The quality of a website can be defined in a number of different ways. When thinking about quality website design, obviously appearance is a primary factor. People are more drawn to visually attractive website design. However, there are other factors that need to be considered when looking at the quality of a website.
Some of the most important factors include user friendliness and navigation, design, business logic, engineering, compatibility and how search engine friendly the website is. While many businesses believe that return on investment to also be a factor defining website quality, it is more based on external factors, including other marketing efforts and the price of the provided goods and/or services.
1. User friendliness: It is extremely important. A quality website should take a visitor on a tour, starting from explaining / demonstrating the product or service, then through offering more information about it, showing more pictures, data… and then leading into purchasing the product or contacting the website owner for more information, appointment,… Good design makes a website easy to navigate. The way in which the website takes its visitors through the full path from first visiting through purchasing a product or service, learning about the company, or just getting the contact details of that business, is very essential. Items that contribute to the overall user friendliness of a website include professionalism, how clean the page layouts are, legible content, clear navigation, and easy-to-understand instructions.
2. The design of any website is very important. Nowadays, a website gets from 3 to 6 seconds to catch it’s viewer attention before he or she decides to move on. The website needs to be appealing but also informative. First, it should have enough images/graphics to tell the viewer right away what this website is about and communicate it clearly. Second, it should have enough of the valuable content so if the visitor decides to read, he can get enough information on this website without going somewhere else. Good, quality website design has the right balance of “entertainment” and “informational content”.
3. Business logic is another vital defining quality. The website design and the code need to function properly between the two. What differs the quality website – its efficiency – so that the future updates and additions, including logic, database integrations, and visual components become easy achievable.
4. Strong website engineering begins with necessary planning on how exactly the website will be constructed and how all the moving parts and features will fit together to create a seamless website design. Proper website design architecture, therefore, is required to accommodate all website necessities to guarantee flexibility, structural stability, security, and meet all performance demands both in the short term and long term. Very often clients tend to say “Let’s have these pages for now and later we can either move them over somewhere or add more pages…” It is very difficult and sometimes frustrating to redo the structure of the website. It’s easy to move one sub-menu page, let’s say “cream” from category “pharmacy” under category “beauty products.” But it could be difficult to change the structure or logic of the website altogether. It is a good idea to draw a simple map of the website first asking a client to determine main blocks of the website or main menu options that he would like to have.
5. Compatibility. Another modern necessity for a website is that it needs to work for all computer operating systems, such as Windows and Apple, and commonly used web browsers, including Internet Explorer (with different versions), Mozilla, Safari and Google Chrome. Now, with the increasing popularity and technological innovations of the smart phone, mobile website design is just as important. Efficient website design, no matter how it is being viewed, needs to communicate directly with the visitor to brand and assist in achieving all the objectives and goals set up by the website.
6. Navigation:Possibly the most important part of a website is the navigation. The navigation of a website can make or break a site, which is especially true for robust websites with many pages. Website navigation typically includes a navigation bar or list of labels that differentiate the pages of the website. Good navigation should be easy to find and comprehend – making for quick and easy travel throughout the entire website. When designing navigation, web designers sometimes get carried away with designs and fancy typefaces. In most cases, over-simplified navigation maximizes ease of use for a wider range of customers. A good tip is that your firm’s website navigation should be so intuitive even your grandmother can understand it.
7. Brand Consistency:
If your company has a logo and that logo is utilized frequently in print materials (i.e. business cards, pamphlets, letterheads, etc.), then the logo, logo/brand colors, brand messaging and imagery used for print must be carried over into the website design. It is important for your customers to be able to recognize your brand in all forms of communication so they associate your brand position and promise with your business. Often when the visual communication changes with a brand, it can cause customers to feel uncomfortable, which can cause them to create a negative association with your company.
8. Reading Patterns and SEO:
Most people are comfortable reading a web page the same way they read a book, from top to bottom, left to right. Web designers also take this into account when designing for a website. Many 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 customers. But what many people do not know is that placing important information in these areas of a website also improves search engine optimization (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 visibility.
9.Content:
The content of your site is important for reasons besides the fact that it literally communicates your company’s brand position and promise. There are other very important elements 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 remember the message easier. Also, when there is too much text on a page, the page becomes visually cluttered making it more difficult for a reader to physically read the page, let alone remain interested in reading the page. By streamlining the content, the designer is then able to insert the text into their design, which typically includes plenty of negative space. This empty space lets the reader’s eyes rest so they do not tire of reading.
10. Trust
Building trust among your customers is extremely important, but will not happen unless you really get to know them and what they value. Marketing tactics can act as a dialogue with potential customers, which will be a great way to discover more about your clientele’s needs. By strengthening dialogue with customers, you can implement what positively resonates with them in your new design. By making your website look more welcoming and trustworthy to visitors, you will see the traffic to your website increase, and an improvement in new business leads through website conversion.
The Internet can be a scary place for people who are more accustomed to doing business face-to-face. It can bring back haunting scenes from the movie “The Matrix”, which might be great for certain industries. Most businesses though are looking for something more welcoming than a confusing labyrinth of letters and numbers. Website design is a great way to create a user-friendly environment where people come for helpful tips and best practices. If a website is designed and managed properly, customers will continuously return to your site and do business with your company.
We at Progressio take care of these factors and effectively design a perfect website which shall be in allign with your business and shall create an everlasting impact on your customers converting them into leads. Already have an old website ?, Dont worry we also redesign your websites look and feel. Contact us now on how we can help redign your website. Book an free Appointment Here.
