Web Design

Optimising your three second chance at fame

First impressions count on the Internet just like they do in real life with one major exception – on the net you only have three seconds to both "say the right thing" and look like you know what you're talking about. Readers will initially judge your website based on its ability to...

• Portray professionalism through design
• Confirm that your subject matter is related to their recent search
• Easily determine the next step towards their goal

IPO Digital Design specialise in award winning designs - visual layouts that are both functional and appealing. Considerable research on Internet behaviour over the last two decades has helped designers to understand exactly what readers are looking for and how best to present that information to them.

A successful design is a blend of many elements - usability, fashion, functionality, existing branding and client preferences – and it takes a skilled designer to create the perfect design first time.

Whether you're rebranding or starting from scratch, IPO Digital Design can liaise with you to achieve the perfect website design for both your needs and the requirements of your customers.

Select either the "background" tab above to learn more about effective website design, or the "Techniques" tab to see how IPO Digital evaluates your needs and those of your customers. Optionally you can choose any of the services IPO Digital Design offers by selecting the appropriate option in the "Services" menu, or see past success examples in the Portfolio.

Background

The first thing that people ask for when having a new website created, or an existing one remodelled, is for a ‘professional’ design – so let's break that down into exactly what it is that constitutes a professional design. There are four main parts to a design that when combined create professionalism...

• Fashion
• Usability
• Functionality
• Creativity

Fashion: The Internet boardwalk

Website designs, just like high quality shoes or dresses, carry with them the charisma and the pitfalls of popularity trends. Their visual layout, the code written to produce them, and the functionality used, all provide an historical indication of their creation date. An experienced designer can tell when a site was built simply by looking at it and knowing when those techniques were popular. Coding and visual styles come and go based on what the perceived leaders in that particular industry are doing with their own sites – as an example let's use toy stores. If a client wants a website to sell toys they usually refer to the top toy stores online as a guide for what constitutes 'professionalism' (toysrus, etoys, bigbadtoystore). For this reason (copying the general style of the leaders) we see all industries creating similar styles of website, and this in turn acts as confirmation to site visitors that they have arrived at a professional site because they come across the same 'look and feel' when researching sites on a particular topic.

So does this mean that your new website should look just like your opposition? Not at all – every website design should carry with it a uniqueness that identifies your business, but its design should be restrained by current trends in your industry that define an industry leader. Sometimes breaking away and pioneering a different style is required, but it carries with it the possibility that site visitors will lose that initial 'recognition'.

Fashion is always moving and so are design trends, which is why I recommend a redesign every two years. Big corporations that invest millions into their online marketing are constantly analysing the effectiveness of subtle changes to their sites and it pays to re-evaluate any design after a period of time to make sure that it matches current research on 'what works' online.

Usability: Getting around logically

Usability is the name given to the study of how predictable your website is to navigate and how 'comfortable' your site makes people feel. The easiest way to visualise the concept is to imagine that every visitor to your site is giving it a grading based on their experience. They start out with a blank scorecard of zero and then either add or subtract points based on how many barriers your site creates between them and the information they seek. The average site visitor ('reader') has limited patience and lots of other site choices – so you only have a limited amount of time in which to help them to find what they want or they will choose the next option in their search results. This is the reason why 'splash pages' (annoying animated intro pages) are no longer popular – they were interpreted as a barrier.

A professional designer is fully aware of known behaviour barriers and will create a website navigation and site structure that actually helps readers to achieve their goal rapidly. If your website has ecommerce capabilities then it becomes even more imperative that the readers scorecard is in the positive since you intend asking them for their hard earned money – and that requires 'trust'. Online trust is the goal of usability and is achieved by a mixture of logical flow paths through the site, recognisable naming of buttons and links, helpful layout (placing required options in obvious positions when needed), giving the reader the impression of 'control' over their experience by making things happen as they expect, and making sure that the website answers every question or concern they may have (see my tutorial on ecommerce usabilty for more extensive information).

Functionality: Bells and whistles

One of the first things I do before a new client meeting is to research what their opposition is doing online for their own customers. Readers may like visually appealing websites, but they will choose a competitors site if it has some functionality that they find useful. This could be an online 'wizard' that walks them through a difficult task, advanced search, helpful animations, the ability to subscribe to changing news – anything that they perceive as a useful feature. For this reason, a professional website needs to not only look great but it also needs to have the same, or better, functionality as comparable sites within the industry.

Adding functionality to a website can require custom programming, and normally you would have to approach a web development studio that included programmers, project managers and designers to achieve your goals, but with IPO Digital Design you get all of the functionality you require within the one person – saving you both money and the chance of goals being lost in translation between team members.

Creativity: Memorable uniqueness

As mentioned above, your new design is defined by familiarity, functionality, and usability, yet there is still room in there for the creation of a unique design that enforces your existing branding. Those restrictions only exist to define the 'what' and the 'where' of web page elements but not the 'look and feel' of the page. Professional web design is the art of merging a memorable visual experience with a helpful usability experience.

Effective web design is not an online version of existing print marketing because readers react differently online, but there should be a branding synergy between them (colours, logos, and some layout elements). The purpose of most printed material is to create emotive interest and this will often drive traffic to the website for more detailed information so it is imperative that there are visual similarities - but only the initial 'home' page should contain text of an emotive nature.

IPO Digital Design specialise in the creation of designs that build trust through positive user experiences and are memorable for their visual appeal. By combining my extensive experience in usability and award winning design I can build a website that not only looks amazing but is truly an effective tool in reaching your predetermined goals.

Techniques

Research

Knowledge is power, and every successful web based project must begin with research. There are many questions that need addressing before a truly effective design can be started.

• What is the subject matter?
• Is there enough information to create an in-depth website on the topic?
• What will this website bring to the Internet that is unique?
• Who are the perceived audience and what are they looking for?
• What tools or added functionality would help them find what they need?
• What are opposition companies doing online (don't sell yourself short)?
• What website designs does the client find appealing – and why?
• Can the project be broken down into stages to reduce initial investment?
• How will the client’s current business benefit from a website – will there be integration and commitment?

Usage Flow

Once those objectives have been defined, the process of constructing effective site pathways can begin (this is an outline of how a reader can get from one point in the website to another – and this will decide how helpful and easy-to-use your website will become). Once completed, we then have a clearer idea of just what elements need to be present on which pages and this will in turn define the space available for visual design.

Design

A layered Adobe Photoshop image is crafted that combines the clients preferences, the required page elements, current online leader ‘fashion’ for that industry (see 'background'), aspects of existing branding, and a unique blend of visual layout techniques and knowledge of colour harmony. This image file is then presented to you for refinement and approval.

Coding

The layered concept is then surgically cut up and mathematically described using the latest coding standards approved by the W3C (the Internet standards authority). These standards ensure maximum lifetime for the code and cross-browser visual compatibility. Comprehensive testing is undertaken to enable the design to be precisely replicated across the greatest possible audience of customers.