Website Design - Archive

8 finishing touches that really matter to your website

It’s probably true to say that anyone can get a website on-line these days. But getting on-line and building an effective and functioning website are not the same thing at all.

Clients frequently come to us with websites that are poorly designed or coded. Even those who have paid a lot of money to have one built.

Here are my top 10 snags…

1. Make your links stand out. If you have a link anywhere on your website (menu or content) it must look and behave like a link. Usually links are underlined but it’s ok also to have them display in a different colour. They absolutely must change colour/behaviour when hovered over.

www.foxhills.co.uk – nice clear links in the text

2. Current page indicators. When moving around a website visitors will not always remember what page they are on. You have to remind them and the best way to do this is by clearly showing them on the menu by highlighting the current page.

www.falklands.gov.fk – Clear page indicators + breadcrumb

3. Using images as links. You must use images as links with caution as they do not help your SEO and are not always great for accessibility. However if you do decide to use one make sure it looks like a link and includes a hover-over image so that it behaves like a link.

image link changes colour & displays description on hover

4. Cross browser testing. This is so often skipped by designers/agencies that are not specialised in website design. It is simply not good enough for your website to look good on your machine – it needs to look good on all machines and that usually means testing in 10 or so different browsers/versions of browsers/devices etc and spending a fair bit of time dealing with browser bugs.

Use software to test your site on different browsers

5. Optimising images. A tell tale sign of an inexperienced designer is a poorly optimised image. This might be an image that is stretched/skewed or massive file size or just really poor quality resolution. Either way poor images will let a website down.

Optimise website images

6. Big banners. I am a fan of big banner images but they must be used correctly. If you make them too high it’s possible that they will get in the way of your content. This is particularly true where the menu is above the banner and the text underneath. On smaller screens the visitor might not see the text change and believe the website to be broken.

Don’t use banners so big you have to scroll to see content

7. Font sizes. By law you need to demonstrate that you have considered accessibility in your website design. Part of this is allowing the website text to be changed in size.

Allow visitors control of font size

8. Layout of pages. Currently there is a massive trend for WordPress websites. I love WordPress and in the hands of an experienced developer it can be used as the foundation of a great website. But so many designers are just plonking in fixed headers and sidebars without care or consideration for the content on the page. Layouts and calls to action need to be worked around the copy and never the other way round.

Arrange your pages around content

For me a great website is all about the finishing touches, the things that you would probably take for granted. A poorly written website will jar with your visitors user experience and will affect your on-line message.

If you have a website that you are not sure stacks up (even if you have only just had it built) ask us for a free review…

Website Design | 19.08.2010 20:10 | 2 Comments

What makes a great website design anyway?

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.

Website Design | 9.06.2010 9:36 | No Comments

Why you need to grow your website along with your business

A few years ago I had a client who wanted to build a fantastic (all singing, all dancing) e-commerce website on the tiniest budget imaginable. Her budget was less than it would costs to exhibit on a stand or print 500 business cards. It was tiny.

We spoke at the time about the challenges such a small investment on the website would bring to her business. The client sells bespoke items worth £100 to £300 a pop and to be totally honest we felt that an investment of 2-3k would be required to allow us the time we needed to do her brand and products justice. This client has a fabulous product, fabulous brand and was so very enthusiastic about making her business a success.

However, the client wanted to go ahead with the small budget package.

But here is the problem. Almost two years down the line this client is still relying on this same low budget website to win her business, and is pushing it beyond its limit:

Adding reams of content to the existing pages. As with many websites there may be a limit to the number of pages your packages allows or the menu may only accommodate finite number of links. Either way it is often the case that should you want to add extra pages to a website that you will need to go back to your developer and ask for some help with setting them up nicely. Clear content will help your visitors find information and search engines find your pages.
Adding a link to a free off site (hosted) blog. Whilst I commend all business owners with active blogs, there is a right way and a wrong way to build them. As you may suspect the free options are not going to give you the true benefits of a properly integrated blog. The free template blogs may be poorly designed and not a true reflection of your brand. Most importantly they will be hosted on a different domain name meaning that your main website will not benefit at all from the keyword rich content. The whole purpose for running a blog would be to help people find you (SEO) and to help sell your products.
Hiring quick and cheap SEO ‘experts’. Many of whom will simply plonk keywords into the footer of a website and not look at the much bigger picture.
Concentrating on SEO goals and neglecting the on-site experience. Getting to the top of Google simply means that more people might find the website – not that more people will buy from you. In isolation the number one spot on google means nothing, zilch. Who cares if you are number one on Google if it does not increase actual sales?
Plonking in twitter feeds all over the place. Twitter is brilliant, I love it, but beware of simply plonking in the free twitter feed code on to your website. Making the extra investment to customise the look and feel of your twitter feed will help your visitors take you more seriously.
Selling different and unrelated products on the same website. If you’re selling or promoting different products then ideally you need different websites. Department stores sell lots of different things. But a small website trying to sell toasters and lawnmowers would benefit from a dedicate website for each. The dedicated site could be much more targeted in terms of marketing, branding and SEO – plus less confusing for visitors!

