Simply creating a web presence for your company is easy these days. There are many companies out there offering quick setup, templated websites but for your business to really stand out from your competitors we’d suggest you consider bespoke web design tailored to your company’s needs.
There are various aspects of effective web design and depending on what you would like your website to achieve for your company, this can determine which techniques and features you will need to implement. However, the following tips should always be taken into account when developing a website:
1. Clear Branding
The main thing to consider when designing a website, is to ensure your brand is clear and easy to recognise. I’m sure you’ve spent time to create a consistent brand for your company which is instantly recognisable to your clients and this is something that should be maintained through effective web design.
You may already have some brand guidelines to follow but as a basic rule, you should at least ensure your logo and key messages are prominent when a visitor lands on any page of your website.
2. Consistency
Consistency leads to usability… Visitors like to know where they are within your website and want to be able to find their way to the information they are looking for without any hassle. Keeping your navigation in the same place throughout your website is the easiest way to achieve this and will help to stop your visitors from becoming frustrated and leaving your website too soon.
Keeping consistent branding is also very important. For example. if your typeface or colour scheme randomly change dramatically from page to page, visitors will become disengaged and wonder whether they are still browsing the same website they started on.
3. Consider your Target Audience
When creating copy for your website, it is important to keep your target audience in mind. You may think that you need to portray everything your company can offer instantly, but this can overload your visitor with information and can lead to them feeling lost and losing interest.
You should also consider the jargon you may use. Terms that seem obvious to you, may mean nothing to your customers – it may be best to use laymen’s terms when talking about your product or service. You could also offer a glossary of terms to help explain some of the more technical wording used throughout your website.
4. Simplicity
You website should be quick and easy, good web design will help with this. Visitors won’t stay on your website for long if they can’t find the information they require. They will simply scan through your content and leave if they can’t find what they are looking for.
With this is mind, ensure you have large ‘call to actions’ and don’t be afraid to have white space. This will help attract the visitor eye to the area you want them to see and hopefully lead to them having a happier user experience.
5. Consider All Devices
Effective web design isn’t as simple as it used to be. Before the development of smart phones and tablets, us web designers simply had to create one design and we could be confident that all visitors would have a pleasant user friendly experience whilst browsing the website. However, we now need to consider the various devices and take this in to account during the design phase.
Over recent years Responsive Web Design has become more and more popular, and it the most effective way to ensure a website can be viewed efficently no matter how a visitor decides to view it. Responsive design ensures that the website will adapt to a specific device and ensures the best user experience is always possible.
If you would like to view an example of a responsive website, please click here to visit the Give the Dog a Bone website. To see it in all it’s glory, simply view the website on your laptop and PC and then resize the window to see how the content adapts depending on the screen size.
Thank you for reading our post for ‘5 Tips for Effective Web Design’. I hope I have give you a little insight into what to consider when designing a website. Although, this isn’t something you really need to worry about if you leave it to the experts…
If you are thinking about creating your company a web presence or would like us to redesign your current website, please get in touch today and speak to a member of our team.