In today’s market, with sceptical consumers, fast-moving technology and fierce competition there’s a lot to take into account when considering your web design approach. There are a host of issues to be considered including usability and the user experience, information architecture, SEO, call-to-action design, user-journeys, content strategy, mobile & multi-device support, funnels & purchase paths, visitor expectations, interaction design, load speed and accessibility. That’s quite a list.
Most design agencies are perfectly capable of producing great looking work but, unless they really understand the web, they can often consider issues like those above to be boring, technical problems that get in the way of a nice design when they are, in fact, the foundations upon which all effective websites are built. When push comes to shove, your audience will always choose the site that functioned properly, was easy to use and answered their needs over the most beautiful website that didn’t help them. This is why so many of the most “beautiful” looking websites lose customers every day.
Form Follow Function
Aesthetics are important but a specialised web-designer will understand that all online communications are a balance of functionality, requirements & aesthetics; by placing both the visitor & the business objectives at the centre of the design process, specialist web designers can produce usable, functional and effective web presence that will resonate with your visitors. In fact, an experienced web-designer is likely to refuse to start designing anything until the site has, at the very least, had it’s content & functionality wire-framed and mapped out.
Similarly, you shouldn’t let the IT department or head of marketing design it for the same reasons – they are thinking about their goals, not the visitor’s.
But even the most experienced and informed web-designer can only ever give you their best-guess, which is why we recommend (and offer the ability) for you to test designs and user journeys to ensure a high standard of usability, conversion-rates, effective calls to action or any number of other issues…
If you’d like to know more at what the web design & multi-variant testing at Narrative Industries Web Consultancy (previously THBOOM!) can do for your business, get in touch.