Website Design with Customers in Mind

Good design isn’t just pretty—it gets the job done!

We’ve all been through this before: searching online for a product or service, only to find the business's website design is impossible to use. Can’t find important information. Can’t make the page work on our device. Can’t navigate the confusing menus.

Can’t hit the “Back” button fast enough to move on to the next business’s website!

As bad an experience as that is as a customer, for a business, it’s even worse. Lost revenue, lost reputation, the loss of future sales. Having the right design isn’t just about making customers happy today: it’s about securing customers for tomorrow.

A good website design for your business doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive, but it does need to reflect some planning on your part to get what customers see online to match what you need them to see so you can keep their attention, and their business.

What Makes a Good Website Design?

There are three important elements that go into a successful website design. Together, they give the sort of customer experience that can drive them to your business.

Usability

Your business website needs to be usable above all else. That means running it through a rigorous testing process to deliberately try to “break” it. It can sometimes take an expert to think of all the ways a potential new customer can stumble through your website, get lost, or misuse a function.

Your website design should also take into account all the different ways customers are likely to access your page. That means you need to understand how a website changes appearances from a traditional computer over to a smartphone or to a tablet.

Impact

Your website design has to have impact. After usability, impact is the most-important element of your business’s website design.

Impact is what will keep your customers returning to your site. It’s the perfect blend of visual attractiveness and the message your customers want to hear. That means your business needs to find a team that can match words with images. A lot of times, this isn’t just one person, so think of your website design as a group effort. You need picture people, and you need word wizards. A tech titan is helpful, too.

Make sure, too, someone who knows where all the commas belong gives your copy a read before your website goes live!

Connection

Finally, your business’s website design should encourage continued connection to your business.

Your website design has a lot of influence over whether customers can find you online easily or not. By using Search Engine Optimization, you can help ensure that your business appears high on search engine results.

But connection is more than that. It’s building interaction into your website so customers can feel attached to your business. Connection in design includes having the technology available for visitors to send messages or leave comments, link to your business’s social media accounts, and see themselves and their needs reflected in the content of your website.

How user-friendly is your website for someone with vision difficulty? Does your website use language and images that best reflect the kind of inclusivity successful businesses represent? Is your website free of distracting and bandwidth-hogging autoplay videos?

Unless you’re really thinking about your website being visited by someone other than yourself, chances are, you could be doing better to make a connection with potential customers who visit your business’s website.

What Are the Advantages of Good Website Design?

There are many advantages of having a good website design. These days, your website is a digital storefront. We wouldn’t let the paint chip away or the weeds grow out of control in front of our brick-and-mortar store, and we shouldn’t neglect our business’s website, either. For many new customers, your website is their first introduction to your business.

Modern customers appreciate the convenience of shopping online, but at the same time, appreciate the opportunity to buy directly from a business, especially if it’s local. Your website facilitates both.

A quality website is an important part of your business’s overall brand and marketing strategy. It’s the only place where you completely control your message, how it looks, and how its delivered. If you aren’t taking advantage of a well-designed website, you’re missing out. Is your competition missing out, too, or have they already shifted to the kind of website that drive customers to their businesses, and away from yours?

How Do You Make the Move to a Stronger Website Design?

Think of two or three goals for your business’s website. Maybe you want it to:

·       Get more monthly views

·       Increase online sales

·       Improve customer engagement

·       Make your website friendlier to more kinds of people

·       Appear higher in web searches

·       Share a different message

·       Welcome new customers more effectively

·       Tell your company’s story in a compelling way

With your goals in mind, focus on what you can add, remove, or change with your website to help reach those goals. Really think critically about what your website’s design is doing now, and what it can do to get better.

Some specific things you could change about your website include:

·       Adding video or other media

·       Customizing the site’s code

·       Punching-up the visual impact with more, better photos

·       Installing simple plug-ins

·       Including elements that let you track the site’s visits and usage

·       Updating the homepage or other sections

·       Incorporating a blog

There are lots of tools out there that can add more functionality to your website. If you aren’t a tech wizard, you’re probably going to need one. Luckily, we know some folks that can get you on your way!

What Can Covered Wagon Do for Your Business’s Website Design?

We can make sure your website is designed with customers in mind, checking it for flaws you may not have considered. Instead of functioning as a simple placeholder, we’ll help you design a website that drives traffic to your business.

Covered Wagon can take your goals for your website, and lead you through the process of building a digital landmark that helps your business reach those goals.

Our experts have already helped other businesses better take advantage of their digital footprints, and can help you design a website that matches your business plans for today, with an eye toward tomorrow.

Get in touch today with one of our professional business consultants and find out just how inexpensive it can be to get a business website design that powers your company into the future.