Your website is like the business card of yore. In the pre-internet age when you met someone they would ask you for your business card to look you up when needed. Now a days all that one wants is your website URL, since your website will have all of your contact details and more. And what initially attracts people to your website is the web design.
Your website’s design should be attractive and it should reflect positively on your brand. The colours you choose, the fonts, the layout of the different elements and of course the images you select will all have a great impact on what your website portrays and how well it engages with your users. For example, Ecommerce websites differ from membership sites and the different audiences and goals will impact the site design and layout. All this needs to be taken into account when creating your website. A professional web design agency like Pedalo will be able to design and develop your website taking all of these factors (and more) into account.
Professional website designers will first ask you about your product, service or organization. They will understand what you do and who your target audience is. Based on this information they will create designs that suit your business. Most professional agencies will not only create an appealing web design, they will also create a web design that has a clear user interface. User experience is very important for creating an effective website. Your site visitors should be able to move from one part of the website to another seamlessly and this will be built into the website layout and design by a professional web designer.
The website design and development processes go hand in hand. There should be a dialogue between designer and developer to ensure that the designs being created can later be developed smoothly. Any difficulties or discrepancies can be easily sorted out during the design phase, whereas once the design phase has been completed and signed off, it will be more difficult (and costly) to make changes. When designer and developer work closely together, the best results can be achieved, and the resulting website will be both visually appealing and excellent in terms of performance.
Web design trends are ever changing and now the latest trend in web design is the card design or grid design. Designers are now turning to displaying content in grid form, making it easy for the user to scan the content and decide what to read next. Adding engaging images makes the design more visually more appealing and easier for the user to scan quickly. Nowadays designers also need to ensure that their designs are responsive (mobile friendly). Mobile friendly websites are a must these days, because more and more people are using their smart phones to make purchases and decisions online, on the go. Google also uses mobile friendliness as a ranking indicator so mobile friendly sites will show up before non friendly sites on search results.
These are just a few of the countless factors to take into account when creating a web design. Catching your users’ attention is the first step to a successful website, and creating a truly stunning design that stands out in a crowd is the way to get visitors who land on your site interested in reading on. From that moment, having interesting and relevant content, a great user experience and well thought out user journey will ensure your users remain on your site and return to visit again and again.