Haywards Heath Website Design: What to Expect in the First Phase of the Design Process

A Website With Broad Appeal

A website can provide a valuable marketing tool which connects you with potential customers who may not have otherwise discovered your business. With a little effort, you can put together a site that is informative, engaging and most importantly, grabs the attention of those browsing the web. This article will discuss the various elements you should incorporate into your initial planning stages in order to develop a website that is as effective as possible.

A Website That Functions On All Phones And Tablets

The first port of call for anyone browsing the web is often their smartphone. With the explosion of mobile devices in recent years, the number of users accessing the internet on the go has increased. This phenomenon, referred to as “mobile internet browsing” or “on-the-go internet usage”, presents a unique challenge for website designers – ensuring that your site is accessible to all users, regardless of whether or not they have a good internet connection or the preferred mobile browser.

Thanks to recent advancements in technology, it is now relatively easy to create a mobile-friendly website. The experts at GoMobile say that in 2020, mobile-friendly design will be required for any site that doesn’t want to risk losing potential customers. When developing your website, bear in mind that not all mobile browsers are created equal – some seem slower than others, which can impact the functionality of your site. For example, compared to the Google Chrome mobile browser, the Apple Safari mobile browser shows significantly reduced performance.

To put your site at risk of falling foul of Google’s mobile-friendly design guidelines, you may want to undertake some of the following changes. Ensure that all the text on your site is equally accessible to users. For example, if you use a call to action (CTA) button to encourage someone to subscribe to your email list or make a purchase, that CTA button should be responsive and work consistently across all mobile browsers.

Accessibility

An incredibly effective technique for grabbing the attention of potential customers is to make your website accessible. It’s a great way to engage with your audience, and having an accessible website is a guaranteed way to gain some extra points in the quest for SEO. To ensure that all those who visit your website can easily navigate their way around it, pay particular attention to the following areas:

• Layout
• Text
• Colour
• Images
• Buttons
• Cards
• Tables
• Forms
• Accessibility

If you are unable to test how your site performs in various browsers and devices, then it’s best to undertake an accessibility audit. This will highlight any areas of your site where issues could arise and allow you to address them. For example, if you find that videos don’t play smoothly in all browsers – even though you’ve implemented the correct HTML and video codes – then you can fix this by making the relevant videos accessible. Doing this may involve a little bit of coding, but it’s nothing that you can’t handle with a little bit of Google-fu.

An issue which can crop up almost anywhere on your site is the layout. You want your site to be easily navigable and the content to be logical and easy to follow. The experts at GoMobile say that a good grasp of CSS (the styling language in which you can define the layout and appearance of your site) is essential. Without it, even the most accessible site can still look like a mess and be difficult to navigate. Thinking about the physical layout of the site (floor space, heading size, column widths, etc.) will also help you to create a better overall impression. Don’t worry too much about the design aesthetic, as this can be adjusted once you’ve launched.

Familiar Design Language

A familiar design language can help to make a massive difference to the overall impression that you give off. If someone is already familiar with your brand, then they will naturally assume that everything else on your site is branded also. After all, you’d use the same language as you do in all your marketing material, wouldn’t you?

This can be a difficult thing to achieve in practice, but it’s definitely something that you can work towards. There are plenty of inexpensive, yet effective, tools online that you can use to create mock ups of your brand’s design language. Having a range of fonts, colours and layouts to choose from allows you to test different combinations and see which ones work best within your design language. If you’re looking for an off-the-shelf solution, then check out the website kits from brands like FontText, GraphicRush or Printful.

Key Performance Indicators

It’s important to monitor the key performance indicators (KPIs) for your site to determine its effectiveness. This doesn’t mean that you need to become a rocket scientist and develop complex KPIs for this stage, but it can certainly help to measure the success of your website. Some examples of KPIs that you can track include:

• User engagement: how engaged are your visitors? Are they interacting with the content or just browsing around?
• Pageviews: how many people are viewing your content?
• Content engagement: are people engaging with the content that you publish?
• Site navigation: how easy is it for people to find what they’re looking for?
• Sessions per user: how many repeat visitors do you have?
• Average time spent per session: how long do people stay on your site once they’ve arrived?
• User flow: how does a user navigate from one area of your site to another?
• Content flow: how does content flow across your site? Are you creating a satisfying experience for your visitors?
• Performance metrics: how are you measuring the performance of your site? Are you using tools like Google Analytics to track website traffic?
• Feedback and reviews: is your site generating positive comments and feedback from users? If so, what are your most popular topics?

As you work on developing your website, you’ll notice that certain elements begin to emerge as important. Take the time to develop a theme for your blog (as discussed in the next section) which will help you to establish a style and format for your website. Once you’ve got a stable foundation in place, feel free to add additional pages to your site as required to meet your growing needs.

Blogs And News

A blog can be a great way to engage with your audience and drive traffic to your site. It’s important to remember that a blog can work for both you and your competitors, so make sure that you establish a reliable source and check for plagiarism. It’s also worth considering what you’ll be using your blog for – whether you’ll simply be using it to keep your audience informed of developments in your business, or if you plan on using it to attract more customers. When establishing your blog, pick a niche that you think will be valuable to your target audience – ideally, this should align with a product or service that your business offers. The greater the alignment, the greater the chance of drawing in relevant audiences.

A blog can engage with your audience on a deeper level than a typical web page due to the availability of interactive elements like sidebars, highlighted content and the like. While the content within these elements may be informative, it’s the interactivity that makes blogs stand out.

Aside from driving traffic to your site, a blog can also function as a news channel for your business. If you want to establish yourself as an authority in your industry, then why not consider launching a blog in the first instance as a content marketing tool to attract potential customers. To make your posts more engaging, why not consider using different media such as images or videos to showcase your expertise? Alternatively, you could interview subject matter experts and key stakeholders in your industry to add further value to your content.

Mobile-First Design

With the explosion of mobile devices and mobile internet usage, it is now more important than ever to create a mobile-friendly website. The experts at GoMobile say that mobile first design will become the standard for all future websites, so you may as well get started now. Developing a mobile-friendly website is relatively simple – just follow a few steps: