Website Design – The Three Most Important Elements
When it comes to website design, there are three very important elements that must influence the process of developing a site which can be viewed on the Internet.
1. Customer Satisfaction.
Although this should be common sense customer satisfaction does not always take a front row seat in the priority department for many agencies. It seems that in the era of our fast paced society a lack of customer satisfaction is the status quo. Companies often rush from completing one job to the next and in the process they somehow skip steps, miss promised timelines, or fail to meet agreed upon priorities. Which comes to my next point.
2. Listening to the Customer’s Needs
The old adage that the customer is always right has been somewhat lost. Clients generally have an idea of what they want to achieve with their websites. Usually, for businesses, it is to bring in new business or increased revenue. What they often do not know; however, is how to accomplish this online in the form of their website. This should not really be a surprise, because often this is not an area of expertise for many entrepreneurs or company executives. This also does not mean that the web development firm hired to complete the website should just run ahead without consulting the client on their needs.
It takes a practiced skill to help the client identify what they want to accomplish online and what the look and feel of the website should be. This initial groundwork will certainly go a long way in understanding the overall goal of the site, and how to best achieve this within best design and development practice.
3. The Ability to Communicate with the Client
This skill of helping the client identify what they want to accomplish online can be best identified as communication. It is the process of exchanging information through various means to accomplish an understanding or shared meaning of ideas. The ability to do this well only comes with skill and practice. A good analogy of this process would be the traveller looking for directions in a foreign place using a different language. The traveller is like the website design firm looking for directions from the local: the client. Like the local who may or may not know the directions, the client may or may not know what they are looking for in their website. A good project manager in the web design firm will use all their skills to gather the information, and help the client along in their journey of conveying what they want in their website.
These skills may include interpersonal projection, asking for clarification, using probing questions to seek further details, and evaluating and explaining the process thoroughly. The client needs to know sooner than later what is possible with the budget specified, and how modifications during the website design process can increase the cost to develop the website.
Although there are many other elements that contribute to excellent website design, web designers or their project managers must be able to provide these three main aspects for the web design project to be on a successful track.
Website Design – Keep It Simple
The design of a website plays one of the most important parts in the success of any website, as the design is what makes the website visually appealing. A professional design is much more attractive than one that is simple slapped together by a web designer trying to make a quick buck, and it is essential that your website is professionally designed and professional developed to ensure that it is as successful as possible.
5 Reasons to Hire a Professional to Do Your Website Design
Professional website design is important, for a number of reasons. Below you will find the five main reasons that having a professional design your website is so essential. It may be a good deal more expensive than simply purchasing a Wordpress or Joomla template, but you will find that it will be well worth it to have a template and theme that is all your own.
1. Professional Standard. The best designers know how to create professional designs using programs like Photoshop or Corel Draw, and these website designs are much more professional looking than a simple template or theme. The professional standard of design will be well worth the cost, as your website will look and feel much more professional once the designer has finished with it.
2. Unique Design. The most important thing to keep in mind when creating your own website is that it must be unique and stand out from the other websites on the internet, and that is where a web designer comes in handy. Having a web designer create a theme for your website will ensure that it is 100% original, as the theme will be created just for you. Your unique website will stand out from the rest and will make your website memorable and attractive.
3. Personalized Theme. The theme of your website should be personalized according to the concept and purpose of your website, and most of the templates you can purchase simply won’t serve your purposes. There may be one or two that will fit, but the majority of the templates simply won’t have what you are looking for. With a web designer, however, you can have him create a website that is built just for you, your product or service, and your target audience.
4. Ease of Use. The best websites should be easy for visitors to use, and one way of making the website easy to use is by making the navigation system simple. There are a dozen other simple principles of web design that will make a website more effective, and these principles should be adhered to when the site is created. Thanks to the many years of experience under the belt of the web designer, it will be much easier for them to complete your website and make it easy to use.
5. Visually Appealing. The most important element of a website is its appeal, and web designers will help you to make your website at attractive and visually pleasing as possible in order to capture the attention of your visitors.
Website Design – Top 5 Website Design Mistakes to Avoid
No matter whether you are using a free website design template and builder or a custom made solution, you are not protected from making mistakes during the customization process. Here are the most common ones you should avoid at all costs.
Having bright pastel background colors is a serious web design mistake that can cost you a significant reduction in conversion rates. These colors make the pages look attractive, but they can be quite annoying to look at. Such colors make reading as well as looking at the screen harder and unpleasant. Hence, you should never use them. Rely on paler colors that make the text easy to read.
A text that is hard to read is perhaps the most serious mistake you can make. Even though a picture can say a thousand words, most people prefer to verify this with something written. It is best to have black text on a white background. Do not use strange artistic fonts. Make sure the font size is large enough to be convenient to users. Even if you are running an online store, try to make the written content on ever page at least 250 words.
Having an unclear layout is another serious mistake. No matter whether you are using a free website design template or a custom made design, you have to make sure that all sections are arranged in the appropriate way for your visitors to use. In general, a page layout of a restaurant website is very different from the one of a sports site, for instance. That is why you have to try to see the big picture from the perspective of your site’s visitors to determine the best positions of all elements.
Having poor, unclear and/or confusing navigation can also ruin your site. It is best to have a menu, perhaps a drop down menu, if you want to save space, on the right or left hand side of every page. It is also a good idea to interlink the pages of your site. This aids users as well as search engine optimization. If your users need to follow a special path, you have to make it absolutely clear to them. Provide straightforward instructions, if necessary.
Having external links that take your visitor to another site in the same window is a huge mistake. Even if you are an affiliate marketer, it is best to have all external links opening new windows. It is also important for you to mark these links in a different way, so that the user knows they are taken to a different site.
Now you know how to avoid these website design mistakes.