The holidays are almost upon us, so what better time to tune up your website design and marketing than the present? Speaking of presents, here are three things you can and should do to make sure you get the most bang for your buck when you start on your next website design project:
1. Consider your audience
It still amazes me when a client insists on a design that’s more fluff and corporate ego stroking than useful or entertaining to its customers. The worst of this phenomenon includes things like animated splash pages, spinning corporate logos, bizarre navigation interfaces, and so on.
It should be simple, and it may seem obvious but so many businesses don’t spend any time at all considering their audience. Please, before you spend any time working up designs, or anything really, think about who’s going to be using your website.
Good website design helps you tell your story in a way that connects with the people you’re trying to reach. Good website design is audience-centric, which is not necessarily the same thing as please-the-CEO-centric. Unless you have a really smart, savvy CEO who totally gets website design. In which case, please call us- we’d love you as a client!
I know we say this a lot on our website, but it needs to be repeated: your business’ website truly is the cheapest, most effective way of sharing your story with the world. Don’t blow it by forgetting your audience.
2. Be honest and have a point of view
The best website designs are seductive in their apparent simplicity, in message and design. Simple is harder than complicated. Simple and honest design requires that you get to the heart of the matter. That means answers to some tough questions. Who are you? What’s your business like? What does your product or service do, and what is your brand about? Good design is clean, well-defined, and honest. Good design is not cluttered and messy.
Good design also doesn’t try to be everything to everyone. A good website design has a strong point of view and doesn’t come off like something cobbled together by a brain dead committee full of disparate interests and requirements. Again, your website is your chance to tell your story. Too many cooks spoil the pot, etc. Don’t be like that. I’m not kidding. Sure, it’s not easy to create a great corporate website when you have so many different interests competing and a committee to answer to. But it’s very possible, we do it every day. Yes, it’s hard. If it was easy, everybody’d be doing it. Be strong!
3. Use web standards
OK, this one’s a bit more techie. Sorry, but it’s really important: use web standards. The great thing about websites that are developed using web standards is they’re modular, easily updated, and viewable on the highest number of computers and mobile devices (like the iPhone). When you want to make minor tweaks (or even major ones) to your website’s look and feel, you can more easily do this with web standards based websites, because by using web standards you separate the design of the site from the content of the site.
If your website is all-Flash, you messed up. Don’t get me wrong, we love Flash. It’s great for cool interactive features like our 360 degree virtual reality tours. It’s awesome for video, like we have on our homepage. Flash is an amazing application. But when you let a website design company put your entire website into Flash, you’re making a real mistake because in most cases full-Flash websites become ghost town websites. Yes, there are certain ways to create Flash websites that make them visible to search engines to a degree, and there are ways to use CMS tools like MODx to make Flash websites easier to update. But 99.9% of all full-Flash websites are a complete waste of money for the company who paid for it.
The difference between a successful website and a failure often makes the difference between a successful or unsuccessful business these days. Your website is how most of your customers or clients find you, and most people visit a business online before deciding to do business with them in the “real world”. That’s why it’s so important to get your website right, the first time.
I hope these tips help you as you plan your next website design project. Happy Holidays!
