Why is web design so important after all?

Tuesday, May 5th, 2015

It is a fact that website design is of vital importance to any new or established business. The competition available on the web, together with the nature of the corporate world makes it crucial for any business to enhance its presence online.

In simple terms, web design is quite a feat in itself since the website needs to be aesthetically appealing and have excellent usability. Thus, visitors must find the website user-friendly as well as eye-catching.

However this is not all. The web designer should make the actual content in the website highly accessible, organised and professional-looking. A term that comes to mind is that of ‘click-to-content’. This means the number of clicks that a user has to go through to get to what he is looking for. Having multiple drop down categories, for example, will increase the click-to-content figure, meaning that more users may drop out of a website as they may get lost in the process, or get discouraged by the number of categories they would have to go through. Thus, website design should aim to reduce the click-to-content figure so that users can immediately find what they are looking for, especially in the case of mobile devices.

This is where the experience and skill of a web designer comes in. Studies must be conducted about the end user of the website and what a typical user would be looking for when accessing that particular website. Thus, a site might be more targeted towards shopping, while another site may encourage more users to view a portfolio or stimulate contact or bookings. This is why templates and other ready-made websites are not recommended to businesses that are looking for online success.

Another important study is that of the type of device users will view the website. In the majority of cases, mobile design has nowadays become as important as desktop websites. The designer has to achieve the same level of user experience that the one would get on a desktop device. These types of studies will definitely help the designer come up with the best possible solution for the website.