it's no secret that proper and thoughtful design can help your website stand out, increase sales, or enhance brand recognition. But today, I would like to talk about the flip side - how poor design can kill sales and lead to significant financial losses.
Very often, clients demand a unique approach from designers. They want the website to have numerous animations, horizontal scrolling, and unique cursors. Undoubtedly, this looks impressive, but it's not always user-friendly. The "wow" effect may last for the user once or twice, but after that, it fades away, leaving the user alone with a beautiful but inconvenient website.
Why does this happen?
Very often, clients go to platforms like Behance, look at impressive references from designers, and want their website to look the same. However, the secret is that designers often display prototypes on such platforms that will never be implemented in a real project. The main purpose of such a layout is to demonstrate the designer's skills and provide a platform for creativity without limitations.
It's important to remember that good design is one that is familiar to the user. Before visiting your site, the user has already visited thousands of others, and they have formed a rough idea of how a website should look, what menu and navigation should be like, where contacts are located, etc.
Now let's go the other way and talk about websites that are outdated in all parameters. In the 90s and 2000s, websites divided into three sections (a block on the left and right sides and content in the middle) were popular. Such websites are still encountered, though less frequently. You don't need to update your website every year, but you should still pay attention to how your competitors' websites and all others look.
This is also a fairly rare case in our time, but it cannot be ignored. When developing a website, it is always worth considering from which devices users will access your site.
The site should be equally convenient and functional on any platform (from a computer to a phone).
In development and design, there is a rule - "Desktop first." This means that we first design for the computer, then for the tablet, and then for the phone. The larger the device's screen, the more content we can place, but with each new type of gadget, the design should be optimized. Moreover, it is necessary to consider different control scenarios, i.e., on a computer, it is a mouse or trackpad, and on a phone, control is via touch screen.
Nowadays, as the share of mobile users grows, the approach to designing may change, with a greater focus on the mobile version. But in general, the essence remains the same - the design must be adaptive.
Even if your website looks beautiful, insufficiently persuasive content can leave visitors without a clear understanding of what you offer. Make sure that the text on the site is informative, persuasive, and aimed at solving the problems and needs of customers.
It is important to remember that your main task is to gain trust from users. And only by building trust will they leave a request or contact.
Tell about yourself. Don't be shy, show your company, your team. Stock images of perfectly smiling people no longer evoke any emotions.
For example, if you provide services in construction and renovation, show workers in special clothing with the company logo. Show live projects that demonstrate they are real, not downloaded from the internet.
Also, show your past clients or people who are as similar to them as possible. If you have a driving school and you teach people to drive, then don't show photos of perfectly shaved men in business suits driving a car. You know your client doesn't look like that.
The user should see you as an expert and a fan of your business. Tell them about the company, and then they will trust you more.
My favorite point! It can include all three points above, plus another dozen surprises. A good website, like any other service or product, cannot be cheap. Yes, there is always the possibility to reduce the cost of development by optimizing one or another function, but buying a website on freelance for 5-10 thousand rubles and expecting the perfect solution is definitely not worth it.
Certainly, you can build a website yourself using the well-known Tilda. But without experience, it will be quite difficult to take into account all the nuances and do it right. At best, you will get a website that contains beautiful pictures. Remember, the main task of the website is to sell and present you or your company.
Moreover, your investment does not end only with development. Next comes setting up advertising, SEO optimization, etc. For this, specialists will also be needed. But even the top marketer will not be able to set up excellent advertising on a website that is made with rough errors in user experience. And redoing it will definitely be more expensive than doing it right away.
Additionally, I attached an example of a website that I came across some time ago. I made a brief analysis of the main mistakes of this project.
Today we talked about, in my opinion, a very important topic, and to make it not just an empty conversation, I would like to offer you a free audit of your website. I will be able to analyze your website and suggest which elements can be improved to increase your sales.
For an audit, you can write to me in private messages, and we will discuss all the details with you.
