Author: designgenies

Originally created nearly a decade earlier for the military, the public version of the World Wide Web is approaching its 30th birthday. Much has changed since those first years back in the early 1990’s. Back then surfing the web was a rather simplistic action with most web surfing consisting of going to one page of text after another. All that has changed with today’s web experience being a highly interactive one with web pages becoming more and denser with information, advertisements and a multitude of other items. The basic web pages of decades ago are rarely seen today.

Today’s Technology

Currently, when conducting web searches or visiting websites, the user is bombarded with a variety of interactive high-tech invitations. Everything including videos, offers to join sites, invitations to chat with experts about various topics, etc. The market is flooded with advertisements hoping to drag the user to another page or location. This call for heavy use during browsing consumes a large amount of extra power. Most of do not realize how much energy is used just to refresh their homepage on Facebook or Twitter. With so many different software programs, invitations, pictures and pieces of information about fellow users reloading after every click it can quickly add up to a lot after a day of computer use for even one person. Now multiply that amount of usage by billions and there is a clear advantage to designing more simplistic greener websites.

Changing Trends

Many sites in operation today are striving to use less power and provide a simpler experience for users. This “less is more” way of designing is beginning to catch on worldwide. The famous Low-Tech Magazine has a new site that is solar powered. It actually goes offline if there is no sunlight to generate power for the system. Over a decade ago most people were only online for a few hours a day using a desktop computer. The computer itself used more energy however the short length of time it was powered up is what made all the difference. Today it’s a different situation entirely. Our desktops, laptops, iPad’s and cell phones are constantly on, connected and even sometimes charging. Most users are online 24/7.

Déjà vu

Rethinking web design is beginning to catch on across our planet. Everywhere, increasingly more green sites are beginning to pop up. These websites are a very close cousin to the sites of the 1990’s. Everything is held to a basic setup where delivering the information remains the priority. These sites typically only have only about ten pages or less that make up the entire website. There are very few or no pop-up ads, advertisements, chat-bots, Facebook links etc. Most often one or two tabs are all that is needed for a fulfilling session of web use.

A recent poll showed that the average person entirely recharges their cell phone or iPad two or more times a day. The idea is that by rethinking their methods for using the web, everyone can save power and leave a noticeably smaller carbon footprint on our planet.

The look of a corporation’s website is an essential part of them doing business on a day to day basis. The website that has a unique and eye-catching appearance will go a lot further in getting a customer to become a repeat customer and to help and attract new customers into your business. For a business that is new to the world of web design, they may not realize that there is a lot of consideration that needs to be addressed in putting together a winning website. There are several elements that should be included in order to ensure that you are making a website that will catch a person’s attention from the minute that they arrive at your site to do business with you. So what are a few of the things that you need to make sure that you keep in mind when you are going to set up your corporate website?

Have a Vision That Will Reflect What You Want Your Website to Look Like

The biggest issue that many people will suffer from is that they lack a vision for what they want their website to look like. They just assume that the site will come together as they sit there working with the various elements. The truth is that you need to have an idea as to what you are wanting your site to look like, so you can avoid a lot of the confusion that often tends to affect a person looking to build their website. Take a look at other websites that are in the same field that you are in and find a site that you like and use that as your inspiration for what your site will look like. This will be one of the best pieces of advice that you can get when you begin the process of building your corporate website. The next section will discuss the actual design of the site.

Make the Design as Simple as Possible

The design of the website needs to be as simple as possible. It will be tempting to want to take and add a lot of complex elements to the site, but this can actually hurt you when a customer comes to look at your website. The less clutter and complexity that your site has then the better received that your site will be. Don’t add a lot of pictures and animations that will tend to slow down your site when it is loading. Keep it simple and keep the frills to a minimum. The rules of the new era mean that there need to be fewer elements and more information towards your business. The last thing that you want is for your website to be so complex that your customers seem to get lost in all of the needless information that will be on your site. The next section will cover the purpose of your website.

Be Clear About Your Website Goals and Services

There is a lot of people that when they go to design their website will make some very rookie mistakes in the fact that they will not be clear as to what their goals and services that are offered are. These people get so caught up in trying to make their site pretty that they bury their goals and services and the customers are thus lost as to what the exact nature of the website really is. Make sure that when you go to design the site you put in a dedicated section the services that you offer for the company. It is also a good idea that you make sure that you put a section on it as to what your company does and a little of the history. This will go a long way on giving your customers a clearer picture of your company.

These days hiring the right web designer for the job can prove to be somewhat complicated. There are a wide variety of different strategies and tactics that go into designing every webpage. With the ever-increasing technological advancements concerning website production and publishing, web designers must stay up to date with all the latest trends and technology in order to give customers what they demand.

