Web development is a term referring to all the tasks involved in the development of websites from scratch until it is hosted via the internet or intranet.
It’s the process of creating and maintaining websites. It’s a roundup of activities done in the back end to ensure that a website looks appealing, loads fast, and gives users a seamless user experience.
Some of the tasks involved in website development include web content development, web design, client-side/server-side scripting, back-end development, the configuration of network security, and more.
The hierarchy followed by the web developers include:
Web developers rely on various coding and programming languages. The language used to create these sites depends on the intended website task and the platform they will be operating on.
Web Development has two main faces, namely the Front End and the Back End.
Front-end developers are charged with creating the interface. They provide the site layout as the connection between the site’s back end and the user. These developers mainly use languages such as JavaScript, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
back-end developers take control of the database and server and data requests. These developers determine how data is displayed at the front end. They are charged with assessing a company’s needs and providing the right programming solutions for the same. They rely on languages such as Python, PHP, RUBY, and Java.
Having knowledge of the best practices used in website development will help in estimating the time and budget to see the project through. However, website development trends will define the processes involved.
Finding the right web development companies in Singapore is super important because apart from design – here is where things can go seriously wrong if you go for the lowest bidder only or your project team has underestimated the scope of the functionalities of your website or the web developers you appointed has over-promised and underquoted.
The last situation is one of the leading causes of delayed projects and usually results in web developers asking for more time, more resources, and more money to complete the project whereas you have already reached the limits of your budget.
A website is one of the essentials tools when running a business in the modern era. Lucky for you, web development in Singapore has come a long way.
However, before you go on the hunt for a web development agency in Singapore, it is necessary that you understand what web development is, the processes involved, and the common tools used today.
Here is a breakdown of the processes involved in website development from start to finish.
This step involves defining the purpose of the website, the main goal, and the target audience. There is a lot of research involved and the use of a questionnaire will help you develop the best strategy for future project management.
Different types of websites provide different functionality, which means that the developer will use different technologies. With the proper information, you will create an extensive pre-development plan to eliminate any delays arising from unexpected problems. This process could take at least two weeks.
With the pre-development plan ready, the web developer will create a sitemap to describe the relationship between the different elements on the website.
The developer will also create a mock-up or wireframe, which is a visual representation of the user interface. However, it only describes the design elements that will be included in the actual web page. This step might take up to 6 weeks to complete.
This process is arguably the longest and most challenging to a web developer. It involves the creation, approval and addition of visual content, such as the page layouts, customer feedback channels, and more. Here you will need to contact the web development agency in Singapore to express your concerns and requirements about the design and placements of the elements.
This process can take between 4 and 12 weeks.
Writing and compiling the website’s content is an ongoing process. The objective here is to determine what you want to communicate to the target audience and apply the suitable call-to-actions.
In most instances, the client is responsible for curating and creating the content. However, you can always find some developers who offer content writing and assembly services. Irrespective of who is in charge of the content, the developer needs to have it before they start the coding process.
This process can take anywhere between 5 and 15 weeks. However, there will be a need for subsequent content creation after launching the website.
In this step, the web developer starts by writing the website’s code and inputting the actual graphic elements. The homepage comes first followed by other pages as outlined in the sitemap according to the hierarchy.
The frameworks and the CMS are then implemented to ensure that the server can smoothly handle the website set-up. The static elements should be created and tested first, and the special features are added later.
Every element and link ought to be tested to identify and remove dead and broken links. The process should also include the reviewing of every script, form, and running the content through spell and grammar checking software to eliminate all typos.
Code validators also ensure that the code follows modern web standards and facilitates cross-browser compatibility. If everything is working as intended, then the developer moves on to uploading the website to a server using FTP software.
After launching, it is proper that the website be tested one more time to ensure that the files are installed correctly. The process can take between 2 and 4 weeks.
You should ensure that the website is working as intended and maintenance work carried out often. This is where feedback software comes in handy to identify possible problems the users could face.
If any problems are identified, they should be fixed as soon as possible to avoid penalisation from Google and inconveniencing the end user. This is an ongoing process that should be carried out at least once every fortnight.
Website development tools have improved immensely and the developers use highly tested libraries to improve workflow. However, finding the best tools can be daunting. Here are the essential tools used in website development today:
Suffice it to say that e-commerce is a good opportunity for both new and existing businesses in Singapore. However, the marketplace isn’t meant for the faint-hearted.
There are so many e-commerce companies in Singapore – and the only way to beat them is by building a website that’s functionally on the same scale as successful and best-performing eCommerce websites in the country.
You need a top-of-the-shelf e-commerce developer for this.
An e-commerce developer is a developer with additional skills in e-commerce tools and platforms. A range of technical skills falls under the mandatory e-commerce label. This pretty much explains why many businesses are struggling to find web development agencies that understand the complexities involved with this particular domain of web development.
Here are the top e-commerce skills that a developer needs to both build and maintain a world-class webshop:
Open source ecommerce platforms only provide a canvas for a developer to exercise their creativity. The developer has to be well-verse with a wide range of ecommerce technologies to play around with and come up with something tangible.
A professionally designed ecommerce website is a deal maker for users that interact with it. It takes someone with special skills and a rich understanding of your customers to plan everything in advance and have killing with it.
Often wrapped under web design, alongside UX, UI refers to the pictorial representational bits or the aesthetic appeal of your e-commerce website.
The next thing to enter the fray is front-end development. Front-end development refers to the art of creating presentational HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code for a solid user interface.
In short, it bridges the gap between hard coding and usage.
Backend development is about functionality and features. It’s about everything that’s happening behind the scene.
They’re the people to consult when you need someone to set up a quick-pay option, a deal locator, or showcase your products based on location.
Here’s a list of all programming languages any aspiring e-commerce developer needs to be well-versed in:
Ajax: for product search
Bootstrap: for setting up a customised responsive e-commerce website
JavaScript: for scripting e-commerce stores that are compatible with almost any browser. Used in both frontend and backend development. It also comes with an array of modules and libraries for a range of e-commerce features.
CSS: for adding style to your e-commerce web pages. It’s the language you use to manage the look or stylistic appeal of the content you developed with HTML.
HTML 5: This is where web development begins. HTML is the first language that developers learn before they can proceed to any other language. Ecommerce developers use it to format headings and titles, to link pages, products, and other features, and to arrange different graphics on your e-commerce website.
PHP: One of the most adopted programming languages in the e-commerce landscape. A common example is the Magento platform, entirely developed in PHP. PHP is widely used because it’s scalable and easy to workaround.
MYSQL: for database storage and management. It operates as a server while acting as a bridge between your e-commerce website and a series of other technologies.
JSON: For SMS and payment gateway integration through API.
Java: A general-purpose, project-oriented, high-level programming language. The language is designed to adequately run on any platform that supports it, with no need for re-coding.
Python: a high-level, general-purpose programming language that allows developers to express their ideas and complex concepts with few lines of code.
There’s no bad or better programming language. Everything depends on the developer’s interest and level of mastery. You can choose between any of the languages – PHP, Java, Perl, .net, etc. With any of these languages, you have to begin at the ground level and gradually advance until you achieve mastery.
Most of these programming languages have libraries and content management systems that make the development process quite a snap.
At the end of the day, a good developer is all about the skills you possess, and the ability to apply what you know for the best output.
Here are a few things to consider when looking for an e-commerce developer to hire in Singapore:
The first thing you need to do is decide on whether to contract an individual freelancer or an e-commerce development agency.
Hiring an individual contractor will be easy in your pocket. But don’t expect to be blown away by the quality of the final product.
Adding to the experience the e-commerce developer stacks, you also want to dig into their past projects and find out if they’re up to your desired standards.
At the early stages of e-commerce, developers’ only focus was to build websites that worked great on desktops. But much has changed along the way, including the introduction of new devices.
You have so many CMS options to take advantage of today for your e-commerce website.
