key point to any web design

There are many things that you can do to make the user experience more bearable for your user, the list is endless and you could spend days, weeks, months or years trying to make the best, but then at the end of it all newer technologies have been released. In this article we discuss four of the most important key points in web design.

Identify yourself

Your company logo should always be included in a prominent position within the design of your website. The standard for logo position is the top left hand corner, it is not a must to follow this rule, but it is the first place a new visitor will look when they quickly glance over a page trying to identify the site they are on.

Many small to medium sized businesses have spent many years offline, building up a strong relationship with their customers and are known as a respected business within their industry, online anyone can set up a website fairly easily, so to set yourself apart from everyone else, you need to carry across the strong brand image built up offline, to the online environment. Making sure your logo is well placed, of good quality and well sized, can ensure that as visitors discover your site, they can recognise the standard they have come to expect from you or your business.

Having your logo displayed on every page is also something that should be considered a must, if for example the logo was to be included only on the homepage, it would be missed if a visitor finds your site via a Search Engine and lands on a page deep within your site.

If your website has a custom web design rather than a standard template design, having the design compliment the logo is always a positive thing, a well designed logo can allow a website designer to design the entire site to fit in with the brand image you are aiming to portray.

Quick tip: Have your logo a clickable link back to the homepage of your website, this is again seen as a bit of a standard within the web design arena and is expected by many visitors. Not only does it act as a navigation aid, it also acts as a safety net in that the visitor always knows that if they get lost within your website, they can always hit the “reset” button and start again from the beginning by simply giving your logo a click.

Emphasise Security

One of the major concerns when it comes to e-commerce is security for potential customers. Making sure payment and customer details are taken securely is a must for any online shop. Many hosted ecommerce solutions will take care of the security systems, ensuring you meet the security requirements of payment processors, but if you don’t actually make they customer aware of this fact, how are they to know their details are safe?

We recommend that as part of any website design, including the payment logos within a side element, or footer of the design would be a good idea. Including something as simple as the payment card logos can increase the confidence a visitor has in your online shop, therefore making them more likely to purchase from your online store.

To increase this level of confidence, a well designed element emphasising that the customer’s payment will be accepted securely, generally showing the payment methods you accept along with a padlock image.

Payment gateways such as Protx and PayPal have their own collections of logos available to use for this purpose. They tend to include the logo of the payment gateway and the payment types available through this gateway.

Display Contact Details

Making sure your contact details are correct and visible on your website can make or break the result of a visitor’s decision. If your site is an online shop, having your contact details in a prominent position inspires confidence to a potential customer, even if they don’t plan to give you a call, they will feel safe in the knowledge that if anything where to go wrong, or the delivery/dispatch time frame outlined on the website was missed they can instantly get in touch with you.

An email is the least that should be available, but a phone number is also highly recommended. As mentioned above, if the customer knows they can pick up the phone and speak to somebody regarding any issues, they are much more likely to order from your online shop. If your website is to promote you or your business, then one of the major reasons for the visit to your site could be to get in touch with you, so again having your contact details in a prominent position would be worthwhile.

When having a new custom website design done, we recommend placing your contact details within the header of the design, this ensures it appears on all pages of your web site and is a visible position which any visitors can see fairly easily. The contact details need not just be plain boring text within the header of your site. The details can be designed to fit in with the rest of the site, through the use of imagery, icons and colour, this element of your site can be styled to fit in well with the rest of your website design.

If you have a contact us page, consider having multiple methods of contact on the page, a great way of ensuring customers act while they have your products/services fresh on their mind is to have a contact form on your contact page. This means the customer has to take little further action other than populate the form and click submit. Having just an email address on display runs the risk of a customer thinking they will email you later, but then never getting round to it. If you do use a contact form, it is advisable to also include other methods of contact such as a telephone number and email address, as sometimes a form can be seen as a little face-less, where as an email address is a solid point of contact the visitor can use at any time.

Use Quality Images

If you decide to invest in a custom website design, then something we always recommend is to populate your site with good quality images. Whether your site is an informational resource, online brochure or e-commerce site, you should consider the quality of images you are going to use.

E-commerce sites use images to represent products and having a good product image is extremely important. In a bricks and mortar should, the customer can physically see the product, they can generally pick the product up, turn it round and make an assessment to the quality, usefulness and make a buying decision. Online your product image has to be able to support the customer and compensate for the lack of interaction. Ensuring your product has a decent sized, clear image can make the difference between a customer making a purchase, or looking elsewhere.

For more information on images and creating images for you website, see our Image Article.