
6. Lack of Project Understanding
A strong creative work always has a solid brief behind it. A well-crafted brief can streamline creative projects and lead to superior outcomes for your clients. However, there’s a common error made by project managers – they sometimes try to pack all project details into a document, which ends up making the brief hard for the creatives to grasp
Solution
A creative brief functions as a roadmap, leading a project from the initial idea to its completion. It serves as a unified reference for everyone engaged in the project. A well-crafted creative brief ensures that the project’s scope, timeline, goals, and deliverables are clear. If your agency is struggling with creating effective briefs, it might be beneficial to establish a basic brief structure.
This structure can assist project managers in honing their note-taking skills and asking relevant questions to clients. Not only will this provide project managers with the clarity needed to produce excellent briefs, but it will also encourage their active engagement in the project, steering it in the right direction.
7. Inefficient Project Management
If your website project seems to be dragging on endlessly due to repeated delays and ineffective communication, it’s time to shift your attention away from blaming your Content Management System (CMS) and instead look at how your team operates.
This is where the agile method can be extremely beneficial. Agile methodologies, designed to enhance technical processes and project management, guarantee that your website project is completed punctually and up to the highest standards possible.
Solution
Efficient project management for web design involves using dedicated software like Trello or Asana, setting clear project milestones, allocating tasks with deadlines, maintaining open communication, and conducting regular progress meetings. Adapting agile methodologies can enhance collaboration and streamline the design process, ensuring timely and successful project completion.
Web Design: Navigating Agency and Freelancer Challenges
Challenges put the skills of website designers and web design agencies to the test. Balancing limited budgets and project scopes, while also guaranteeing client satisfaction and managing the complex task of website maintenance, makes the journey far from simple.
Overcoming these obstacles isn’t a solo effort; it’s a joint endeavor that requires creativity, flexibility, and a continuous drive to get better. With the digital world changing, challenges evolve too, prompting web design agencies and freelancers to tap into innovation, expertise, and technology, such as the use of various tools and platforms, to manage their website projects and ensure a smooth and rewarding journey.
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Related articles:
About Plesk’s SiteJet: Website Builder + Project Management Solution
Why Should Web Design Agencies Use a Website Builder?
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