There’s no harm in asking the e-commerce developer you’re about to hire about their strategy and development process.
Don’t limit shoppers to only one payment method. If anything, you want to make sure your website has several payment options.
Add to that, you want to develop a payment system that’s secure and convenient to your shoppers.
When should you stop counting on the developer for support after they’re done with your project?
Keep in mind that launching your website doesn’t mark the end of the development process. You have to test everything and make necessary tweaks to some of the features to give your shoppers the experience they need.
Abandoned carts are an e-commerce site owner’s biggest nightmare. Here are some reasons why visitors are likely to leave your site.
Customers will flock to your site if they love your products. If they cannot pay for them quickly, they are likely to bolt. Confusing T&Cs can make them abandon.
Solution: Minimise form elements, ask for the most vital info to reduce the purchase process.
Payment security issues can spook a ready buyer. If your site lacks visible SSL badges and has peculiar design flaws, visitors will leave.
Solution: Integrate the site with a secured payment gateway. Also, display social proof and trust signals to add credibility to your e-business.
E-shoppers love smooth experiences. A fast-loading page encourages them to move a step further into the buying journey. Pages with dreadful load times turn off potential buyers and conversions.
Solution: Create a fast-loading page to improve the customer experience. Optimise page elements like videos, images, and graphics by compressing them. Take advantage of browser caching to boost e-commerce site speed.
While attempting to create a fancy website, e-commerce stores end up making navigation blunders. Generic descriptions, substandard site designs, and a jumbled-up navigation bar can confuse visitors and search crawlers.
Solution: Be agile with the site design. Provide a search option to simplify navigation and keep your pages uniform. Remember to make it responsive for mobile use.
Hidden costs can turn away customers who expect to pay what is listed on your product page or less. People shop online to enjoy lower prices. If your store charges more than what you promised, the bounce rates will rise.
Solution: maintain price consistency at the product page and the checkout point. Also, consider coupons and other incentives that motivate a buyer to convert.
User experience on your ecommerce site determines its success or failure. Here are steps to take to drive user experience even when your e-business is doing well.
Hassle-free checkout significantly reduces the shopping cart abandonment rate. However, you need to be keen on design elements. To simplify the checkout process, you can:
While designing an e-commerce website, you need to remember that a minimalist design is king. Top e-commerce websites use minimalist designs to drive an engaging and straightforward user experience.
Customers are looking for solutions, not aesthetics on site. A focused UX design is easy to achieve if the site isn’t crammed.
Your e-commerce store needs to display products in a pristine manner. This platform doesn’t offer the benefit of touch, and you had better make up for that with exceptional product pictures and explainer/descriptive videos. The zoom functionality is an ideal component if you want to display different product angles. An explainer video can reveal fascinating product details.
Mobile is everything in the current eCommerce arena. Without a mobile-optimized website, you’re handing potential visitors to your competition.
An e-commerce website with discreet product information, testimonials, company policies, shipping details, and refund T&Cs gains trust from visitors quickly. This way, customers feel confident when making a sale. Additionally, offering social proof makes the visitor more relaxed, and you can rest assured they’ll come back.
Security is an indispensable component of your e-commerce website. Ecommerce merchants are obligated to safeguard their customers and other stakeholders. Potential customers will hesitate to associate with you if there are glaring security concerns with your website. Here are the steps you can take to secure your site.
Ecommerce brands stick to repeat passwords because it’s hard to remember a list of them. As an e-store owner, consider changing your passwords regularly. Generate new passwords and create a schedule for updating them. Consider a password generator to provide unique passwords for your logins.
Previously, SSL was the most trusted encryption option at the checkout stage. The best option today is to use a site-wide SSL encryption. Some recommended encryption protocols you can leverage include:
Ecommerce based SaaS platforms are tapping the power of two-factor authentication to improve security for customer security. All customer channels are secured using additional security info apart from the password.
Additional plugins are the best security options for e-commerce platforms. Easy to set up e-commerce platforms don’t provide the security capability from a native perspective. If you choose a WordPress platform, arm yourself with security plugins for reinforcement purposes.
In some instances, customer security is beyond your control, depending on how they handle the security aspects themselves. You can take measures such as introducing Two-factor authentication as an extra security layer.
Ecommerce store owners have to contend with stiff competition. But, one way of ensuring your website enjoys visibility is to choose custom web development. It drives your sites’ visibility and gives you a unique position. Here are the reasons why you can go for bespoke site development.
When you have the right budget, customer web development is not an issue. Getting bespoke services or products comes with costs. It’s a good thing since you have the prerogative to do whatever you wish with the site.
Customised web platforms have the potential to realise more ROI. They’re designed with customer and business objectives in mind. As such, they wield more power to generate sales and boost conversions.
Ecommerce owners with a sophisticated website concept are better off with a customized website. If your site requires in-depth design and development between elements, you need to pick specialists who understand the job well. It’s the only guarantee that the website will function seamlessly with an exceptional user experience.
Ecommerce is as convoluted as you can imagine. Finishing up one thing just sets you on a path to another.
After setting up your online store, the next thing you want to do is embark on some thorough marketing. That demands that you constantly update yourself on the latest e-commerce trends and technological innovations that are enriching the lives of online shoppers in Singapore.
We managed to uncover a few of these trends and innovations, and compiled them in the list that follows:
You’re probably aware of geo-targeting and how brick-and-mortar stores are using it to crank up sales.
This is how geotargeting works:
A customer walks into a physical, brick-and-mortar store.
An in-store mobile app sends a push notification to the customer’s smartphone alerting them of your latest stock and offers.
Geotargeting does wonders by connecting the two worlds – offline and online shopping.
Now let’s dig into location-based mobile selling.
Geolocation tools are commonplace in Singapore. Many of the e-commerce sites you see floating around use the tool.
But is it possible for an online store in Singapore to target online shoppers solely based on their geographical location?
Consumers make buying decisions on the go. They browser their mobile devices while commuting, while at work, or amid errands, and it’s then that they decide on what to buy or get.
Store owners need to understand this consumer behaviour, and how the said consumers reach spur-of-the-moment buying decisions.
Location-based selling targets consumers based on where they’re in real-time. Store owners have an option of luring in consumers using geographically targeted discounts.
For instance, you can send a push notification to a consumer informing them that they’re entitled to a discount of a certain amount if they visit your physical store, not very far from where they are.
Here’s a real-time example of how this could work:
Assuming you own a supplement store that’s located next to a gym or fitness club. You have the option of partnering with the gym, in that when a customer signs up with the gym, you can send them a push notification stating that they’re entitled to a certain discount should they decide to come and buy one of your supplementary products.
Customers no longer have to wait when they place an order online. The introduction of services such as Amazon Prime or same-day delivery means you can place an order and have the item delivered to you within hours.
Some companies are even using drones for deliveries, where the ordered item is delivered right where you are in an hour or two.
Another common delivery trend is where you can order something online and then head to a physical store near you to pick it. So, instead of waiting until the item is delivered to you, you’ll be directed to an affiliated store near you where you can pick it within a few hours or even minutes.
The e-commerce space is leveled for everyone. Ecommerce vendors are no longer scared of e-retail giants such as Amazon or Lazada.
The only way to stick out and beat your competition to a pulp is to focus on improving your customers’ experience. Size matters a small deal in this.
Customers want to feel special, and not lamped with the general mass. They appreciate it, even more, when a business handles their requests and orders at an individual level.
That explains why e-commerce development agencies have been integrating AI technology into the websites they create.
Advanced technologies such as Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence allow you to personalise customer experiences. It does this by providing dynamic and adaptable targeting.
It also allows you to showcase your products to users based on their interests. Meaning, customers that who get to view your products are more likely to make a purchase.
What’s more: the role of AI doesn’t end with customer conversion. It’s equally concerned about establishing a relationship between you and your customers, with the end goal of turning them into lifelong, loyal customers.
