It’s amazing how often we’re asked, “what colors really work for a website?” “what layout is the most effective for retail sales?” “how can I get more traffic for my website?”
Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer for these questions. Much of what works for advertising, design, and website layout is much like what it is for a store; trial and error. We know, theoretically, what people respond to, we know intuitively what people look for on websites, and we know how ease of navigability is important to most online shoppers.
What we don’t know is far more complicated – without the client, we don’t know what feelings you want to convey, we don’t know your audiences’ shopping patterns, we don’t know the complexities of your business.
We start every web design project with a number of questions for the client – the most telling are 3 of your favorite industry site and 3 of your least favorite industry sites. This tells us what the client looks for in a website, what they think their customers look for in a website, and where the client believes is important to their specific industry.
Much of what people look for in a website, more than the colors, has to do with ease of navigation and items of interest – something to keep them coming back to the site – all while balancing the need for customers to easily identify the company.
How do you keep things interesting without losing brand integrity? What can you add to your site that can change regularly – is it retail items, is it event calendars, or is it weather or news updates? Many industries have changing information and connecting with your clients that obviously are interested in the information is important to consider for web design.
Although creating an interactive, attractive, and informative site is the #1 goal for all businesses, it’s important to know that a website is a living thing, it can be changed, updated, and tweaked – if something on the website doesn’t create the interaction you thought it would, be ready to make the changes necessary to receive the interaction you want.
