Unless you are a DIY web designer, a hands-on coder and skilled website developer, chances are that you’ll depend on others to help you with your next website update project. The problem with most of us “non nerd types”, is that we often assume that website design is an exact science – like math or accounting. It is NOT.
Web site design ideas worth considering
The men and women working at your web designing agency are equal part “scientists” and equal part “artists”. That’s why developing websites is as much a science as it is an art. When you speak with your “artist/scientist” web site design professional therefore, it’s often helpful to talk to them in their “lingo”. Here are a few design considerations that you should discuss with them:
- Talk about defaults: Because many of their clients aren’t too sure of what they want, some web design specialists may just stick with “default settings” in their development environments. But that might not necessarily work for you.
- Ask your designer about customising backgrounds to your website
- Talk to them about changing default fonts, headers and footers for the site
- Discuss changes to other standard settings that are applied to the overall site
While web designing templates can get your site up and running quickly, they can also make the site look indistinguishable from other similar sites. Customising default settings is one way to differentiate your site from the competition.
- Contact details: Typical website designing approaches call for having a dedicated “Contact Us” section on the sites’ navigation panel. That way, if visitors want to reach out to you with a request or comment, they just navigate to that page and send you a message.
However, you might wish to speak to your web designing services provider about the possibility of putting your contact details across more than one page within the site. At minimum, consult with them about having links to the “Contact Us” page accessible throughout the site.
- Design for accessibility: While it is considered best practice to include elements of accessibility in any website design project, some service providers might not necessarily include them unless the client asks for such features.
Having a highly accessible site is great for business. You'll likely have visitors with special needs. Make sure you don't ignore them in your site design. Accessible sites will not only help you draw additional business from a largely underserved visitor base, but they could also improve your brand’s reputation amongst your peer group.
- Ask about multi-media: Your website designer will only deliver what you want – and an attractive website that visitors will want to come to will likely be high up on your list. However, while adding bells and whistles is one way to make the site attractive, another is to deliver a great visitor experience.
Speak with your web design service about including multi-media content on the site. Don’t just stick with great images and graphics. Talk about videos, 3-dimensional presentations and voice clips. Adding these elements can make a powerful impression on visitors.
- Discuss what your competitors are doing: By default, any new web design initiative will involve site designers sitting with the client (you.) to brainstorm your needs. And what better place to start that discussion than by checking out the competition to get inspiration from what they are doing?
Having your website designer look at competing websites could yield several benefits to your own website refresh project. Firstly, it may alert your design team to stay away from undesirable design traits that other competitors may have adopted. But more importantly, it will inspire your web designer to incorporate design features that push your site above and beyond the competitors’ in terms of attracting visitor traffic.
And while these five elements are a great way to start off your next web design project, don’t forget to talk to your web designer about adding frequent updates and diverse content. Visitors love coming to a site that has a fresh new look and feel – but that can ware off after five or ten visits. The best way to keep your visitors coming back for more, is to have your web design agency provide you with fresh new content often.
It’s time to act
If your website hasn’t had a facelift in more than a year, then it’s high time that you spoke with your website designing agency to discuss your next update. But before you start that conversation, make sure you review the five web design ideas we’ve discussed here so you know exactly what you want to accomplish. However, you must keep one fact in mind – They are the experts, so be open to any new suggestions or recommendations they might put forward.
Having an informed dialogue with your web designer about the updates you need will be a win-win: Your team will know exactly what to deliver, and you’ll get exactly what you need.