The number of households owning smart speakers in Singapore is estimated to hit 55% by 2022. But 2020 could be the year when many users discover Alexa or Google home.
With voice powered shopping, here’s what happens.
With Amazon’s Alexa as an example, when a user prompts their smart speaker for a recommendation on which product to buy, Alexa will provide results with Amazon’s choice badge.
Benefiting from this would be e-commerce sellers in partnership with Amazon.
The more the popularity of voice-activated speakers soars, the more voice-powered shopping becomes common.
Augmented has been with us for quite some time, blurring the line between the virtual world and the meat world. Now it’s found its way into the e-commerce space and is busy revolutionising the whole experience.
For instance, it’s now possible to envision how a particular electronic or furniture item will look like when you finally bring it to your home – a good way to be sure with the decision that you’re about to make.
It’s estimated that the VR market would have reached $209.2 billion come 2022.
VR and AR technologies are the new craze, sought after by both B2C and B2B e-commerce store owners looking to stay ahead of the curve and woo customers in whatever way possible.
This technology was made available by Amazon a few years ago. It’s an old technology that’s been with us for quite some time, but it’s now that it’s starting to pick up.
Several online retailers have already adopted the technology and are running with it.
One major benefit of adopting the single-click checkout system is that it tackles the issue of shopping cart abandonment. It also encourages repeat purchases, thus boosting your revenues and all that.
The web development field in Singapore is fiercely competitive. Thanks to freelancing, a simple Google search should pull thousands of e-commerce developers from all around the globe that is available for hire.
What sets them apart is the level of competitiveness. As an aspiring web developer, the question you should be asking yourself is, “how do I stand out and beat the competition?”
Here are some suggestions on what to do?
Before you even think of enrolling for a course, you need to dedicate some time to understanding eCommerce and how everything piece together. Understand the dynamics of an e-commerce website and how it operates.
Keep in mind that not all e-commerce websites are the same. Ideally, you’re to understand each type of e-commerce website and the developmental process involved with each.
Go through the basic template and try to understand everything. In most cases, an e-commerce store will have a homepage, product listing page, about us page, and a page that gives details on the type of products the company sells.
A more professional or advanced e-commerce website, on the other hand, will have more functionalities and integrated features.
You have to dig into different e-commerce projects and try to get a feel of how everything works and the work involved in creating each one of them. It’s through this that you’ll know what skill to acquire or what to perfect, to remain competitive in this field.
Whether your plan is to work for a web development agency in Singapore or as a freelancer, you have to begin by setting up an impressive portfolio that showcases a range of projects and some of the things you’ve accomplished along the way.
Web developers are easy to find. Employers receive numerous CVs from them, so having a portfolio of the projects you’ve successfully executed is your ace in the hole. It’s what sets you apart from the rest of them.
At this point, you want to take web development projects that run on different e-commerce platforms (Magento, WordPress, and Woocommerce). You can start by specialising on one particular e-commerce platform. Take a deep dive and try to master everything involved with the platform.
At the same time, you want to broaden your horizon and experiment with other tools too. You want to provide a comprehensive range of services, without limiting yourself to one particular platform.
Being experienced is one thing, having something to back it all up is another.
You want to stand out, so why not enroll for an online e-commerce web development class and get accredited for it?
We’ve identified a few e-commerce web development classes that you can enroll for today and receive a solid grounding in the field.
PHP Certification from Zend: The Zend PHP certification is a widely recognised certification program. It’s one of the certifications employers use to evaluate their recruits and determine their level of qualification.
Their training program isn’t cheap, and so is their exam. You have to be prepared to part away with $195 to sit for their online exam.
Businesses rely on web developers to create captivating and alluring websites. A web developer has numerous duties and responsibilities. Before hiring a website developer in Singapore, consider whether potential candidates have the right qualifications. Here’s a list of responsibilities for a web developer.
Information technologies keep evolving. Trends that shaped web development a few months ago may no longer matter. The fact is that new trends keep popping up. It’s essential to stay on top of these constant changes if you expect your web-based venture to stay afloat.
In Singapore, you cannot discuss web development and application without mentioning Progressive Web Apps. Even though they have been around for some time, they remain a hot web development topic. PWA enables websites to load fast and rank high in search results. These web apps can turn around a slow-loading page into lead-generating magnets. PWAs load like ordinary websites and they operate with exceptional app functionality.
Modular design is a trend that will shape web development in 2020 and beyond. There are several advantages of modular designing, including:
A website gives your brand its identity and presence online with a robust digital presence; you can manage your online venture successfully. However, your web needs to be designed and developed professionally. Here are the reasons why web development is crucial for Singapore start-ups
Its Cost Effective: Website development is an affordable way to reach and appeal to a broad audience. Your website broadcasts information about your products and services. Web development costs are a one-off thing. After you launch it, you only need to pay a negligible amount for maintenance.
It’s an innovative Marketing strategy: when you develop your website, your media platform links.
as a strategy, it helps you to attract a massive Volume of traffic in the shortest time possible
It Enhances User Experience
Website owners yearn to boost sales. You can achieve this by developing your site into a user-friendly portal. By enhancing usability, you improve the site’s interactiveness and engagement capacity. Superior user interface and user experiences make your website a lead magnet.
In a bid to save money, some Singaporean businesses opt for generic website templates online. These are not the best for an organisation that wants to stand out. When you employ a dedicated website developer or firm, you gain control of your site elements and functions.
Some benefits of working with a professional website developer in Singapore are highlighted below.
They provide Quality Web Designs
Having a navigable and visually, appealing website isn’t everything. Relying on generic templates makes your website look weak and disorganised. Since you want the best first impressions, consider a web developer who knows the ropes. A reputable web development company will deliver a superior design that is customised to fit your needs.
When you hire a professional web developer to advance your site, they know to help the site rank high in search results. It’s useless to have a website that is all graphics but zero visibility in search. Proficient developers are SEO-savvy, and they will help you to rank high on any search engine.
Web analytics enables you to discover new methods of attracting traffic to your site. Ready-to-use web building traffic can deny you access to your analytics. Your marketing strategies depend on these metrics, and a qualified web developer can help you to understand the analytics that your site gathers.
Ambitious Singapore business owners know the impact of a competitive website. The majority here may not understand the dynamics of the IT space. As such, it pays to research the cost of getting a unique site built ad developed from scratch.
Website development costs lean on the type of website, the scope of work, and complexity involved in development. Different websites come with varying prices, as highlighted below:
This might come off as a no-brainer, but there different types of websites you can create for your business. Google, Amazon, Facebook Bing are websites powered by a multi-billion dollar infrastructure with data centres all over the world.
While these are extreme examples, you need to know the functionality you want to extend to your visitors. With that said, a professional web development company in Singapore should advise you on the right one for your business.
This means that you need to establish your goals well in advance and then call several web development companies for a consultation as well as a service quotation. These two are necessary when you are scouting for the best web development company for your business.
Web development is an umbrella term that encompasses all the activities of web programming and web design. To reduce the stress associated with website development, you had better choose a web development company that does everything from programming to design, to hosting content creation than using different companies for each of these tasks.
Some web development companies will go the extra step and offer essential digital marketing services to help promote your website. Such a company will give you better value for your money.
After launching your website, you need to make regular changes to enhance its user experience. It is common to see that there were some features or elements that were left out or they need upgrading. Worse still, the website could become static.
A reputable web development company ought to provide the necessary tools and customer support to update your content, add new pages, as well as make minor upgrades.
The web development company is your technology partner, and it is necessary to know the type and level of support they offer. More so, it is important that you know which of their staff will be providing you support. On top of this, the web development company needs to [provide 24/7 technical support.
The average Singaporean has at least 3.3 devices and this means that they can access a computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, or wearable device. However, smartphones are more popular. This makes it necessary for your website to have a responsive design to suit different screens. Besides, Google and other search engines are giving preference to sites that offer a great mobile user experience.
This calls for you to snoop around the web developer’s website. Start with a desktop computer, and then mobile devices. If the company is not skilled in developing a responsive design for their website, then you can take them off your list of prospects.
This is one of the signs of a reliable web development company. Web development companies use social media for marketing and reputation management purposes. However, their social media pages provide a perfect opportunity to gauge the level of their customer service.
On top of this, a reliable web development company will use social media to share relevant and valuable content with existing and potential clients.
With that said, you should avoid any web development companies that are inconsistent in their social media presence. This means that they are not always available when clients need immediate customer support.
Web development trends in Singapore change often, as well as technology. This means that the web development company needs to have talented and knowledgeable web developers that are using the latest technology and best practices when developing websites.
With that said it is tough assessing and knowing a developer’s knowledge level. However, you could start by going over the portfolio section of the website, or read the customer testimonials on their social networking pages.
A web development company must have the right experience and knowledge of how to leverage social media and search engines to display information from client websites. With time, the small details become a big deal, and only a knowledgeable web developer who is using the latest technology will be able to handle them in the beginning before they escalate to a big problem.
Before settling on a web development company, it will help matters to gauge their level of expertise by looking into the work they have done for previous clients. An experienced and professional company will have a portfolio section on their website depicting all the work they have done in the past.
Not only will the portfolio show you their clients, but it also outlines the effectiveness of their projects and skills. With that said, you should visit their clients’ websites to ascertain that there is consistency between the portfolio and the website.
On top of this, the portfolio section of the website should have the names of their clients. You can go the extra mile and contact the clients via phone to know their experience of working with the web development company.
There is a growing trend where reputable web development companies are adding a case-study section to their websites. Although they may be biased and one-sided, case studies are created to demonstrate the company’s capabilities and expertise.
The case studies should outline the process of web development from the first meeting with the client to the completion of the project. This will give you an idea of what you can expect if you choose to work with the company.
However, if a company does not have a section on their website for case studies, it does not mean that they are not worth giving them your business, but it would be a good addition.
While it is not advisable to pick a web development company on price alone, it is a crucial factor. You do not want to choose the cheapest offer on the table and get dismal results, and second, or to go for the most expensive option that will put your budget in jeopardy.
Since many Singaporeans spend a lot of time searching for information and products online, you need to spend an appropriate amount of money on a unique website. However, experienced companies are more expensive than those that are starting.
To strike the right balance of how much you should pay, you need to evaluate the value you are getting from the company. You can gauge the value they attach to web development by the level of professionalism they bring during the initial consultation especially in suggesting how to improve the functionality of your website.
However, each company will have a different approach to billing; some charge a fixed rate, while others charge an hourly rate. Some of the companies even use a tiered pricing approach when they have their top web developers handling your web development project.
You should also look into the recurring costs of running the website, and the extra services such as hosting, content creation, digital marketing, and more that you have to pay the company. With that said, client testimonials will help you in determining the value the company accords to its clients.
Nearly all web development companies in Singapore offer hosting services for the websites they build. The hosting costs and the package will vary widely but the bottom line is that you get what you pay for.
You need your website to be available all the time, not just sometimes. This makes it necessary to set aside a hoisting service budget.
With that said, you should pick a web development company that makes it easy for you to move your website to a different web hosting provider whenever possible.
It is common to find web development companies that are a one-person show. You need to choose a web development company that can match the size of your business. Besides, you need to choose a company with more than one staff, as this will provide a different point of view during the development process.
A web development company worth its salt should also provide a physical address so that clients can walk in and meet the team of developers. However, you can also organise a video call with two or three of the developers in the company and discuss what needs to go into the website.
During the course of the project, the web development company will assign you a project manager, who will be your liaison to the developers working on your website. However, you should meet the team working on your website before commencing on the job.
Web developers are the key to the proper working of a website, and this means that a web development company ought to have experienced and knowledgeable staff that can solve problems as soon as they crop up and be a positive trouble-shooter.
This trait will come in handy when scheduling ongoing support and other post-launching problems that might arise. On the flip side, having a web development company whose developers are not good problem-solvers is that you will get poor website functionality with prolonged instances of downtime.
Location is a crucial aspect of choosing a web development company. You should choose a Singapore-based company that is knowledgeable in the trends and factors influencing web development in the country. More so, a Singapore-based company will help you in practicing the best local SEO practices that will boost the visibility of your website and business.
On top of this, they might have useful local contacts that will help you get the best digital marketing deals in Singapore. The web development company will also help you identify great resources such as the best online directories that are popular with the Singaporean audience.
For best results, you need to work with a web development company that understands the time value of money. Depending on their past projects, they should be able to provide an estimate of how long it will take from client briefing to website launch.
In web development circles, getting content is one of the most challenging and time-consuming aspects. It will save you on time if the company also created the content to go on the website, if not you need to create the content yourself or hire a freelancer to write and create content for the website.
While most people focus on finding the best web development company, it is better if you went in search of a compatible company for your business. This is necessary since you are getting into a mid –to a long-term relationship with the company. It will be easier for all parties involved if you build a strong relationship from the onset.
During your search, do not restrict yourself to exploring just one company. Reach out to as many companies as possible and ask for consultations and quotes. During the process, you will learn a lot about the company’s values and culture, and if they align with that of your business.
The web development company will be your technology partner for months or even years, and you need a compatible partner. However, do not be afraid to change your mind before you sign the contract.
Before signing on the dotted line, ensure that you ask as many questions to iron out any issues that might crop up.
A majority of your website will be from a search engine, and you need to ensure that your site ranks high, especially on Google. The only way to do this is by undertaking search engine optimisation (SEO) to ensure that you rank high on the first page of the search results.
During the initial stage, preferably during the consultation time, you must ask the company representative how they plan to make your website SEO ready. The project manager should be able to explain how they will ensure your site ranks high on search results.
In the online space, there is an excess of websites that are designed generically. They lack crucial elements including calls to action, user engagement, and usability. To avoid ending up with such a site, there are numerous questions you need to ask prospective web development firms and experts. Here are some
Competent web developers take time with specific projects. Whereas it shouldn’t be a rushed process, it’s essential to understand a developer’s timeline. Businesses cannot order a savvy website and expect it to be complete in one week. Some web development companies take a fixed amount of time while others take a month or two years, depending on the project and customer requirements.
The capacity of a web development company depends on the size and talents of a dev team. You need to ask the firm to detail who will be working together with your in-house team. Ask them to define in further information whether they will dispatch a project manager for coordination purposes, a designer to create a cohesive site infrastructure, and a content specialist to provide on-page content. It would help if you asked them to verify whether they have a developer who is well-versed in the coding and programming languages needed.
Although desktop traffic still matters, it’s the mobile traffic that is causing ripples in the online marketing arena. If your customers cannot find, interact and transact via mobile, you’ll be swallowed whole by your competition.
It’s essential to ask potential website development agencies to detail how they intend to draw a constant flow of traffic. Any developer who doesn’t prioritise mobile website development isn’t worth your money or time.
Depending on your business-specific needs, you need to know whether the website will be editable after launch. If you’re not conversant with programming and you want to tweak your web elements (text, images, banners) at a later date, ask the dev team to clarify. To be safe, you need to know what aspects you can modify and whether you’ll have to pay to get it done.
In the ever-evolving technology arena, things change fast. The web development strategies or tools that were used a few months ago might not work in the current.
It’s essential to ask your website developer whether they are conversant with the skills that make the current market tick. You’re likely to achieve the best results if you hire a developer who is adept in trending technology. If a developer indicates that they have recently acquired new coding language skills, they will assist you in achieving your goals.
The 21st century has revolutionized the way human beings conduct businesses. There are hundreds or even thousands of business transactions that happen every minute across the globe. A website is one of the most important assets for any business or organization.
