What Does Your Website Design Say About You?
By simply browsing a website you can discover a lot of things about the individual or group behind it, their approach and their goals. You might be spending a lot of money on advertising and marketing, but if your site doesn’t reflect who you really are, you won’t get your message across at all. Did you choose the right design for your site? To find out, answer the questions below.
Is your design focused on the content or on the graphics?
A site focused on the content – whether this be articles, images, or videos, or all of them combined – doesn’t need an elaborate web design to communicate effectively to the audience. A clean, professional look may be all you need. Online publications have sites focused on the content. A site focused on the graphics, on the other hand, provides an experience. Event, travel, lifestyle, religious, and commercial sites are usually focused on the experience more than other websites.
Is your design simple or complex?
Minimalist as well as elaborate sites can both convey a message effectively. A clean design with few high quality graphic elements, a good use of colour and fonts is simple and to the point. A complex design with a tricky menu, many sections and interaction areas, a huge range of colours and textures can be exciting and impressive when done well but it’s not right for every target market. A simple, clean web design may fit a legal firm perfectly, but it might not be vibrant enough for a clothing store for teenagers.
Are you trying to sell something or to develop a relationship?
A site can be purely informative, providing resources that visitors can browse at their leisure when they need them and then leave. But most of the time sites encourage visitors to interact, whether it be in the form of comments, feedback, registration, social sharing, or a purchase. When a call to action is present, it must be obvious on the homepage as well as on all the other important pages of the site, and the whole design has to be built around it. Regardless of the purpose of your site, social media integration in the form of sharing and liking buttons is almost always recommended.
