Before you jump onboard the website design bandwagon, make sure to take a step back and go through the ABCs of the design process! Here are 5 factors to consider before designing a site.
Audience
Your audience will define the look and feel of your site. Ask yourself if you are targeting a specific group if at all, and what the common traits and characteristics of this group are. Take a look at some of the consumer choices of this target group across industries. What are some of the spots that they frequent and how do these spaces look visually? What are some of the consumer and spending behaviours of your target group, and what motivates that behaviour?
A good example of an overarching characteristic that has defined millennials is the desire for quick rewards early on. In app and gaming designs, achievable upgrades and advancement to higher levels are expedited in early phases of the gameplay in order to hook the target audience. This is a good example of how understanding the intrinsic motivation of your audience can translate into design choices that are catered to your audience.
Budget
Depending on your budget, there are different tools available in the web design market today. The most appealing tier, of course, is one that is completely free. Platforms such as Wix offer a quick wizard approach to web design, where site owners can use an intuitive building-block approach that bypasses the backend coding knowledge that you might otherwise require. Following the no-coding, free tool thread, Google Web Designer also allows site owners to create HTML-5 based designs that are compatible with any device.
If your team has graphic designers, you cannot go wrong by investing in paid options like Photoshop and Illustrator. The ability to take a vector-based approach to design will give you control that you need over branding and marketing collaterals. With coders in your team, premium options like Codestar and Xfive.co are added to your pool. With access to PHP scripts, WordPress and Javascript, speaking in code definitely helps you take it a step further in customising your site.
Competition
As you sketch out the architectural plans to build your site, don’t forget to take a look around at your competition. The nature of your industry and the purpose of your site (e.g. e-commerce, creative content, etc.) will leave broad strokes over your web design that can act as a form of guidance and direction. Doing market research on what works for your competitors, and what can be improved on, can put you ahead of the competition as you build your site from scratch.
Studying competitor websites can give you a good sense of some of the weaknesses in the design that you might be able to overcome. A simple repositioning of functionalities to give added attention – like moving the Shopping Cart to a more visible location – can already improve the user-friendliness of your site over your direct completion. Having said that, revolutionary and transformational design goes beyond simply improving on one’s competitors. The complete reconceptualisation of an industry standard can leave a lasting impression on consumers. As a survey tool, for example, TypeForm displays questions one-by-one as though it is a human interaction, rather than a typical survey form. This creates a much more visual and interactive survey experience that is memorable for both researchers and respondents alike.
Design Language
While it may be convenient to pay someone to build the initial version of your website, it is important that site owners have some basic knowledge of website design language. In the event that there is a glitch in the backend when new elements are introduced, the owners themselves can scan through the template and identify the problem before the website is offline for too long. This shared knowledge is important, especially for start-ups and small businesses who may not yet have the luxury of having specialists in their team.
In a nutshell, the web development languages that entails building the structure of the site include HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP and other programming languages. The intertwining of web development with web design (which includes Photoshop, Illustrator work and design principles) then creates the final output. Understanding the basics of both will give site owners the flexibility to be more specific and directive in the creative process, rather than overly vague and general.
Exposure
At the final stage of the design process, site owners should carefully review the platforms for visibility and exposure of their website. In the vast ocean of web pages, optimising your visibility is an important part of your marketing strategy. With Google as the dominating search engine, striving for good placement in the search engine is a worthwhile investment of time and money. Registering your site through Google Search Console, using keywords in your page titles and meta descriptions and following Google’s SEO guide are just some of the ways that you can keep your website afloat. Remember to take your time to consider the exposure and visibility strategies before your site goes live!
At Krome, we specialise in website design and development services. If you or your client are interested in creating a site, it’s time to tell us about your project or have a chat about what we can do. You can contact us here.