The web design and development industry has been experiencing growth for the last two decades. There are many reasons why most businesses own a website. Studies show that a large part of the population is spending more time on the internet.
What does that mean? That if you want to reach out to the target audience, or your customers, you have to establish an online presence. Website designers are tasked with the responsibility of building a virtual representation of your business.
Keep in mind that a website can make or break your business. If you embark on building a website for your company, ensure that it is a good one. Engage with the designing services of a professional to avoid costly blunders.
What exactly does web design and development entail?
The act of designing a website simply means creating or planning the overall appearance of a website. It involves creating the type of website that would suit a particular audience. There are various elements of website design. Let’s have a look at some of them.
Colours are not just colours-they hold different meanings and each triggers a particular feeling in a human being. For many years, people have used colours to signify certain emotions, objects, or groups. Red for instance, usually signals danger while the white colour is a sign of peace. Green signifies nature/abundance.
Website design involves the use of various colours in such a way that they please the person who opens the website. Many companies usually have specific colours that represent them. On their websites, they try as much as possible to include these colours because it symbolizes their brand.
Great web designers have an eye for colour and will mix and match colours to produce a website that is visually appealing. If colours in a website don’t complement each other, you can be sure most visitors won’t be at it for long.
Companies/individuals design websites with the hope that people who visit the site will gain valuable information and eventually end up purchasing a product.
When someone searches and clicks on the link to your website, it’s like they are looking at many physical shops in a street selling the same commodities. For them to enjoy your site, the fonts should complement the site. It is advisable to use bold/different fonts for titles and subtitles.
Icons and imagery should also be used as much as possible through the website pages. All these are meant to make the visitor read the content of the website smoothly.
If you’re building a personal brand, you will want people to identify you with some qualities. It is no different when you are designing a personal or company website.
If you decide to work with a certain set of colours or fonts, use them throughout the website pages. It makes your brand unique and enables your company to stand out.
When you are done with the design part of website creation you still have a long way to go. Remember the goal is to build a website that will stand the test of time and also help you achieve success. Consider the following factors when developing your website.
Web design isn’t as complicated as some people think. After watching a couple of tutorial videos on YouTube, you can easily set up your site. But then your site may face some problems and you won’t know how to solve them.
A good web designer should be well versed with web development terminologies such as:
Before embarking on web design and development, web designers usually determine what type of website they are building. There are three types of websites that you can build:
These three types of websites are designed and developed differently. An e-commerce site is basically used to sell your products/services to the online community. The main purpose of a company site is to provide information.
There are specific templates that are used to design these websites. Although the structures of these websites may be different, the web development process is meant to enable them to function properly.
The benefits of a good website to an individual/organization cannot be understated. Web designers usually have the target audience in mind when creating the website.
Let’s take an e-commerce site as an example. The e-commerce industry has continued to experience exponential growth in the past few years. This means that many businesses are creating websites and trying to establish a solid online presence.
When people open an e-commerce site, they expect to access its various pages/categories. They must be able to navigate from one part of the website to another with ease.
Websites that don’t allow a smooth movement between points A and B usually perform poorly because many people will avoid them. Speed is another factor that differentiates a good website from a bad one.
How do you feel when a website is taking too long to load pages? It’s usually annoying and you immediately move on to another website that loads faster. When building a website it is important to test and ensure that it doesn’t take too long to load pages.
Singapore is one of the leading countries in terms of mobile penetration. On top of this, studies show that Singaporeans are accessing the internet via their smartphones than on computers.
With that said, a mobile-friendly website is one of Google’s most important ranking factors. This makes it necessary that you make your website mobile-friendly.
When smartphones and tablets started becoming popular, the standard practice was to create a mobile version of the website. However, this increased the website design and development costs, and there was a need for an easier and cheaper way of creating mobile-friendly websites. This brought about the creation of responsive website design and development.
With mobile devices taking precedence in accessing the internet, it is much cheaper to create a responsive website than have a website that catered to mobile and desktop users. The benefit of having a responsive website is that they improve onsite navigation and the user experience as well as being cheaper.
However, mobile-friendliness today is moving from smartphones and tablets. Recent trends in website design and development have evolved to include the creation of responsive websites for wearable devices such as smartwatches.
2018 saw an increase in the inclusion of subtle animations, and has become one of the major fundamentals of website design and development in 2019. Studies show that animations can increase website traffic by as much as 78%.
There is also an increased array of website design and development tools that have influenced the use of animations on Singaporean websites. On top of this, designers and developers are adding animation deliberately in websites design. However, instead of the animations taking up the whole screen, they should be small and subtle.
Big animations will increase your page loading speeds. For this reason, animation needs to be subtle in a solitary section of the website. On top of this, subtle animations allow for a less distracting website design.
3D animation has had a huge influence on web design and development, and there is an increase in tools such as Cinema 4D and Blender. AR, VR, and 3D printing are championing the production of 3D digital website content.
On top of this, CSS animations are imitating 3D effects and the basic idea here is to impose 3D elements over flat colours and contrast.
The progressive standardisation of flexbox and CSS grid has allowed website designers to implement freer layouts. The layouts are not confined to a restructured grid in different columns, especially for their responsive breakpoints.
These editorial layouts are revolutionising responsive website design, as we know it today. Editorial-styled layouts allow for more flexibility in the number of devices that can access the website without any glitches in navigation.
Progressive web apps are improving a website’s UX that resembles the UX of native smartphone applications, which make websites more user-friendly. PWAs offer the functionality available in native apps such as hardware access, push notifications, offline access.
PWAs can troubleshoot common problems that users face, such as lack of offline access, poor user experience, and website slowness.
The chances are that you might have potential clients outside of Singapore and in different time zones. This makes it virtually impossible to offer good customer service. If you were to have an actual customer care representative, customer service would be very expensive.
This is where AI-powered chatbots come in. They are a fundamental aspect of website design, and coupled with machine learning; they can answer FAQs, take an order, and connect the client with a human client assistant.
There is a variety of open-source bot building tools from renowned technology giants such as Facebook Bot Engine, and Engine, among others.
Google is focused on enhancing the mobile browsing experience, and since 2015, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) has become one of the fundamentals of web development. AMP was created to the building of fast-loading websites that work smoothly for these devices.
AMP pages can load in 2 seconds or less compared to non-AMP pages that can take up to 22 seconds. AMP is good for your SEO and can increase your website’s visibility and click-through rates since it will rank higher on SERPs.
It takes an AMP HTML open framework to build accelerated pages. On top of this, Google’s accelerated mobile pages website has detailed information, tutorials, and guides that offer everything you need for introducing AMP technology to your website.
SPAs are web applications based on JavaScript, which works across a variety of devices. They are meant to minimise interruptions due to page reloading, boost performance, and decrease web development time. They do this by responding to navigation actions without creating a request to fetch new HTML from the server-side.
Single-page applications are a fundamental aspect of developing responsive websites. The latest trends in SPA are based on the React and Angular frameworks, which make it suitable and practical for hybrid apps.
Interactive web design is gaining traction and motion user interface is a fundamental aspect of website design and development. Motion UI has amazing animations, dynamic graphics, and it has a real impact on website usability.
Motion UI shows the developer’s ability to tell a captivating and visual story while using techniques and tools to communicate the message to the viewer. These libraries allow website designers to apply transition effects for a seamless UI.
Motion UI libraries are gaining popularity since it allows website designers to animate content without having a solid knowledge or experience in jQuery or JavaScript libraries.
There are many reasons why you should get a professional web developer to build your corporate website. Here are the top three reasons why
While you may have a clue about how you want your website to look, there are many trends in the market that a Google search will not tell you. Web developers have the better technical knowledge and are conversant with the trends shaping web development. They will be able to build and fine-tune your website to suit your needs and those of your clients while incorporating new and time-tested features.
