When it comes to corporate web design, what is the most important aspect to consider? Is it the overall, immediately apparent design? In truth, all of these will be important, and each will be critical in contributing to the overall success of your website.
When it comes to corporate web design,
what is the most important aspect to consider? Is it the overall, immediately apparent design? Is it the underlying reliability and robustness of the construction of the site? Security? Interactivity? Compatibility? Accessibility?
In truth, all of these will be important, and each will be critical in contributing to the overall success of your website. No individual element of the design should be considered any less important, and no one element considered separately from the others. A good, effective website is one which successfully combines each of these aspects of design in a fluid, cohesive solution.
However, before considering any of these, the one question that needs answered before any other is simply this: why do you want a website? This might seem like a ludicrous question, and painfully apparent without recourse to further discussion. However, it is just this assumption which has been the ultimate downfall for many a business.
If you think your business needs a website because, well - that's just what businesses do, then you're already tramping up the wrong path. Not all businesses do have a website, although certainly the vast majority have got an online presence. However, simply considering that your business needs a corporate website so that it is a fully paid up member of the online business community is a little like saying that you need a peanut vendor on the fourth floor because several other businesses have them. Apparently!
Clearly, the nature of your business will play a large part in determining the real reasons and advantages of having an online presence, but simply having an expensive business card online, containing your logo, slogan and contact details, is hardly likely to be of any benefit. In fact, a poorly designed website that fails to live up to expectation is more likely to cause harm.
A poorly designed, unplanned meandering website with bad coding, lazy graphics and compatibility issues will very likely cause visitors to become disgruntled with your company, and disappointed to the point where they consider going elsewhere. Having no website at all would, in many cases, be preferable to having a poor one.
After all, if your website suggests a sloppy, thoughtless attention to detail, what does that say about your company overall? If it is apparent that you had no real focus, no real understanding of the needs of your customers, or didn't bother to take accessibility requirements into account, you are highly likely to alienate potential customers, particularly those that are internet-savvy.
For this reason, it is important to have a good, clear idea in mind of what you want to achieve with an online presence. This is turn will provide you with the opportunity to consider how this can be achieved through effective corporate web design.
Something worth bearing in mind is that the average website visitor spends about two to three seconds deciding whether to stay on that particular page, or go back to their search results and try another. If you manage to engage their interest for the first two to three seconds, then on average you have a further ten to fifteen seconds to hold their interest enough to encourage them to read your information, and click on a link.
Now when you compare those statistics to any other form of media, you can see just how competitive the world of corporate web design is. If a customer comes wandering into your shop, you might have several minutes to persuade them to buy something. If you're having a television advertisement created, you might have between thirty seconds and three minutes during which you have an almost captive audience.
However, website design needs to make sure that the message and interest is conveyed within an astonishingly small time-frame. For this reason, having a woolly, vague understanding of what your message and purpose is, is certain to guarantee that your visitors perceive this vagueness, and click elsewhere.
Once you know precisely what the purpose of your website is going to be, the next step is to consider the best way of achieving this. If the purpose of your website is to convey to the visitor the quality of your goods, or the efficiency of your service, the reliability of your after sales care or the competitiveness of your prices, you can start to feel the rest of the design process falling within a perceivable focus.
This doesn't mean to say that having decided on the purpose of your business website, the rest of the corporate web design process will be easy. There are a huge number of factors which will need to be considered carefully to ensure that your message is conveyed clearly, effectively and in a way which is accessible to as many visitors as possible. Remember, only about 15% of visitors have no need for any accessibility specialization in order to appreciate your site fully.
