Web Design for Customers - Jan 2009
Web design Sunshine Coast
At 12website, our focus is to design your web site with your customers in mind. Simply, find out what your customers are looking for and address those needs and or wants. Typically all website visitors comment - "if I can't find what I'm looking for quickly & easily, I'm gone..." Another comment is "Why do business owners make it difficult to contact them?" More on organised web design from February 2007.
If I walk into a new shopping centre, the first thing I do is look for the centre map. Where do I find what I need? According to web design sunshine coast, the same goes for your online presence. Your navigation or links should be very clear in what they offer. In the same analogy as buying a house, your driveway should be inviting & not cluttered with excess information. Just like walking onto a property for the first time, people judge the rest of your home or website by how they are greeted on the approach. Keep it minimal if possible and organise your space. Make it very easy for your visitors to contact you. A good website "stops the tyre kickers", stops the time wasting phone calls and gives your visitors information about the products and or services you sell. More on web site links.
Web design impression
Keeping it simple is a balancing act but necessary. At web design sunshine coast, we tackle this head on and offer this example. Are ticking clocks and calendars useful or are they a waste of space. A list of upcoming events on some websites is a good way to keep customers coming back but a calendar? You may think they look great and while they might, get rid of them. Everyone online has a clock and calendar on their taskbar.
Walking into a property or website should positively land that first impression to your customer. If you walk into the front door and there's an odour or too many vases of fake flowers, you already want to leave. If you arrive on a web page and there's an overwhelming feeling of panic attack, it's time to step back and reevaluate. Pick someone's style you trust and ask them to critique your homepage honestly and brutally as you would your home. Listen to the ideas and criticism. Get a few more opinions and compare them. Look at your header. Is it too large to see content? Do your viewers have to scroll for miles to get to the purpose? Check out our websites - good, bad and ugly from September 2004.
Web design brand
With the Web, you build brands differently to offline media - print & TV. It is less about how a brand looks than how it works. Television has taught us that the brand is visual. Glossy magazines, and to a lesser extent newspapers, reinforce this impression. To be a brand is to have a strong visual image. Marketing and advertising agencies have shaped themselves around this basic premise.
To promote a brand is to promote mood, colour, and feeling. It is also to do it quickly and repeatedly. The short TV ad length has framed a whole way of thinking about and promoting a brand. Many marketers and advertisers think in short, intense bursts. It's all about that wonderful catch-phrase, that compelling image. Successful web brands need to take a very different approach.
A web brand is concerned with helping people do things. It is, first and foremost, functional. Every time a reader succeeds in carrying out a task on the website, the brand's reputation is enhanced. Every time a reader is frustrated by the website, the brand's reputation is diminished. The very tools and approaches that make marketers and advertisers a success offline are often drawbacks on the Web. The compelling image is slow to download and frustrates the impatient scan reader. The catch-phrase is of little use to a reader who is hungry for more information. On your website, you brand with your words. You brand with accurate, well-written, up-to-date content. You brand with your classification. You brand with your navigation. You brand with your search process. You brand with your purchase process.
The new and strategic role of branding has remoulded the concept of branding. Today, brand building no longer constitutes a mere manipulation of the consumer's perceptions and desires, but it is a creation of a system that on the one-hand makes promises and arouses anticipations, while on the other-hand it delivers and realises the promises that it makes. More on web design brand.
Web design colour
Selecting the perfect colours is the same for your website customers. You want your home and site to be a relaxing oasis and have a welcoming feel. Visitors will likely stay longer if they feel comfortable. Stay away from too many combinations as it becomes too busy. Your call to action and award winning article will be swallowed in the over abundance of colours. You're selling your site to your viewer. You may even be selling a product or service. While online, you can't sell face to face so the next impression are the colours that hit your readers upon entry.
There have been many studies relating to what colours mean to people. We take this with "a grain of salt" and suggest your colours should blend well with your logo!
Depending on your site's subject, your personality or the personalities you're trying to attract, here are standard colours, what they're associated with and what type of psychological emotion they invoke in people:
PURPLE - feminine, luxurious, eccentric, royal, dreamy.
BLUE - success, sincerity, trust, professional, power, truth, respect, seriousness.
ORANGE - cheap, young, vacation, comedy, celebrating, fun.
WHITE - safe, simple, clean, conservative, inhibition, innocent, pure.
PINK - teen, youth, party, fun, baby, maternal, feminine, soft, sweet.
GREEN - eco, outdoors, money, winning, animals, life, serene, global, political, healing.
BLACK - attitude, seriousness, negative, dark, gloomy, cover up, secret.
BROWN - earthy, homey, eco, nature, simple, safe, emotional, warm.
YELLOW - loud, action, seasonal, youth, fun, questioning.
GREY - business, safe, calm, trustworthy, neutral, reserved.
RED - bold, loud, statement, call to action, attention, adventure, definite, passionate, danger.
Attention to detail or "the devil is in the detail". More on Web Design Details from May 2004.
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Disclaimer
12website.com has prepared the supplied information as a voluntary service to the online community. The information is necessarily web design and small business in nature and is not intended to be relied upon other than as general background material. This should not be used as specific advice, recommendations or guidance, and specialist assistance should be sought by anyone in need of such help. 12website.com accepts no liability under any circumstances for any loss, expense, damages or costs whether direct or indirect (including loss of profits / damage to business) which may be incurred by any person as a result of relying on or using in whole or in part any of the supplied information.