Every day we go online and view different websites, it might be Facebook, Twitter or just doing some online shopping. Our world is completely digital and it has never been as easy as it is now to create your own website. However, just because anyone can create a website does not mean that it will be designed well. A crucial element of any website is it’s design. There is so much that goes into a good website design, a lot more than you would think!
Why does good web design matter?
The main and probably most important reason for a good website design is the first impression. Website users stay on a website for an average of 10-20 seconds (Neilson Norman Group). That is not a long time to make a good and lasting impression, which will lead to the website user staying on your site longer and potentially converting page views into sales. A badly designed website gives a bad impression and makes your company or brand look very unprofessional, this is not what you want. As soon as someone sees a site that looks unprofessional they begin to question the validity of the brand and will leave your site and continue your search. Remember your website is your shop front, it is the only thing your customers have to judge the quality of your products. If you owned a physical shop you would not have it messy, unattractive and difficult to walk through. It would be clean, easy to find products and make a good impression on customers.
Functionality and design
Functionality and design work together. The way a website works needs to be taken into consideration when in the design process. Part of the design process includes the navigation of the website. Having a website that is easy to navigate is so important. If someone cannot easily find what they are looking for on your site, it will be a lot easier for them to go back to Google and continue their search elsewhere; rather than spending ages trying to find what they are after on your website. The purpose of your website also needs to be taken into consideration when designing. If the main purpose of a site is to provide information it will be designed completely differently to a website that has the main purpose of generating sales. This is why Colour Media has asks you to provide us with as much information as possible during the consultation stages of a web design project. This is so we can create a design that is perfectly suited to the purpose of the website.
Below is an infographic we designed outlining some of the most important reasons to have a website.
