Designing the Web Page

In our current times, web design is one of the most important aspects of your online presence. Businesses are known to pay so much for web design work on their site.

For the regular guy, it is a bit hard to understand that. We thought a functional website is all that matters, and not much on how it looks.

However, we need to understand why web design is crucial to the success of the site. The highly-paid web designer will try to discover the style of the web design that works for the business.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to pay an exorbitant amount of money for top-tier designers. Rather, you (and your web designer) need to find a style of web design that works for your business.

 

Online business

Today, more and more people opt to do as much business as online as possible. This trend seems to be headed further into the foreseeable future.

When websites were new some years past, having an exceptional-looking site was not nearly as critical as it is today. The main reason seems to be that your site is having a difficult time standing out much anymore because the competition is getting fiercer.

With so many business opportunities online, it is very important that you have your site among these. However, getting it to stand out becomes more difficult as the market gets more crowded.

 

Site designer’s guidelines

If the business is difficult and you think you need to recharge your site and be at par with the most successful ones (or if you are just starting out), you need to have a good site design.

Studies have shown that a well-built website can generate better customer traffic with its improved user interface that can, in turn, generate new business.

There are many reasons why a well-designed website can attract your ideal customer. The following are the five important components that designers refer to when designing a website.

 

Navigation

Designers agree that this is the most important part of a website. Navigation in a website can either make or break it, especially in robust sites with many pages to browse. Typically featuring a navigation bar or some list of labels that differentiate the pages, a website can successfully guide its visitors to places (located in the site pages) they want to go.

As a guideline, good navigation should be easy to discover and understand. This makes for a quick and easy journey within the entire website. This is its main work which is crucial for a site doing online business.

Sometimes, web designers might get carried away with designs and fancy typefaces when designing the navigation within the site. In actual practice, over-simplified navigation is the best option.

The over-simplification makes it so easy for many customers to visit the site. One tip that goes around is that your site’s navigation should be so intuitive your grandmother can understand it and be able to use it.

 

Brand consistency

This consistency of your brand is simply the use of your logo in all of your communications and in all of your ads. If you have your print materials (business cards, billboards, print ads, pamphlets, etc.) sporting your logo, you need that logo in your brand and products which are all on your site.

From a marketing point of view, it is important that your customers recognize your brand in every communication channel and carrier that is associated with your brand.

In cases where the companies change some aspects of their brands, the ensuing results almost always create confusion among the most loyal of fans of that brand. (Case in point is when Coke introduced its new flavor and wanted to change its brand’s classic taste.)

When the brand’s visual communication changes, it can cause uncomfortable feelings for the customers and may cause them to create a negative association with the company. (There was a huge slump in sales for Coke in those times.)

 

Reading patterns / SEO

People are comfortable reading a web page like the way they read a book – from top to bottom and left to right.  Designers take this preference in the direction when they do their designs for a site.

They put the most important information on the upper left-hand column. They also follow the pathway of the eyes when reading. Information placed here is the first words noticed by users and stick better in their brains.

(Other site visitors don’t even bother to read any other texts or notice other things if they are within the path of where the eyes naturally follow.)

Another important fact is that when designers place important information in these areas, they also improve the site’s search engine optimization (SEO). The “crawlers” of search engines (Google, Bing) easily and instantly pick out your site over the others.

This basically increases your company’s visibility online to trigger more visitors and conversions.

 

Content

The content of your site is important because it carries your total communications with your viewers and customers. There are many other considerations in making your readers remember your brand’s position and your promise.

These considerations are referred to when copywriters create content and the designers create complementary visuals for the content. The readers will remember the messages easier when these are short and to the point, yet warm and welcoming.

When the content is streamlined accordingly, the designer is able to insert the text into their design. Included here are plenty of negative (empty space) that allows readers to rest their eyes.

 

Trust

Trust among your customers is another crucial component in site-building. Marketing tactics can act as a dialogue with potential customers, which will be a great way to discover more about your clientele’s needs.

Strengthening dialogue with your customers will allow you to implement what resonates with them in your new design. Making your site more welcoming and trustworthy to visitors will increase your site traffic, improving your chances of more visitors and more business.

All things considered, web design is one of the only areas where you can go above the rest and beyond while making your business appear to be the obvious choice with a gorgeously crafted website.