Building a website from scratch is time-consuming and you might end up using more resources than a professional would have charged. Hiring a professional web developer will allow you to focus on content creation while the web developer creates a professional-looking website for you.
Websites depend on search engines and social media to drive organic traffic. Learning SEO tactics and ranking algorithms from scratch can be tough, even for professionals. Experienced web developers have mastered SEO tricks and will use them to optimize and rank your website high on search engines.
These are just but a few of the reasons why you should hire a professional web developer. It might seem like you are making a huge investment, but it will be worth it.
The web development process can be broadly broken down into 7 stages. The amount of time each stage takes to finish is what determines your overall web development timeline.
As a client looking to hire a web development agency in Singapore, your main concerns are with time and money. You want your site to be completed in the shortest time possible without draining your pockets.
It’s to be however noted that the two values tend to vary depending on the scope and size of your project.
To allay your fears and give you something to follow up on, a good web developer should outline your entire web development project before diving to work. They should assign timelines, highlight all the tasks at hand and where possible, establish a milestone for the entire project or for every single one of the tasks they’ll be handling.
That way, you’ll have an easy time keeping track of the implementation process just to make sure the agency or developer is by the end able to beat down the agreed deadline.
This is the first stage of the web development process. Your web developer will basically want to know your purpose in your line of work, the goals you wish to achieve, and your target audience before they can finally get down to work.
This stage is basically about digging out for as much information as it’s humanly possible about a client. In which case, the information provided will help paint a clear picture of how the final site should look like and operate.
The kind of question asked by the web development agency is meant to help them develop the best strategy to employ so as to make your project a success.
Every site has its own unique features. You can’t expect a news site to bear the same features and semblance as an entertainment portal. Plus every site is meant to serve a different purpose, so it’s important that it bears a totally different functionality.
By coming up with a well-laid-out plan and strategy, the agency will be protecting itself from overspending on the resources it uses to solve unexpected issues. This happens to be the kind of issue that crops up simply because the company rushed into getting a job done without giving it thorough consideration.
Based on the data that was collected in stage 1, the agency can come up with a rough idea of how the site will actually look like and operate at the end of it all. That way, the client has an opportunity to request necessary changes and offer suggestions where needed before the final work is completed.
So the first thing the agency will get to work on is the sitemap – which is basically a rough sketch of how the main areas of your site connect. For instance, it can show the connection between the pages, and the number of clicks an end-user has to make to access any section of the site.
The whole point of site maps is to make sure the final site is easy to both find and navigate.
Read this bearing in mind that a site map is a very basic statement, taking the form of a flow chart. It doesn’t show the user interface or paint the real picture of how the actual site will look like.
So just in case, the client doesn’t understand what’s meant by the sitemap, the agency will have to create a mock-up or wireframe. For what’s worth, this is a far more detailed visual representation of the site’s user interface. It doesn’t necessarily need to show the colour or logo, but it does paint a clear picture of all the elements one should expect to see in the final site, together with their appropriate locations.
In this stage, the site representation is given more flesh. All the visual content including images, photos, logos, and videos will be added, in their appropriate locations and just like they’d appear on the final site.
The designing phase is more concerned with the site’s layout. So the developer can decide to make a graphic sketch or proceed with an actual graphic design.
As a client, you’re at this point invited to take a detailed look at the presented design and offer detailed feedback or approval for the developer to work on.
Needless to say, every section of your website will need written content. That includes the headlines, sub-heading, call-to-action, and about us.
It’s advisable that the content be created before or during the coding process so the developer can make necessary adjustments to them and how they fit on site.
So as a client, you’d want to make sure the agency has content before they can get down to actual coding, unless otherwise.
This is where the actual coding happens. Every single one of the graphical elements created is turned into code.
The developer will begin by developing the homepage and thereafter adding relevant web pages and subpages as per the design.
They can choose to use a framework or CMS depending on the agreement you had earlier on.
Just in case you decided on using a CMS, this is where it’s installed on your website. It’s in this stage that the company checks if the site is optimized for SEO and everything else. Usually, they’ll do this by making necessary tweaks to the site’s title, descriptions, and keyword integration in the various sections.
They also have to ensure that they’re using a valid code, light enough to make sure the site loads up really quick for a better ranking in the SERPs.
The site has to be tested and reviewed before launching. The company will begin by testing all the links to make sure they’re all working and directing to the right content and web section.
They’re also expected to run a code validator to make sure everything meets the required industry standards. One reason to do this is to make sure the site loads fine across all browsers.
Once done, the agency can go ahead and install the site via FTP. But they’ll be required to run another test to make sure the site still runs fast after it’s been uploaded on the server.
Lastly, how does the agency intend to help you maintain the site? Just in case there arise security issues, will the agency be there to iron it out?
It’s also important that the agency informs you about bugs and other issues that are likely to occur over time. Will the company be there to offer you the much-needed support?
Web development isn’t a restricted discipline. Whether you’re a student or an aspiring web developer, you need to know the various fields you can specialise in after winding up your studies. Primarily, web development is about coding, but different fields cater to other website functions. Some web development designations to know include:
5. Embedded developers: these developers write code and programs that help to control or manage a system; mainly hardware. The need to collaborate with hardware engineers, user interface, and user experience experts. They rely on C and C++ languages.
A majority of the internet users cannot put up with a bad online user experience and for this reason; website usability should be a top priority. When a user is unhappy with your website’s user experience, they will navigate back to the search engine to look for another site that meets their needs.
At least 88% of users will not go back to a website that offered a poor user experience. On the other hand, if you have great website usability, you will be able to hook the users to engage with your content, and this will have a profound effect on your conversions.
Unfortunately, most webmasters are oblivious to their website’s user experience. No matter the amount of money spent, you will still get few conversions if any due to poor website usability. In this guide, we look at the best practices you must apply to enhance website usability.
The downside to having a poor user experience is that the visitors will not tell you about it. The worst-case scenario is that Google and other search engines will penalise you by preventing your website from ranking high on their results pages.
These are the best practices you must consider to improve website usability in 2019
Singapore has over 4.8 million users, and at least 4.7 million prefer accessing the internet via mobile devices. Surprisingly, there are still many websites that are not optimized for mobile, despite the statistics.
The users are not only browsing websites via mobile, but they are also making purchases. You need a responsive website design to optimise your website for mobile users.
However, you need to go the extra mile to enhance the user’s mobile experience. This includes knowing where to place your CTA buttons and other clickable links.
Approximately 3.9 million people are living with disabilities in Singapore, and you need to consider them when developing content. The web content accessibility guidelines were created to ensure that websites meet the needs of people living with disabilities.
Everyone is entitled to a good user experience, and you should not discriminate or discourage anyone from visiting and using your website. For example, there are thousands if not millions of colour-blind people. A common misconception is that they see the world in black and white, but the truth is that they perceive colour differently.
In such a scenario, you should not use conflicting colours on your website. The WCAG standards dictate that your site needs to be operable, perceivable, robust, and understandable by as many people as possible.
It takes approximately 2.6 seconds for a user to find the part of your web age that will stimulate their first impression. You need to make it easy for your visitors to understand what they are seeing and this will improve website usability.
The best solution is to create a visual hierarchy on your website that directs the user to the most important part of your content. Without a visual hierarchy, the chances are that users will miss the essential parts of the site and this will hurt your conversion rates.
When creating a visual hierarchy for website usability, consider the following factors:
If you do not have web design experience, you should hire a professional web designer. They will tell you the things you need to change in your web design and create a proper visual hierarchy for you at affordable rates. A comprehensive website audit can also help you achieve this goal.
You must have come across a website that was messy and cluttered. While you are busy focusing on creating a stunning homepage, they should know that users must be able to navigate to other pages on your website.
Ease of navigation is one of the crucial aspects of website usability and you need to do a website audit and simplify the navigation. For example, if you run an e-commerce website, you must simplify the navigation, which is one of the top reasons for shopping cart abandonment. However, ease of navigation needs to be a top priority for all websites.
