We are currently in the process of revamping our own website. We’ve grown hugely over the last few years and need a new website to reflect the types of project that we are currently working on (and would like to have more of!). During my research I have come across a huge range if websites: brilliant, good, bad and ugly.
But what makes a great website anyway? Common factors are as follows
- Content. This has to come first I’m afraid. There is so little point in having a fancy website if the text and images on the pages are not communicating with your target visitor. Cliché I know but, content really is king. If you are forking out a fortune for a new website design, it’s really worth investing also in professional copywriting and photography to have the full effect.
- Features. A brilliant website will include just the right balance of widgets and interactivity. I often come across websites with either too much or too little functionality. Too much? – the estate agent website with a complicated search tool where a simple browse would be perfect to view the 20 or so properties or including a twitter feed which looks ugly and includs celebrity tweets on your website home page. Too little? – not including a newsletter sign up where you’d really like to catch visitor data.
- Usability. Usability relates to the structure of the website. A good website designer (not to be confused with a graphic designer – you can be one or the other) should be able to plan your website before coding up a line of html. The plan includes a break down of all the content and features that need to be included on the website and where they should live. The website designer needs to have a good understanding of digital marketing, your business & customers and web design practices.
- Accessibility. It’s not much good if your new website can’t be found on Google, can’t be seen on a blackberry, struggles to load large images, won’t work on certain monitors, broken in some of the browsers or can’t be printed! Accessibility is about ensuring that as many people as possible can view the website content regardless of equipment and ability.
- Graphic Design. Simply put a website can function without graphic design as long as everything else above is in place (www.wikipedia.org/ for example) . But generally your visitors will enjoy your brilliantly coded and planned content if it’s all brought together with a amazing graphic design
- Growth. Finally your website must grow with you – you’ll need to keep it fresh and up to date on a regular basis. Constantly reviewing content & functionality as you go.
So to get your website great you’ll need a number of experts: web designer, web developer, graphic designer and a project manager to bring them all together. Plus you’ll want them all to work with you as part of your team.
