Monday, June 30, 2014

Elements of Web Design Melbourne

You may ask yourself why you should get help updating your current company website? Yes, your current company website looks old and outdated compared to the competition but does a credible, compelling website design really matter? Reluctantly, you find a web design firm to give your firm’s website a facelift, but you are unconvinced that a new design will generate new business. There are a variety of reasons why a well designed website will attract your ideal client. The following highlight key elements that a web designer should keep in mind when designing a website: 
Navigation
An essential part of web design is the navigation. The navigation of a website can make or break a site, which is important for robust websites with many pages. Good navigation should be easy to find and make for quick and easy travel throughout the entire website. A good tip is that your website navigation should be so intuitive that even your grandmother can understand it.
Brand Consistency
If your company has a logo and that logo is utilised frequently in print materials (i.e. business cards, pamphlets, letterheads, etc.), then the logo, logo/brand colours, brand messaging and imagery must be carried over into the web design.
Reading Patterns and SEO
Most people are prefer reading a web page the same way they read a book, from top to bottom, left to right. Web designers should also take this into account when designing for a website. Good web designers make sure to place the most important information on the upper left hand column. This will help get the message across more effectively for website visitors who could be current or potential clients. But what many people do not realise, is that placing important information in these areas of a website also improves search engine optimisation (SEO). When you include important company-related keywords into the html-based text, search engines such as Google and Bing are able to crawl your website easily, increasing your search engine placement and giving your website and firm more overall search visibility.
Content
The content of your site is important. There are other important facts that are considered when a copywriter creates the content and the designer creates the complementary visual environment for the content. Making the message short and to the point, yet warm and welcoming (depending on the industry) helps the reader to easily remember the message. Also, when there is too much text on a page, the page becomes visually cluttered making it more difficult for a user to physically read the page.
For more information on web design Melbourne and online marketing, get in touch with Whiteblack Digital on 1300 559 971 or info@whiteblackdigital.com.au. 

Monday, June 23, 2014

Less Is More In Web Design Melbourne

In recent times, Minimalism has become very popular in web design. Minimalism essentially works on the principle that “less is more”. Websites use far fewer images and text in order to transmit a much more concise message and improve the overall visitor experience.
Using Minimalism, websites should only display information that is necessary and not be cluttered with anything immaterial. The information displayed on the website does not overwhelm or repel visitors and the message/services of the website can be communicated clearly and in a straightforward manner. With a cluttered, busy website users may become frustrated and confused, and consequently have a negative visitor experience, which is likely to reflect badly on the businesses brand identity.
If you are interested in redesigning using a minimalist design, a good rule is to examine your existing website layout and remove elements until you reach a point where, if anything further was removed, the website would no longer function in its intended capacity. You need to think whether each element is vital to the website and if they aren’t, remove those elements or hide them from the first view of the page, perhaps using ‘Show more’ links or light boxes. 
This reduction now means that what is left is now extremely important. Images, font, colours have to be carefully considered to ensure your website successfully communicates its message to the user. Bad decisions in font and colour, as well as spelling mistakes or missing words, must be avoided as they will be much more noticeable with a minimal website design.
With regards to colour, consider using a few pastel colours only on your website, and ensure the colours match and are not too strong. Moreover, using one font only is best, as this will improve your website’s clarity. Be certain the font chosen is clean and readable, as many fonts may look interesting but hinder communication. Lastly, consider the choice of words used carefully. Generally, any text written on your website should be easy to read, unambiguous and potential misinterpretation should be kept to a minimum.
For more information on web design Melbourne and online marketing, get in touch with Whiteblack Digital on 1300 559 971 or info@whiteblackdigital.com.au. 

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Site Goals Count

Every business requires a website and that website has to be designed to make sure that it does what it is supposed to do. There is no reason to build a site if it does not meet its goals. With a well designed website, you have a good chance of attracting the visitors that you are looking for and to get them to do what you want them to do.
The first place to start when you are designing any website is decide on just why you are building that site. Everything else that you do will follow from here. This requires more than a standard answer like you want to increase your sales with your website, you have to know how you plan to do that. Once you know what your foals are, you will be able to design a site that will achieve what you want it to.
Keep in mind when designing your website that in many cases your goals will having competing agendas. For example, you may want to use your website to provide information about your company. However, simultaneously you may also want to make sales directly from your site. This can be a little tricky to do since when you are trying to provide information you want people to stick around and read about your site. However when you are selling online you generally want to steer users to the product they are looking for as fast as possible.
Something else to consider is that your goals and the users goals are the same. If people who are visiting your website are going to it looking for information, you need to make sure that you are providing the information they require. If the visitor gets there and finds a sales page rather than an information page, they are just going to leave and go to another website.
If you find that you are getting visitors who are looking for something that is different from what your site is offering then you have an issue. After all, if the goal of the website is to sell a product, then you really don’t want visitors who are just looking for information, you want visitors who are looking to buy.
The way you design and market your website will have a large impact on who visits your site and how they interact with it. Be sure you get your goals right from the beginning so that your web developers and online marketers work together to achieve your desired outcomes.
For more information on web design Melbourne and online marketing, get in touch with Whiteblack Digital on 1300 559 971 or info@whiteblackdigital.com.au.