Consider the following factors when simplifying navigation
On top of this, the clickable text on all pages should be clear since it is a crucial factor in easing your navigation. You could underline it, change text colour, or turn the text into a button. All these practices will ensure that you simplify your website’s navigation.
Internet users are very choosy, and they will only read the content they think is credible. In order to enhance website usability, you need to establish credibility right off the bat; otherwise, users will navigate with doubts in their minds.
You can establish credibility by being transparent about your content information, prices, and content. Making users hunt for this information only hurts your website’s user experience.
Consider these figures when taking measures to establish website credibility
When it comes to price, some websites display the price after the item or service has been added to the shopping cart. While this is a way of offering deep discounts, it significantly hurts the site’s credibility.
If users cannot read the text on your website, they will leave and never come back again. This makes it vital that you ensure that you have legible content to boost website usability. For these reasons, you must take great care when choosing fonts, text colour, spacing, paragraph length, among others.
The average visitor reads 20% of your content, and legible content makes it easy to skim through. Short paragraphs with many headers, bullet points, and images enhance website usability, which will also improve your website’s credibility.
Finally, you need to establish consistency on every page of your website. Switching layouts, themes, and other design elements for every page will be confusing and give off a bad user experience.
Website usability is a determining factor if you are going to be successful in the digital space. We hope that the above tips have opened your eyes to things you need to consider when tweaking your website to enhance its usability.
Designing or redesigning a website can be pretty exciting. This is often the first impression people have of your business. Unfortunately, when it comes to creating the perfect website design, Singapore businesses get caught up in all of the wrong things.
They focus mostly on the colour scheme, the placement of their logo, and the images. Are these things important? Of course, they are, but they should not be your main priority. Instead, you should place your attention on user experience.
What type of experience do your visitors have? How easy is your website to use and navigate? Is it fully optimised? Let’s talk about a few tips for ensuring that your web design is ideal.
In most cases, your visitors are not judging your website based on how innovative it is, they are likely there so that they can complete a specific action. This means that they want to visit a website that is fully functional. In other words, your design needs to be as simple as possible.
So make sure that you are not using too many colours. In fact, it’s best not to use more than five different colours in your design scheme. All of your typefaces need to be legible. And just as is the case with colours, you shouldn’t use too many. It’s suggested that you use no more than three typefaces. When it comes to graphics, you should only use them if they actually help the user complete certain tasks. Anything else is extra.
When arranging your website, you need to create a hierarchy so that your visitors are naturally attracted to the most important elements. When you’re optimising for usability, your priority should be to help visitors create the desired action–preferably in a way that is enjoyable. In order to create a definite structure, adjust the colours, sizes, and position of certain elements on your page.
The navigation of your website should be intuitive. This makes it easier for people to find what they’re looking for. People shouldn’t have to think for too long about what step they should take next.
In order to ensure this, your navigation needs to be positioned at the top of the page. Use breadcrumbs on each page so that your visitors are fully aware of their navigation trail. Make sure that your site features a search box at the top so that your visitors can search by keywords. Avoid including too many navigation options–with a maximum of three levels. Include links in your content and ensure that it’s clear where these links lead.
Not only should your navigation be simple, but it should also be consistent. All of your colour schemes, backgrounds, typefaces, and writing tones should be consistent as these factors will have an impact on UX and usability. This isn’t to say that each page should feature the same layout but that your visitors should understand what kind of information they should expect on each page.
One of the keys to providing a great user experience is to ensure that your site can be accessed on every device, operating system, and browser. Your web structure needs to be flexible and responsive. Your content should resize to automatically fit any screen. All of your images should conclude alt-text. Your site may not look identical on each platform, but it should at least offer the same quality experience.
There are certain design elements that users have become accustomed to over the years. And these are things that they expect to see on every website, no matter the industry, products, or services. For example, users expect to see the navigation positioned at the top of the page or on the left side. They expect that when they click the logo, which is usually at the left or center of the page, that they will be taken back to the homepage. They expect that when they hover over a certain link, it will change colours.
What this means for Singapore website developers is that you should cater to these expectations. You may want to do something new and exciting to get your audience’s attention, but keep in mind that you may do so at the risk of user experience. When you change a staple design element, people can become easily confused. Stick with the most conventional methods.
What’s great about using the most conventional design elements, as well as all of the other design elements that we have discussed so far, is that it can help your build a certain amount of credibility. People are more likely to trust your products because the navigation is simple, conventional, and nothing seems like it’s being hidden. Your visitors will instantly know what products and services you sell. They won’t have to search through dozens of pages to find the simplest of answers.
Another good way to build your credibility is to create a pricing page. There are some Singapore companies that require visitors to contact them personally in order to get a price range. However, by listing your prices and ensuring that people can easily find them, it makes your business seem that much more trustworthy.
If you want to ensure that your web design is perfect for your audience, then you’re going to have to do your share of testing. More specifically, you’re going to need to do some A/B testing to find out which design features resonate with your audience. Sure, the points we have just listed here are a great starting point, but you need to take into consideration the preferences of your audience. You need to take the time to gather feedback on what they like because ultimately, they are who you’re designing your website for.
Luckily, there are a lot of tools that you can use in order to make this process easier. For example, Crazy Egg tracks several domains under one account and gives you insights into your sites with the help of a scroll map, heat map, overlay, and confetti. Loop11 helps you to create usability tests.
According to research, over half of users don’t convert because they assume that the website does not care about their experience. So what this means is that Singapore companies need to invest more time into their overall user experience. Think about what the user wants. Get feedback from them. Make sure that you meet all of their expectations. Don’t go overboard with uniqueness. Keep things simple. By putting yourself in the shoes of your users, then you will be able to get a return on your investment.
Knowing what you want and what you don’t want will ease the process of selecting a website design in Singapore. Before you reach out to a website developer, list down websites that you admire then narrow down to those that you feel best to resonate with your brand and audience. Share the list with the designers to help them get a clearer perspective of your personal preference and goals.
Ask yourself, do you want a visually appealing site that is trendy or a conservative website? Will you be making regular edits to the content? Will the site need to be updated every month or annually? The answers to these questions will help you to know what you want and steer the website development project in the right direction.
Thanks to a fast internet connection across Singapore, you can easily compare and contrast the services offered by each web development company in Singapore you are eyeing. Take time to review each agency’s portfolio before making your final decision.
Look at their past projects and what they are currently working on to know if they can match your expectations. Do not shy away from asking for additional information about the projects they have worked on before to get a clear perspective of what to expect from them.
As noted by Fyne Lyne Ventures principal, Lynn Amos, referrals from business associates whose websites resonate with what you are looking for will help you pick the right website designer in Singapore. During the consultation session, request references from past as well as current customers. Look at the sites they have designed to gauge the quality of their services.
Carrie Middlemiss, the current director of marketing at Metia, solicit recommendations from other business executives that you know. While there, ask how well the website developers communicated the project progress and met deadlines.
In the event that the business platform has a solid partner network, carry out background research of the recommended partners. Ideally, a good partner marketplace will offer a selection of agencies as well as examples of previous projects, industries they specialize on, and budget ranges.
The bottom line is that you should reach out to at least two current and former clients to get a clear perspective of what to expect from the selected web development company in Singapore. References who were not contented with the service rendered will warn you before you sign the contract documents.
There are many content management systems (CMS) in the market today. As you evaluate the various web designers in Singapore, consider their expertise in developing websites using your preferred CMS. Most of the website development companies in the country have partner ecosystems that you can use to come up with a list of designers who are properly accredited.
If you are yet to select a CMS, look for a web design company that can guide you through the decision-making process. Your business objective should be factored in during the CMS selection process. Note that some CMS such as Website Tonight, Wix, and Squarespace are template and proprietary based. Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress are open source.
