We are in the digital age and your website is normally the first point of contact between your business and your customers. Your website plays a crucial role in shaping users’ first perceptions of your company/business.
Here are some points as to why good web design is essential for your company and your customers.
User Experience
A well designed website enhances the user experience by making it easy for visitors to navigate to their desired goals and also view and scan information. An intuitive navigation, clear, clutter free layout and fast loading times all help to build a positive experience for the user – helping them achieve their goals with ease and giving a good reflection on your company too.
Credibility and trust
A well thought out and professionally designed website helps users trust you and your company – it adds to your company’s overall credibility. When users engage with your website and have to input sensitive information such as passwords and bank details etc they want to know that they are safe to do so, building this sense of trust through your website is crucial for them to continue using your website. Incorporating social proof elements like customer testimonials and reviews can also help reinforce the credibility of your site. High quality content that is written well and is informative and transparent also builds trust with your users. A credible website can help catapult your company into the digital sphere and make your brand/company even stronger than before.
SEO
In this era of digital dominance, the significance of SEO cannot be overstated. Search engines act as gateways to information and solutions, making it crucial for websites to be SEO-friendly. Such websites are not just visually pleasing but are strategically crafted to appeal to search engine algorithms, drawing in potential visitors. This intricate balance of artistic design and technical expertise forms the cornerstone of a website’s capacity to ascend search engine rankings and capture the interest of its desired audience.
Why some designs fall short
Not all websites succeed in achieving what they set out to.
Here are some reasons why certain designs miss the mark and how here at Carbon we don’t fall into the pitfalls:
Lack of clear purpose or goals on the site
A website should have a clear goal or purpose. It should be designed in such a way that the user can intuitively get to those goals without much thinking time. At Carbon we help identify your core audience and also those audiences goals when on your website – knowing these two things can help us then identify your audience’s user journeys and we can start mapping out how to structure the website to cater for these different user needs.
Poor navigation on your site
Complex navigation structures and confusing menus can lead to frustration for many users. It can make it very hard to find what they are looking for especially when information is hidden within pages. We can help you cull any dead pages from your website, help you prioritise information and structure your website in a way that is more intuitive. At the start of a project we will work with you to create a visual sitemap that will show you visually how your website structure will look from the top down – this way you will be able to see all the pages you have selected as priority where they sit in the sitemap and the pages under these .
Slow loading times
The digital world is fast paced and your website needs to keep up. Users expect websites to load quickly. Slow loading times on a website can lead to high bounce rates with the user leaving your site. in fact, A one-second delay in page loading makes page views drop by 11% and one in four visitors would abandon a website if it takes more than four seconds to load.
We tackle this at Carbon by making sure that we optimise our images for the web so they are web friendly size files, we optimise our code using conditional statements to make sure that we only output the code that needs to be shown. Having a good server is a top priority for any sites that will be used by many visitors. Shared server resources can be used by other sites on that server that can slow your website down. We utilise caching on our servers and make sure that we only enqueue files as and when they are required, for example, we wouldn’t output code for an image carousel if that module doesn’t exist on the page.
Inconsistent designs
To create a professional and cohesive looking website there needs to be consistency. Inconsistent design elements on a site like multiple different fonts, colours that aren’t on brand, clashing colours and poor layout can really undermine your value as a company and make you look unprofessional and therefore untrustworthy.
When planning the design stage we will check your branding colours for accessibility and if not up to web accessibility standards offer you close alternatives – we will mock up a moodboard with colours and typeface choices if you are looking for a complete rebrand and once decided on these have these to hand at all times to make surer the following designed pages follow this brand style .
In conclusion
Great web design is more than just aesthetics; it’s about creating an intuitive, enjoyable and easy experience for users whilst also communicating your brand message and goals. By prioritising goals, user experience and accessibility we can help you drive engagement and conversions on your website.