Price

So how much does a web designer cost? The answer to that question is a variable one. There is a different budget for everything from a simple website for a small business all the way up to a huge, high-tech website full of elaborate features designed for a large corporation. Let’s begin with the lowest cost design.

Small Private Online Business

For $500 or less any business can get a website designed that will cover the basics for a small business. In most instances this will be a very simple site typically not consisting of more than 5-10 different pages. It will likely have a home page, product or services page, company profile page, and a contact information page. There may be few other related pages also included like a place to leave your own info or comments. A site like this is for very small businesses who really only need an online location to provide simple information about the company and point web users toward their physical location with a need for only the basics of web exposure. Businesses wanting this type of site do most of their business at their physical location.

Small Size Retail Business

For $500-$1,000 a business can get a website with anywhere from ten to twenty five pages including some basic applications integrated into appropriate pages and the usual basic contact and profile page setup. There are usually also pages for representing a small number of products or services available .A site like this is typical among small businesses and startups that want a bit more publicity and are placing more focus on attracting visitors with hope of transforming them into customers.

Medium Size Business

Available for around $1,000-$3,000, any medium size business or organization can have a site professionally designed for increasing web exposure and boosting sales. More advanced operations like tracking sales and quality e-commerce can be obtained in this price range. There are more options for both the owner and customer. The type of design will also have the option of more advanced order placement and processing, content management system and some basic social media integration.

Large Retail Business

For large business, the $3,000-$15,000 level will deliver considerably better features like anytime live chat with customer service, advanced social media integration, order management and a delivery tracking system which allows customers to easily go to the site for finding information about the location of their package is in transit and when it will arrive. This is a great feature for avoiding any worry or confusion about a missing or lost item during delivery.

State of the art features like these allow high end sites to stand out from the rest when it comes to popularity and customer satisfaction.

They say first impressions are everything. Being the initial observation of someone or something, first impressions do seem to have a lasting effect. In our present day, electronic commerce is essential for the survival of most businesses. With the online business world, every detail of a webpage is important for making a positive impression on the customer. Creating that positive experience has a big influence upon the user, often determining if they will purchase anything or become a frequent visitor. If the first impression is a good one they may even tell their friends and family about the website bringing even more potential customers. A quality website that allows users to navigate smoothly and easily find what they are looking for will allow any site to stand out above the ordinary.

Homepage

An intriguing yet tidy homepage can do wonders for captivating visitors. Having a good layout with enough variety to grab the interest of the user without yet without overdoing it can make all the difference. Visitors want to see something that shows them they will quickly find what they seek without wasting time doing a lot of searching and navigating. If a page is cluttered with distractions like too many targets, pictures, advertisements, it will typically make a bad first impression causing a negative reaction with most visitors. Often this will cause them to leave and never come back. They say the first 8 seconds are considered the best opportunity for winning someone over as a return visitor. Therefore the home page of any website must be outstanding.

Variety with Organization

Be sure to have a clean and organized landing page that clearly places the product or service for sale as the main focus. It is also important not to publish a half-baked home page. If visitors arrive and find it just does not have much to show in variety or answers to their concerns they will likely leave and never come back. A healthy balance is the key. Having enough variety combined with an organized layout is key to helping consumers find what they want and find it quickly. No one wants to spend extra time navigating around a cluttered site full of a lot of advertisements and information that has no connection to their interest.

Detail

Having a page with enough good info to grab the interest of the user without overdoing it is important. Add to that some of the finer details that are somewhat cryptic in nature. These are some of the items which make a page more attractive yet in a subtle way. Having a site with straight borders and everything aligned in a vertical or horizontal row makes it easier on the eyes. Again, we want to keep everything tidy without making it too formal to the point it becomes boring or systematic in nature. Also having bright attractive colors on every page throughout the website without making the pages look chaotic is essential. Good bright uniform colors will add to the attractiveness of any page. Never forget that implementing large, colorful, easy to read type for titles, headers and URL’s will make everything easier for visitors to quickly discover which direction to go for finding what they seek.

Content

When most visitors arrive at a webpage they begin scanning various items of interest reading only short sentences or headings in search of pieces of information they find interesting and related to their search. The easier everything is to read the better the impression your site will have on the visitor. The best approach is to have the content divided up into a series of blocks or short descriptions. This works best when each block represents a different category and has a URL attached leading the user to a different location within the website.

In our modern high-tech world, everyone wants fast results. Delivering a simple and effective method to help visitors quickly achieve the goal of finding what they want should be the mission of any web design agency.

There are a lot of companies out there that are in huge need for a professional website to be developed for them. The development of this website will go a long way in helping a company to feel like they are playing with the big boys in regards to business. The following bits of advice will go a long way in helping you to go from being a small fish in a big pond to be a big shark in a large ocean. So let us take a look at a few of the things that you need to make sure that you keep in mind to designing a winning website.

