Archive for September 2011
Website Design – Audience
A good and successful website will have a carefully thought out and planned design that will take into account many different aspects. A key aspect of any Website Design is the target audience. The people who will be using the website must be at the forefront of influencing factors when planning and constructing any Web Design.
The age of the audience is one important factor when considering the Web Design. This will have important implications for not only the aesthetics of the website but also the functional layout. Websites aimed at young children will generally be more colourful, often with a cartoon type style that is also quite simple and easy to use with bolder type faces and shorter sections of text. Designs aimed at predominantly the older user may also wish to have a simpler layout and easy to use functions, although the graphical imaging will likely be plainer or a more professional look than that aimed at children. Audiences that fall in between these two age range will often be more proficient with using the Web and other factors may be more important in terms of the Web Design.
The proficiency of the user to in using websites and the internet will also be a factor. A website that has an audience which is not that proficient in using the internet will need a more simple structure, function and therefore Web Design. If the website requires this audience to use more advanced facilities then a progression will need to be planned out to help their audience develop the skills needed to use the site. An audience with more extensive knowledge of the internet and in using websites will not only be able to use greater functionality, but may also expect and demand it. The Design must therefore take this into account, while a website that caters for both proficient and non-proficient users will have to balance carefully the technical features of the for both audiences.
Familiarity of the audience with the subject matter of the site will not only have an effect on the content but also of the Web Design of the site. More familiar users will often be looking for different information and features than those who are not familiar with the subject matter, and the layout and design structure will need to be different for the two different types of audience. For sites who will have both ‘beginner and ‘advanced’ users will need to have a Design that is clear and simple to understand for beginner users but also has more advanced material that is easily accessible for advanced users.
Rage of audience will also be an important factor in a Website Design. Though many websites will have quite a narrow target audience, many will have multiple audiences that will use the site. The number of different audiences often depends on the purpose of the site and the range of information and services it has to offer. Websites with a narrow audience will usually only require a single Web Design, however larger, more diverse or larger sites with multi-functions and a large range of information may require different Designs for different sections that are specifically adapted to the target audience for that section but maintaining the identity of the website and company.
Website Design – Purpose
The purpose of a website will have a major influence on the Website Design. There are many different types of purpose for a website and it can have one or many of these different types. The purpose or purposes of a site can be grouped into advertising, information provision, socialising, entertainment, business, payment handling and customer support, with each of these having their own influence on the Web Design.
A Web Design that primarily focuses on advertising must be very engaging with the user visually to keep them on the website long enough to translate the advertising message to them. The site must be very clearly defined and easy to understand, with in many cases only a few key messages to get across. Too much is often worse than too little when it comes to a Design for advertising.
Information provision is often the easiest purpose to cater for in terms of Web Design. As long as the information is clear, easy to read and access then the design can be quite flexible to the desires of the company, rather than their needs.
Social networking site will in most cases have very complicated aspect of Web Design. Not only will the site have to be attractive in terms of usability and aesthetics to keep people on the site for longer, but there will also be other factors such as privacy, security and complicated user interaction that need to be carefully integrated.
Entertainment Website Designs can be either quite simple or complex. Websites that simply provide a structure for video or audio files can be quite simple to design an easy to access structure. However, websites that aim to be entertaining themselves, such as gaming websites or other software types, can be more difficult to achieve an effective Design.
For business or corporate websites, the Web Design needs to look professional and convey the unique identity of the company. The design will incorporate the brand of the company, give a clear description of what the company does and also attract new business among its target market. Business websites can be either mainly for promotional, contact and marketing purposes or they can provide useful functions for the operational requirements of the company. A good Website Design will take into account the various requirements of the business to provide the required functionality and maintain a consistent identity for the company.
Websites that require the handling of payments can often require a more complicated structure to the Web Design. In most cases their will be a number of products or services available to customers that need to be set out on the site in a clear way that customers can find easily, as well as make the payment procedure as easy to complete as possible. Effective product placement of other products that customers may be interested in similar to the ones they are currently purchasing is a key and important technique.
Customer support websites can often be easier to produce an effective Web Design for, however they are also slightly different in function. The Website will need to process a large amount of incoming information, rather than outputting information to customers. The ability for customers to effectively and easily contact about and resolve issues they have will be key to the design, as well as the ability of the company to process the support requests of their clients.
Websites that require multi-purposes, some even including all these categories, will often have a much more complicated Web Design than website with only a single purpose. Though the Design may be more complex, the usability of the site will still remain as simple as possible. In fact, this is the main challenge of a website that includes many purposes; integrating all these purposes and functions into the website while at the same time making the site as quick and easy to use as possible for the target audience.
Website Design
The designing of a website involves the combination of individual and collective creativity, latest tools and designs that correspond to the development of a website in a client’s marketplace. In general, most of the websites are designed on the basis of the features an organisation is trying to promote. The role of a designer proves to be crucial here. It may take few hours to develop and design a website. Or, it may months together to design another website. Whatever the website requirements are, a designer should never lose creativity while trying to implement latest tools and innovative concepts for designing a website that is user friendly. Being lost too much into the code can result into a website that looks clutter and over done.
The layout of the website is important first. Taking the concept of web design to an advanced level, most of the contemporary websites are designed according to the products and services that are available. Everything matters in case of a quality website design. The quality of the colours chosen and their combinations chosen are equally important as that of the graphics included. In order to create a small design, a website designer struggles a lot, right from the placement of the image and its appearance. It would take even more time if it involves graphical presentation. Most of the files should be managed in such a way that the fluidity and usability is maintained throughout the website. This is because even slightest changes to the files will impact the appearance of images to a vast extent.
Websites are designed and developed using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) along with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) applications. Web designers have to work in tandem with programmers who are proficient in languages such as PHP,.NET and Java. Keeping track of the database along with the coding is an uphill task. The features involved and the technology implemented will depend a lot on the amount invested in the creation of a website design. The quality of a website reflects the work of a website designer. Experienced web designers will take lesser amount of time without compromising on the quality of work.
The scope of web design is ever increasing as every organisation is in requirement of a website. In addition to this, some organisations are manipulating the existing design of a website according to the changes that have occurred such as addition of new services or removal of outdated services along with the inclusion of latest range of products. Web designs should reflect the intention of a company and the channels it deals with. This is the reason why all the factors like colours, images and graphics, play equal roles in the success or failure of a particular website.
Why is web design so important? The world nowadays is unimaginable without the world wide web, with social networking being a now accepted past time and email being the new way to communicate, the internet would be a less pleasing place without the use of good web design and development. Imagine if Facebook was hard to use, didn’t function properly and was poorly designed, would it have the millions of users it has today? No. If you want to stand out from the crowd you need good design and more importantly good functionality and site navigation. A good web presence for a business is hugely important in today’s business climate, as the internet is here to stay and help us in our day to day lives there has never been a better time to take advantage of the www opportunities that are currently being offered.
If we can help you design and develop your site, please get in touch and we will be happy to assist.
InfoAccords has an excellent team of website design professionals who are experienced enough to design websites of any complexity. We provide end to end solutions from front-end programming to backend programming and maintenance. Our team uses the latest technologies and industry trends to design your websites in order to give your company the edge over your competitors.