The end result, in this case, is a bloated website without any clear direction. Visitors will end up confused about what they are looking at and I’m afraid to say that it’s been messed around with so much it even looks a bit broken at this stage.

So what’s the point of this rant? Well two fold really:

Consider the budget for your website seriously, cheap may sound great but it will not reflect well in the long run.
If you do opt for a budget website then grow the website in a thoughtful and planned manor – quick wins will not work.

and rant over!

Website Design | 26.05.2010 13:01 | No Comments

Are you looking for someone to build a website or a team to help your business to succeed online?

The later is much more than simply building a website.

Getting a website online can be a relatively straightforward process: The truth is that given a bit of time most of us could get something up and call it a website. But to get the best out of your website there are so many elements that need to be absolutely spot on.

Your companies brand need to be spot on and documented. I am not just talking logo – you need to have a clear idea about who you are, your USP and your brand.
Market and competitor research. I find it almost impossible to imagine a business that does not set aside time for these activities at least once a year. Knowing what your customers want and what your competitors are offering is essential to being able to pitch the perfect website.
Think about the website goals before even considering the content. Is it your goal to preach to visitors about how long you have been successful in business or do you want to sell something? Do you want signups? Do you want people to call? Do you want people to purchase online? Do you want them to download something?
How do you plan on promoting your website? Your website developer needs to know in advance if you want the website to be found on Google, and if so be prepared to pay extra for keywords research and SEO activities. Alternatively you might be planning on promoting the website through different mediums and simply need the website to act as a brochure site once people are landed. Do not be fooled into thinking that getting a website built and online is all you need to do.
The website copy and calls to action on each page should reflect items 1-4 above. Writing copy is not as easy as you might think, especially if you’ve not written for websites before. Do not expect your first or even third revision to be the final copy. Tweaking the copy for optimum results can be an ongoing activity.
Put together some images, stock or preferably originals – that will help to achieve your goals.

Finally you are ready to start on the website design!

When you are hiring a website designer, ask yourself if you need help with the steps above and if so can they help you with the process? The extra help will cost more, but the results will pay off.

Website Design | 7.04.2010 9:37 | No Comments

How to give your website designer feedback

I believe that creating and building the perfect business website requires a bit of team work. No matter how good your designer, they can only work with the information you provide. A good designer will ask A LOT of questions about your business and the more detail you can provide – the better.

Whilst it is the responsibility of the design team to meet the clients brief, realistically it just won’t happen first time every time.

As a business owner myself, I know how emotive buying a large ticket item like a website can be. However, team work is the key to success and here are some guides as to how to provide feedback.

Providing feedback needs to be goal driven and therefore constructive. Including in your feedback a comment about how your son doing his A Levels could do better is not helpful.
When I was a corporate bod I attended a HR training session, where I was made aware of the notion of a positive sandwich. The rule was that if you have something negative to say you should try and sandwich it between some positive information.
Use a numbered list. A list of things you like, followed by a list of things you don’t like (and to finish on a positive you could include a nice thank you for the work so far!). Numbers are important to help track what points have been completed.
If you are reviewing the very first proposal, do not be disappointed if it looks like a lot of things are wrong. If you are talking about small things like fonts, shades of green, moving things around – then this is a good sign.
Remember it is very easy to “see” the things you don’t like in a design as these will stand out to you. Most probably you won’t even notice the elements that are spot on.
If you have not worked on a website project before, give your designer opportunity to explain their design choices. Website design is very different from print. Colours don’t work in the same way, screen widths are all different, websites will look different on different browsers, there is a limited font selection, text can grow/shrink, SEO – and the list goes on. There may be some valid reasons for some of the design decisions so be prepared for a bit of a learning curve.
Your website is not being designed for you. And this might be a bit of a shock – part of your designers brief will be to create a website that wins you more business. You might want an iPod inspired website – but be prepared to listen to your website designer when they explain that it might not be right for your hairdressing business.
Feedback via email is often the most helpful. Requesting a face to face meeting might help, but nothing can beat written words. An email will provide a detailed list and work as a trail to track requests. Meetings can be time consuming and not always useful. I am sure you have left plenty of meetings before believing that you were all on the same page, only to find out later that you were no further forward. For me the perfect combination is a nice email followed by a call if there are issues to clarify.
Try not to use the word “professional” as part of the brief or critique. The word professional is overused and not at all specific. You may mean corporate, shiny graphics, full featured and we had a client once who used it to mean that his clients would wear ties.
If you have hired a website designer based on the strength of their portfolio, have some faith. If the design you see in front of you does not look like the quality of the portfolio then ask why.
And lastly, do not expect the very first design iteration to be spot on. Our success record is about 80% which means that about 20% of the time we have significant revisions. This is completely fine and just part of the design process. Sometimes the designer will share their ideas with you early on in the process, to clarify colours and layout. At this stage the design can look a bit unpolished and empty.

I think 11 pointers is enough for now (although I can think of more!). In essence, there will always be a bit of team work involved in building a website and providing effective feedback is all part of the process.

Website Design | 26.03.2010 9:32 | No Comments