Online Lets You Be Bigger Than Life

No matter if you are a large company or just a home-based business, the image that your website promotes will make all of the difference in the world as to how the world will look at you. If you have a professional looking site, then you will have a bigger chance that you will be presented with a lot bigger business opportunities as opposed to if your site is just a basic thrown together site. Take the time to hire a professional company and allow them to put your site together as the money you spend will be well worth it.

Value is King

The amount of money that you throw into a website will have a direct result on the amount of return that you will get from the site. In other words, if you have a site that is professionally put together, the return will be a lot higher than if you put one together for yourself to save a few dollars. Put in the money to get a well-designed site as it will pay off for a very long time and you will get your investment back very fast. Don’t let money affect your decision about the company you use for your website design.

Customer Service is King

Finding a company that has outstanding customer service is a super thing that you need to make sure that you keep in mind. There are a lot of companies out there that offer excellent design services but drop the ball when it comes to customer service for all of your technical issues. Talk to the company and see what type of customer service that they offer and make sure that you are comfortable with the amount and quality of customer service that you will have to depend on.

Look to the Companies References

A company that has a large number of references will be preferred over one that has very few testimonials it is advised that these companies be chosen over those that claim that they have the best services and yet nothing to back it up. Talk to your friends and other people in the business field and see what they suggest in regards to what company will be best for you.

Price Needs to be Right

The amount you will pay for your site design will make a large impact on which companies you will decide to use sometimes even though a company has the best quality, does not mean that they have the best price for your wallet. A little price comparison will go a long way in helping you to make your decision as to who will be your website designer.

When speaking of web development, anyone in the industry can tell you that one thing is for sure and that is things are constantly changing. Nothing ever stays the same because user expectations are always being refined due to our ever-changing world. This is even truer today with the internet allowing daily interaction of different cultures from opposite ends of the earth which was never before possible. It is important therefore constantly update content to keep it interesting and educational with current trends in the web industry. Content should be easily accessible from various devices and in real time. To succeed in this modern, “immediate results” driven society, web designers must keep up with the latest trends. Integrating current user demands is a vital component for success. Let’s take a look at some of the more important trends to keep up with concerning growth and progress of the World Wide Web.

Advanced Web Apps

The appearance and implementation of newer and more advanced web applications is a large factor in web development industry changes. Software and computer companies are constantly releasing newer and more advanced applications for using computers, web devices and cell phones. Today the race is on to develop more progressive web apps with the capabilities like super-fast load times, the ability to work offline, better reliability and the potential to receive notifications anytime. These increasingly popular progressive web apps are faster and simpler to use which is a big plus for both the website owner and visitor. Web design agencies must stay up to date with this ever-changing way of using today’s technology for surfing the internet.

Single-Page Websites

One-page websites are growing in popularity worldwide. These easy to use sites are changing everything in the industry. Navigating is made simple with the ability to see everything simply by scrolling. There is no need to search for menus or select the correct target for moving on to the next page to continue. Instead, you can select a link to move further down to the desired section of the same page rather than waiting for the time it takes to load another page. These sites are a big time saver for surfers which is what makes them more in demand than ever. The idea of one-page sites seems to be most popular with mobile devices like iPads, tablet devices and cell phones where scrolling seems to be the fastest and easiest function.

Photos

Photo content is another important part of designing a quality website. As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words. The demand for photos for making an impression on users is nothing new. However, creating sites that portray high-quality photos on a single page is a newer method. It is important to have proper placement of photos where the intended message is conveyed without using too much space or creating an obstruction that could cause difficulty in navigating the site. Communicating the intended message related to the picture is the objective.

Chat-Bots

More and more the use of chat-bots is being implemented everywhere into website navigation. A chat-bot is basically a computer software program that is meant to take the place of a person delivering live customer service to website visitors. The positive aspect is that it allows them to always have someone, in this case, a computer program minding the store or site at all times 24/7, every day of the year. The idea is that having someone, anyone, there to answer questions or communicate with a visitor from customer service is better than having the user give up and leave. While this type of app still has room for growth it does already have some impressive functions that are successfully pleasing users. Currently, chat-bots are useful for directing users to the correct page or related site, answering common questions and even assisting with completing transactions. The growth and popularity of these chat-bots will likely increase as users become more accustomed to them.

Unfortunately today, some web agencies do not make industry standards a priority. Web designers should closely follow professional guidelines when working on projects. The rules by which web design agencies play for creating quality projects is crucial. After all, creating a delightful and influential user experience in this constantly changing industry should be the ultimate goal for any web designer.