One of the main differences between open source CMS systems and Proprietary CMS systems is that the latter have a simple interface – and this makes them ideal for non-techy users but the customisation options are limited. On the other hand, the open-source CMS systems are completely customisable, and installing new updates is easy.
Another important factor to note about proprietary systems is that you cannot move the website if you are not contented with the services offered by the hosting company. Most web developers in Singapore prefer working with open source systems as they are independent of hosting companies and offer more customisation freedom.
Companies that offer services related to web development in Singapore charge different prices for their services. As you research the industry, get to know the average cost of creating a website in Singapore. Ideally, the cost of a new website design in Singapore is dependent on the project requirements such as number of pages, special functionalities to be added, and intricacy of the design.
Needless to say, a simple website with only 4-5 pages will be cheaper than an e-commerce website that requires hundreds of product pages. The point we are putting across is that your budget should be realistic. Nonetheless, do not sacrifice quality for price.
Some Singapore web design agencies have an in-house team of developers while others outsource the work to individual website developers. It is important to know if your project will be outsourced or worked on by the in-house team before committing yourself.
The main challenge of outsourcing projects is that if something is done wrongly or you need the website updated, you will have to wait for hours for the website developer to rectify it especially if you are in different time zones. To avoid this problem, request to meet the team that will work on the project. Schedule a brainstorming session with them to ensure everyone who will be involved understand the requirements and what you want to achieve at the end of the project.
Can you complete the project within my deadline? Before you sign the contract document, ask the website developer if they are comfortable with the set deadline. If not, set a new deadline and milestones. Agree on when the designer will send project progress update and the number of revisions you can request to avoid challenges down the road.
As mentioned earlier, it is not recommended to use the conventional free website templates and builders if you really want to stand out from the competition. Before hiring one of the web developers in Singapore on your list, ask him or her if he is willing to surrender all intellectual property rights associated with the website to you after completion of the project.
It is important to know this upfront, as not being the sole owner of the website design and codes can hinder you from getting investment capital if you decide to sell your business. Any professional web developer in Singapore will sign over the intellectual property right to you after completing the project. It is a common practice, if they don’t, move on to the next web developer.
Hiring the best web developers in Singapore will give your business a firm footing in the country. Draft a contract document and request the agency to sign it to cushion you from any eventuality.
The most important thing to keep in mind when choosing a web development company is compatibility. The last thing you want to do is to keep changing web development companies. This means that you need to do your due diligence before signing on the dotted line.
Also, these are estimates gleaned from their websites, directories, and other online review sites. If you have updated information please do not hesitate to contact enquiry@mm.com.sg with documented proof.
Finding the right developer for your e-commerce project is complicated, which is why we decided to put together this guide. Go through the list of the best e-commerce developers in Singapore, and use the information we’ve provided to choose which one of them is a good fit for your company.
Web development has come a long way, and it is expected to keep on improving. While building a website from scratch is the proven method of building websites, you need an experienced and professional agency that is known to offer quality web development services in Singapore.
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MediaOne Ecommerce |
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A chance to self-promote without blowing off smoke. We’re one of Singapore’s premier and most trusted ecommerce web development companies. With more than a decade of experience, we’ve had the opportunity to work with so many Fortune 100-plus companies in the country and other parts of the world. Our core speciality is in web design, web development, and digital marketing. |
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Corsiva Lab |
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Design, Develop & Communicate! Founded by two entrepreneurs, Corsiva Lab is Singapore’s very own creative Website & Mobile Apps Development Agency. The team is dedicated to providing strong digital solutions, that uphold their client’s corporate unique brand, all while helping to generate higher sales revenue. Leveraging on the latest web design trends and market insights, they ensure their works stay fresh and innovative to give their client’s businesses the edge. Their quality of work has brought them close to 300 clients to date, including companies like Camel Nuts, Capitaland, NUS, SIM, Far East Organization, Republic Polytechnic, Orchard Central, Loreal, Public Transport Council, and many more. |
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Ixen Interactive |
| Tentang | Ixen Interactive is an award-winning, vision-driven digital agency in Singapore. The agency has been around for more than two decades, during which they’ve managed to help thousands of customers (read: enterprises) gain an edge over their online competition. |
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Skubbs |
| Tentang | Developing an ecommerce website from scratch isn’t a child’s game. But Skubbs long-standing experience with this might leave you thinking otherwise. |
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Closely Coded |
| Tentang | Closely Coded is one of the most decorated web development agencies in Singapore. The company doesn’t just create ecommerce websites; their core speciality is in creating highly personalised ecommerce websites. |
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Amber Creative |
| Tentang | Amber Creative has years of experience in the web development business, which plays right into the experts they’re today. |
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Alpha Web |
| Tentang | Alpha Web is a well-reputed web design and development agency in Singapore. The company prides itself on employing one of the most talented teams of software developers, dedicated to creating stunning and professionally-done websites for every budget. |
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iCreation Lab |
| Tentang | iCreationsLabs don’t consider themselves ordinary in any every sense. They’re more than a creative media. It’s one of the fastest growing hubs for designers, developers, and all kinds of IT professionals. |
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Awebstar Technologies |
| Tentang | Awebstar is rated as one of the best e-commerce developers in Singapore, and with a convincing reason behind this. First, all their web solutions are result-oriented, designed with SEO in mind. They have a team of enthusiastic e-commerce developers that are well known for being consistent with their imaginations. |
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Media Plus Digital |
| Tentang | MediaPlus Digital is a Singapore-based e-commerce company working with different types of businesses, from SMBs to fully-funded start-ups and fortune 500 companies. The company has four core values that it employs on every single one of its projects. The first one is trying to understand the ‘why’ behind every single one of their projects. |
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Web Design Singapore |
| Tentang |
WDS is a one-stop-shop for web design, web development, and online marketing services in Singapore. Over the years, the company has been privileged to work with some of the leading brands in the country and internationally. |
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BThrust |
| Tentang | Provides a wide range of excellent e-commerce solutions to both small and giant retail stores in Singapore. The company is relatively new, but has so far built more than 50 successful e-commerce stores. |
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Innomedia |
| Tentang |
Founded in 2012, Innomedia is one of the leading providers of web development and digital marketing solutions in Singapore. Whether you’re looking for a company to help you with branding or raising awareness, Innomedia has you covered from all angles. |
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Verz Design |
| Tentang | Verz Design is one of the top e-commerce developers in the game, having worked with some of the big names in the industry. They’re based in Singapore, where they specialise in developing all kinds of e-commerce websites. |
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Smmile |
| Tentang | Smmile was established in 2012 and has since been dedicated to empowering businesses with a digital solutions and creative market strategies that generate sales. |
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Efusion |
| Tentang | Efusion is one of the most straightforward and easy to work with marketing and web development firms you’ll ever come across with. They have a simple mission, and that’s to help you increase sales. They do this by helping you come up with a tested strategy to target the right customers. |
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Ipixel |
| Tentang | IPexel is a Singapore-based web design firm consisting of an experienced team of web developers and designers. Their core specialty is website design, website development, and graphic design. |
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Above1 |
| Tentang | Above1 was started in 2006. The primary goal was to empower businesses by helping them establish engaging online experiences through web design, e-commerce development, mobile app development, website maintenance, and SEO. |
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Comnet Solutions |
| Tentang | Comnet didn’t venture into this line of business to play. They’re among the few digital agencies that mean business. That explains why they’re widely ranked as one of the leading providers of digital solutions in Singapore. |
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Webz Fusion |
| Tentang | Webz Fusion is best known for its high-performance digital solutions. It’s almost never a miss with them, having been in the industry for long and experimented with a lot of things. |
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CodiGeeks |
| Tentang | CodiGeeks is billed as a one-stop hub for all of your web and mobile application needs. Their aim is to help you reach your goals. They have a systematic approach that they follow to expose your brand to your target audience, and in a manner that a majority of them will have a hard time resisting. |
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