In the early days of the internet I recall a customer asking me what we are now working on and I said we are learning to make websites to which he asked “FrontPage?” as if suggesting that knowledge of FrontPage would automatically qualify for the design of a website.
While the world has progressed substantially since that point of time when the internet was in its infancy, even today there is a large population of users who believe that the tools involved are adequate for good web design and communication. Knowledge of HTML, Dreamweaver or FTP is rated as key skills to have a good website online. While there is some truth in the fact that programming is the platform over which the internet runs, the key to a successful website is really in its business proposal, communication format and visual appeal. To market, promote and sell on the internet you first need to understand who your audience is, what you would like to communicate with them, the products and services that you are selling and what words and visuals are going to get them excited about them. Once these are done, you can then turn them over to someone who can write these into images and HTML code that form the web pages.
Web design is both an art and a science. It is an art because the website needs to look good and holistically present a visually appealing picture to the user who will then be more in tune with your communication and therefore a lot more receptive. Websites need to be works of art that convey the passion, commitment and energy that the company or individual is putting into the communication for the internet reader.
Web design is also a science because it is part of the structured methodology of marketing, promotion, sales and advertising. It is structured, scientific in its format and operations and detailed in its intricacies and nuances. It is only when you understand web design from its art and science perspectives that you can absorb the vast potential that the medium has for individuals and businesses who want to communicate, promote and sell their ideas and products to the world-wide audience that is likely to throng the website.
Good web design sells and needs a balanced and holistic approach. Since the internet is digital and computer dependent, you certainly need good programmers who can optimally programme the web pages and structure them to be fast and error free. However that is really the last step in the web design cycle.
First you need to understand the business, products and services and how you would like to communicate them. You also need to know who your audience is going to be and how they like to read about companies, products and services on the internet. To understand this further you will need to go over the websites of your competition or those that are in a similar business. Once you have all this information you should be able to distil them into a concept of how you would like to communicate, the format and style, the themes and moods and the specific language that you would like to include in the website.
The most important page on the website is the home page that is the first page the user gets to when they visit your website. The home page must be inviting, appealing and inspiring. If not, the reader will simply close the window and the website with it or reach for the address bar and type in the name of the next website that they would like to visit or use the back to go back to the referring page that directed them to your website. This is the bounce rate for the website and an indicator or how appealing and interesting your website is to the reader. This of course assumes that all the visitors who land at your website will be looking for the profile of company and products and services as yours but this will be simplistic. A large proportion of bounce will be because people who are looking for other content and information land on your website unintentionally and as this is not really what they are interested in looking at, when they realize this, they quickly exist. These people are anyway not your intended readers and should be left out of the bounce analysis. However a very high bounce will indicate that you are somehow attracting the wrong profile of visitors or those that come to your home page are not sufficiently enthused to delve further into your website.
Therefore you need to pay special attention to the real estate that you have on your home page that is limited as the top portion of the page that is visible without scrolling must be first laid out and designed well and then you get to the portion below that needs a scroll. Your home page must distil and summarize the content of your website and all your communication and lead to the content within. Your home page is where your art and science of communication begin.
Once you have a home page that you believe speaks for what you would like to address your reader audience as your elevator pitch, the inside pages are the details that you will further elaborate on with regard to your company, products and services. The designs of these pages follow from your home page and must maintain continuity and consistency with the overall theme and layout of the website but can have individual elements that stand out and distinguish themselves.
Website content must be written well and is the purview of writers, copy writers and journalists though if you write well, you can well try your hand at communication. The communication must be elegant, simple and evocative to get the reader interested.
The design must be simple, attractive, pleasing and balanced to have the reader comforted and invited into the theme and mood that you would like to unfold to discuss your business, products and services.
Think of the visual design as the interiors of your home or office or a restaurant that is designed to bring in a specific mood and climate and the content as your speech that you would like to render to introduce, promote and market your products and services and your business proposals.
Web design is exciting and one that needs passion and energy. Think of it as both an art and science. Get into it as an artist will with a canvas or a poet will with a piece of writing. Then apply to these your science of marketing, communication, promotion, advertising and sales pitches and you have a potent web design that is likely to succeed with your audience.
