5 Custom Web Development Questions, Answered

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Custom web development is a powerful way to grow your business. The right company, the right plan, and the right inclusions to your website will set the tone for your “front door to the world.”

In this blog we’re going to look at how to choose a web development partner, agile web development, security, and more. With the information in this blog, you’ll be able to make wise choices about your custom web development.

Let’s get started.

How do I choose a custom web development partner?

Choosing a web development partner should be a deliberative process. The partner you work with will design your online face to the world. What they produce will be the first impression that customers get from your company.

Start by listing your goals and needs for the website. It’s as simple as knowing what you want and need from your new website and what you think your users will want to get out of it. This information will help you to know what to ask and expect from a web developer.

Look high and wide. Local developers are great but look nationwide as well. Finding the right partner might require that you go outside of your immediate area. For those who start on a nationwide search first, looking locally can be vital. It goes without saying however, it can be fruitful to scout out high quality websites for recruiters. Often there’s a team nearby that understands your market and will communicate well with you.

Review any candidate agency’s experience, their culture, and their portfolio. Looking at what the agency has done before will give you an idea of their capabilities. The company’s culture is important. It should integrate well with your culture as well.

Read reviews and testimonials. Look for patterns in the negative reviews. If the same issue crops up repeatedly, it shows that there’s a problem in the company.

Jason Sherman has created an excellent podcast that discusses many of these same factors.

Ask questions, lots of questions. You’ll find articles that guide you to the right questions to ask. Look at those questions, take the time to ask, and look for complete answers.

Why choose agile web development?

Agile web development enables a developer to deliver your product sooner and maintain flexibility for the product.

In standard web development, the process looks like a waterfall. From project planning and requirements gathering to deployment and support, the process happens step by step.

With agile web development, parallel lines are operative at the same time, then the process goes from wireframing to design, prototyping to development to quality assurance and back around again.

When using an agile development process, the initial delivery is quick, then development continues until the project is completed and it moves into support mode.

Overall satisfaction is higher, delivery is faster, it provides higher rates of returns, and much more.

Agile web development is a powerful tool for providing world-class web development every time.

Companies with an agile approach offer several advantages when it comes to custom services.

How do I build security in web development?

Operators of websites have no higher calling than to develop a site that’s 100% secure. Both customer information and company information are at risk if the website is breached.

Several steps can help you ensure a high level of security for your site:

  • Choose a secure hosting company
  • Use a modern content management system
  • Offer different access levels so fewer people have global access
  • Manage add-ons and plugins well
  • Create a reliable password policy

Security is vital. The best way to make sure that the website is secure is to start with security as part of the initial planning and building security in at every step.

How does scalability affect web development?

In his article for medium, Scalable Web Architectures Concepts and Designs, Dung Le defines scalability as a web application’s availability to “seamlessly and efficiently accommodate growth.”

In the past, website and web applications were built to accommodate the current level of traffic and demand. If demand jumped, it would take some time to scale it up. Often, this meant that customers were denied the services they wanted when they wanted them. This is a good way to lose customers.

By making scalability part of the DNA of a web application, a site adapts and grows as demand increases. By creating an architecture that’s built to grow as needed, a web designer and their customer can increase customer satisfaction and reduce downtime.

What are the most important UX features?

Vitaly Friedman has written an excellent article in Smashing Magazine on the 10 Principles of Good Web Design. His list includes ideas like creating an intuitive page, make sure the text is professionally written, and allow for white space.

The list of important UX elements includes:

  • Be concise. Don’t waste visitors’ patience.
  • Guide your readers from point to point in an organized manner.
  • Speak in visual terms to create mental images.
  • Keep it simple. Avoid jargon and fancy phraseology.
  • Visually feature the most important points.
  • Stick with design conventions so users aren’t searching for what they need.
  • Test and retest. Put your site through its paces to ensure that it will work for your readers.[adsense]

UX is a constantly changing field. Technology is applied to websites to see what works and what doesn’t. There’s also a lot of psychology used to study how readers react to the elements of a website.

Because it’s a constantly changing and evolving field, it’s worth keeping up with new developments and incorporating them into your website.

Using These Web Development Answers

Knowing what you’re looking for in web development will make it easier for you to choose the right partner, ask what you want, and create a web application that’s effective.

While there’s always more to know, these answers will go a long way to helping you create the website you need.