Como evitar uma desconexão entre você e seu desenvolvedor web

How to avoid a disconnect between you and your web developer

June 1, 2024 Roberto Magalhães

The better the relationship, the better the result.

Your business probably depends on a website. This site can be used for little more than information or it can be a complete e-commerce solution that allows customers to purchase products and services. Or perhaps your website is a social media platform or offers news or various types of data.

No matter the purpose, your website is crucial to your business.

Unless you have the budget to pay a website development team, you will likely outsource the construction and design of that website. And why not? After all, creating and managing a website requires very specific talent and dedication. If you don't have these specific characteristics, you won't be able to achieve much success with your business website.

Then you hand everything over to one of these professionals. At first, the relationship between you and your web developer is excellent. They seem to get exactly what you're looking for, and on paper, they deliver. But then you see the beta version of the site and it's nothing like you thought it would be.

What caused the disconnection? How did the developer miss the mark?

You'd be surprised how often this happens. And when it does happen, you probably wouldn't be surprised at the level of stress it can cause.

How do you avoid this?

Here are some tips that can help prevent you from falling into this disconnect between you and your web developer.

Hire the right person for the job

From the beginning, you need to know what your expectations are and whether the web designer you hire can meet those expectations. You may have large projects in mind for an incredibly complex and interactive website, but you hired a developer who doesn't have the skills to deliver what you want.

You should be upfront about what you are looking for from the beginning. Don't just say you want to build a website. This could be anything, and you could end up with a developer who can only create static pages or pages built from WordPress.

When hiring a developer, make sure you hire the right person for the job. If you're looking for a custom website, with all the features associated with modern business websites, you need to do your research and make sure you've hired a developer who's up to the task. JavaScript, CSS, Java, UX/UI Design – these are all things to consider.

If you're looking for an offshore web developer, make sure you know the best places to find one .

Communication is key

The biggest reason that causes problems in website development is lack of communication. You may think you've provided your developer with all the details that specifically describe what you're looking for, but you probably haven't. What causes this is not so much the quantity and detail of the information, but the way you communicate that information.

Web developers tend to speak a very specific language, and sometimes the language barrier can cause communication problems. One way to avoid this is to give the developer examples of what you are looking for. You might like the menu system on one specific site but the layout on another. If you can gather enough examples to make it clear what you're looking for, you'll save yourself the headache of dealing with a beta site that's simply not at all what you expected.

At the same time, you also need to keep that line of communication open. Your web developer will have questions. If you don't answer these questions in a timely manner, you will halt progress in your website development.

To communicate. To communicate. To communicate.

Have lots of kickoff meetings

Speaking of communication.

Once you hire a developer and receive a lot of calls, you will need to move these meetings to video conferencing or in person. And you need to hold a lot of these meetings. If you can, schedule weekly meetings, even before actual development begins.

As you plan the website together, things will change. You need to stay informed about these changes and keep your developer updated on how your thoughts have evolved. Don't skimp on these meetings. Even if you only meet for twenty to thirty minutes at a time, you'll find that these frequent, early meetings will go a long way toward making sure you both know where your website design is headed (and if that's happening in the future). correct direction).

You don't want the developer to start coding your site without you both being on the same page.

Graphic Design vs. web design

Let's be clear: not all web designers/developers are graphic designers. If you assume that your web developer can create all of your graphics, you're already starting off on the wrong foot. You need to provide content to the developer – not just words, but images. For these images, you either need your marketing department to create them or hire an actual graphic designer.

The last thing you want to do is tell your web designer to just use “whatever they can find.” When doing so, several problems may arise. Firstly, your web developer can use images protected by copyright laws. This can land you in a world of trouble. Secondly, you may end up with images on your website that don't look unprofessional or don't reflect your business.

To make this even more confusing, you need to make sure that the graphics used on your website are both web and mobile friendly . If your website doesn't work well on mobile devices, you're missing out on a huge market.

Keys to the kingdom

This one is tricky and depends on who is hosting the site. If your developer is also serving as your host, you won't need to worry about this particular issue. If, however, you have purchased hosting, outside of your developer, you will need to ensure that your developer has the ability to log into your hosting platform and can work without having to rely on you to log into the system that will host your website.

Provide the developer with login credentials for the hosting platform, otherwise you will be tasked with uploading code, images, and more. Make this process as efficient as possible and give the developer the keys to your web kingdom. Once the site is complete, you can always revoke developer access. If the developer continues to work with the website, you must allow him to maintain access to the hosting server.

This is one of the main reasons why you want to hire a developer you can trust.

Conclusion

There is no reason for a disconnect between you and your web developer. With the right amount of communication, trust, and skill, creating and managing your business website can be smooth and easy. Be open, honest and frequent in your questions and answers. Your web developer will appreciate these efforts and your website will be better for it.

If you liked this, be sure to check out our other articles on web development.