Think about the last time you went into a building. Whether it was the grocery store, a shopping mall or a gas station, the structure and its contents made you feel a certain way. Hopefully, it was a good feeling and it made you want to return to that place. This is what great design should do—give people a satisfying, positive feeling that will bring them back to use your services or buy your product(s) again.
Since having an online presence is vital to a company’s success, it’s crucial to have a web design that draws your target market in and makes them want to return time and again. How does a company achieve this? It’s actually pretty simple:
Be intentional.
Did you know every item you see in a restaurant is intentional? Each table, chair, wall painting; even the size and color of plates used are intentional decisions made by restaurant designers, with the main goal of satisfying customers so they will return. In order for a company to be successful, this value should carry over to their web design. Whether your company has a physical location or just an online presence, your website should be intentionally designed to be a clear representation of your company.
In other words, your website should clearly convey your company’s purpose. Say you’re searching online for a local day spa, but the first one you click on has a busy, neon-colored website with blinking images. This would not give you the relaxed feeling you’re looking for in a spa, so you’ll likely move on to the next result. A day spa should have a neutral-colored website with calm images that invoke a relaxed feeling when viewing. Much like the website of an amusement park would be expected to have a brightly-colored website with flashy, fun images. They want viewers to get an excited feeling that makes them want to visit their physical location. When you design intentionally, you are showing consumers exactly what your company is all about and what you have to offer, thus eliminating any confusion or guess work.
Make it easy on them.
Steve Jobs said, “Design is not just what it looks and feels like. Design is how it works.”
Few things are more frustrating than going to a website and getting little to none of the information you’re looking for. What’s even worse is receiving error messages, under construction alerts, multiple ads or pop-ups. Consumers should be able to easily gain information about your company and the services or products you offer from your website. If they have to go through multiple steps, decline offers or close out of ads, they’re likely to leave your site and go to a competitor’s. People like to spend as little time as possible searching for products and information, so make it easy for them to get what they need from you. There are several ways to do this:
- Use an easily readable font size and color
- Use large buttons with clear directions (i.e., shop NOW to contact us)
- Limit ads and pop ups. Taking up too much page space with ads takes away from your company’s message and creates a chaotic and confusing design.
- If e-commerce, limit the checkout process to three clicks. Multiple clicks makes for a complicated and time-consuming transaction, which is a turn off to consumers.
- Pages should be formatted for mobile devices and should be uniform across the board. Your clients or customers want to be able to access your website at their convenience on a variety of devices and you risk losing their business if this isn’t possible.
Make it easy on you.
Although making it easy for consumers to use your website is important, it should also be easy for your company to do so. Using a web-based content management system (CMS) is the best way to achieve this. We recommend our own Webvis CMS , which gives you the freedom to update your website at your convenience. Keeping your content fresh is imperative to your search engine ranking, which is what drives traffic and, in turn, customers to your website. With Webvis CMS, images and content can be added or removed at any time, from any location. How’s that for easy?
Want to learn more?
Visit our Webvis CMS website or contact myheartcreative, an Oklahoma web design studio, for more information or to schedule a consultation.
