As a business owner, there will come a time when you realize that you need good website design for your company to be successful.
You may think that any “online presence” will do the trick. But what you really need is a great design that attracts people to your digital storefront. Then clearly shows your potential customers who you and your company are. Recall the last time you were at a mall and think about how each of the storefronts looked. They have glass fronts, open fronts, different interior paint, colorful tile on the façade, multiple colors on the walls, or maybe no color at all. Some stores look like a cabin on the lake or a nightclub or a contemporary art gallery.
Which ones attracted you and why?
The same design considerations of colors, textures, typefaces, images, and organization must be given to your website. A good design will give anyone who visits an instant impression of what values your company has, and in effect, who you are as a company.
Understanding the goals, tone and overall personality of your business will help the designer to translate those factors to your website. It is equally important to create a memorable user experience. In Designing for Emotion, Aarron Walter took Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and translated them into the needs of a web user. Maslow’s original hierarchy of needs is physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem and self-actualization.
Here is Walter’s hierarchy of needs for web users: functional, reliable, usable and pleasurable.
An interface must be functional, or a user won’t spend much time trying to figure out how to complete a task. It also must be reliable; error 404 messages and broken links will turn off visitors and cause them to leave your site. Usability is key. Can visitors easily navigate your site to find what they want? Pleasure is the most important and often missing link from websites. If a website visitor has to learn or struggle to book a flight or make a purchase, their potentially positive experience could end up being a frustrating one.
Web designers have always focused on these principles, but with all of the content floating around out in the interweb, it is crucial to carve out your space and take advantage of the opportunity to personalize that space in a way that effectively represents you and your company, expresses your passion, and caters to the needs of your clientele.
When you are ready to start your new website, if you can appeal to your visitor on a personal, emotional level, they will see a person who shares their passion, feel a connection, and be motivated to work with you. They won’t see simply another website with good information.
Your passion, when focused with a good design, is your connection to people and profits.
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