Psychology behind design

Designing a website is much more than just making it look attractive. You need to make sure that your design includes everything that your customers will expect to see in a way that encourages them to interact.

Psychology plays a bit part in a website design and it is similar to the psychology that in involved in every sales process. You need to first establish what issue the customer has and then offer a solution. Reading a statement you can relate to will reaffirm that the company understands the problem you currently have. If you are then able to see a solution and the outcome after the solution this again reiterates that this company can help you and provide the product or service that you need.

Adding relevant “Call to Actions’” to your web page are proven to increase customer activity and prompt customers to follow a certain path through the site and the sales process.

Initial stages of web design

When it comes to designing a website you need to consider a few things. How easy will it be for your visitors to interact and navigate round, is it set up to allow it to be optimised and work well on the search engines and does it include all the functionality you require?

Deciding on how to design your website can be tricky, but it is always good to look at a few other websites and get a feel for what works well. You should also check out your competitors sites to see if they are offering anything that you should be too.

Ideally you want your website to match all your other branding, so if you have business cards, signage and leaflets all in different colourways and using different logos then it might be a good time to change them all to match. Once you have a design laid out you can then start to look in to the detail of exactly what information you put on your website.

 

The job of a web designer

Most web designers spend the majority of their time, designing website visuals for clients, but if you are a web designer and fancy a bit more variation then why not also expand your services in to print design work.

Print design work can be a little bit more tedious than website designing and certainly less forgiving. If you design a web page and the colourways are not quite right or there are spelling mistakes, it is very easy to change this and resend out the visual, if you do this in print work you may end up with a very happy client having thousands of leaflets printed that are incorrect. For this reason, print work may require a bit more concentration and practise to ensure that you get it right first time.

Graphic designers who can offer print designs and web design work are often more desirable as many companies would rather use one person for all their design needs.

Fresh content for your website

Having fresh content on your website is vital. The search engines like to see that you are offering your customers up to date information and that your website is not stale (not changing for months / years at a time).

Not only do you need to add fresh content to your website but this content needs to be relevant and unique. You cannot just copy and paste an article from the BBC for example as this can be classed as duplicate content and therefore will be ignored or even get your site blacklisted.

A great way to add new content to your site without cluttering up the design is to add a blog. A blog will allow you to write news articles / useful information on a regular basis, but keeping it out of your main content for the pages that are most important from a user’s point of view.

Running a successful web design company

There are many web design companies out there, so to be able to compete and win clients you need to be offering a high level of service. When it comes to web design and programming, client testimonials are essential. Potential customers want to know that you have a portfolio of clients that are happy with the work you have done for them and may want to see working examples of websites you have created, so adding this as an area on your website should be a high priority.

Many web developers struggle to sell their services often because they do not explain the product / service to the client correctly, so making sure that you know how to speak to clients in a language they understand is vital. When quoting work, don’t be too greedy, if you can undercut competitors you may get the contract and even if you do not make a huge amount of money on the first phase, it may be that you get ongoing work from them afterwards.

Is your website user friendly?

Many companies get a bit carried away with the functionality of their site. They want to ensure that the customer can carry out certain tasks such as using online calculators or creating bespoke quotations, but forget to establish how user friendly the site is.

It can be a great idea to have additional functionality on your site but if it is not easy to use or doesn’t function correctly it can have an adverse effect. Some companies chose not to put too much functionality on their site as they want to be able to get the customer on the phone to really sell what they are offering, so there is a balance and it differs from company to company.

When adding in any new part to a website it is vital to carry out sufficient tests prior to setting it live and it is worth asking a few people to check it rather than just one in case they miss something.

How to check and improve conversion rates – part 2

To find out the conversion rate of your website, you first need to find out how many visitors you have to your site in a set time period. This may require a bit of in depth research as some statistics packages give you different results so you will need to compare them and find to get as accurate result as possible.

Google Analytics is a widely used statistics package which also allows you to set up goals. These goals can be tailored to track conversions in a number of ways such as how many people complete an enquiry form, products bought or added to the basket and even set to show a conversion when someone has been on your site for a number of mins. Using this data will allow you to see your conversion rate and will also allow you to track where a conversion has come from such as an organic search, referral from another website or paid for ad.

 

 

Impact of Product Design Consultancy to your Production

If you have experience in the design and production of new products, you will agree and support the fact that the design phase of any product is usually very challenging plus it is marred by unforeseen additional costs and occasional unavoidable time delays throughout the design phase. As a business person, you will also agree that in order to succeed, it is imperative that you focus the most on what it is that you are able to do the best. One way to do this as far as the creation of new products is concerned is to outsource for design services provided by reliable and experienced specialists. Doing is very important because, apart from simply streamlining your production line (by reducing the challenges and time delays), it also serves as a guarantee for an all important competitive advantage.

One of the most notable impacts of taking advantage of product design consultancy is the fact that it serves as a guarantee to professionally manage the design process making it easier for the rest of the business to focus more on the few activities which it excels in. other notable impacts of product design consultants include the fact that:

i. They significantly reduce the time to market of the product under design
ii. They get rid of the need for several prototypes
iii. Make significant improvements on the actual design of the product
iv. Significantly reduce the manufacturing costs
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