The importance of good web design. Why is it worth every penny?

Just a website is not enough. A well-designed website gives more credibility to your business. People are more likely to find your website than your business location. There are so many sites today, really customers are spoiled for choice; a better way to show them that you are a serious business is a good-looking and easy-to-navigate website, and a good design plays a crucial role in it. Still have doubts? The following points may persuade you of the benefits and importance of great web design:

1. Look and feel. According to research, it takes a customer just a few seconds to decide whether they like the site or not. People usually judge books by their covers, so keep that in mind while crafting a website.
2. Color. Generally, our mind needs only 90 seconds to make a connection between a color palette and feelings it evokes. So it’s up to you to decide what message you want to convey.
3. Load time. People feel like leaving the site if it loads more than 3 seconds. Loading time and web design walk together.
4. Trust. Websites with good design look more professional and trustworthy.
5. Usability. A well-crafted site makes it easier to view and read the content, enabling customers to identify and comprehend the information quickly.
6. Reputation and branding. Some brands are closely associated with the specific design or color schemes, and we can recognize them even if the company name isn’t visible.
7. Sales growth. A good design can hold customers’ attention and lead them through the pages to make a purchase in the end thereby increasing your sales.

A good design gives a website a better chance of success although people often don’t feel like paying for it. What is necessary to know is that a great web design isn’t a design itself only. It’s  strategy, branding, marketing, user experience optimization, social media and a lot of other things. “Cheaper” design agencies are often just unable to offer a wide range of services for lack of both a professional team and required experience. A website design is a big investment that will pay off. Here are some examples of important points a good design project should cover:
– Branding
– Social media strategy
– Unique company history
– Marketing automation
– Corporate culture
– Company goals / Company’s mission
– Company strategy
– Competitive advantages

“Expensive” agencies are usually more committed to high performance, taking care of the customer’s site and contributing to its success. This means that an investment will save you money in the future. Furthermore, a well-crafted design is also built for better usability and ROI. So think of a design as of an investment rather than a cost.

Web design is not just a visual tool of a website; it is a set of other items and tools that follow a common strategy. Let us point out the most important features of a successful web design project:

1. User Experience Design (UX) establishes the interaction between the customer and the product. It is a set of various methods and tools based on design, psychology, marketing, and sociology. UX aims to combine two major tasks: scope and objectives of the site and goals and needs of the customers. UX steps:
– To establish the main goals and objectives of the website
– To identify the users, their roles (based on their goals) and behavior script
– To find the ways of interaction between a user and the site
– To create the website functionality, using prototyping and wireframes
– To create the design that takes into account all the items above

4. Branding/corporate identity. The fundamental idea and core concept of branding is that everything a company does, everything it owns and everything it produces should reflect the values and aims of the business as a whole. It plays a crucial role in creating the customers’ first impression of your company. That’s how branding influences your business:
– Marketing tool
– Recognition and identification
– Uniqueness
– Corporate style
– Visual representation
– Emotional response
– Packaging
– Clear-cut goals
– Greater brand recall

5. Responsive design, an approach to web design aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones).

Responsive design makes it possible to navigate through the website in multiple browsers and on devices with various screen resolutions. Its benefits are evident:
– A single website for multiple devices
– Cost saving
– Positive user experience

Three key technical features are at the heart of responsive web design:
– Full functionality in both desktop and mobile web browsers
– A flexible grid-based layout with relative sizing
– Images and media flexible through dynamic resizing or CSS

Choosing the right web design company may be quite difficult if you don’t know what are you looking for. Here is a simple guide you can use to make sure you move in the right direction:
1. Define core ideas and purposes of your website. You should be aware of them as well as of the final result you need, and make your demands accordingly.
2. Learn more about positive track record of the web design company. Explore how long it has been working, its previous projects, testimonials and top clients.
3. Ask the web design company to provide the tactics. The task of the company is to suggest effective solutions for your business and the ways of their implementation. Find out how they are going to measure the success.
4. Honesty about costs. A good company will give you an accurate estimate of their rates, speed and turnaround time. Remember that cheap design looks unprofessional and won’t pay off.
5. Communication and support. Strong web design companies use multiple models of communication to interact with their customers and provide support during the whole development process.
The right company makes their customers feel at ease when they wade into unfamiliar waters, and will help your business to save both time and money.

Using the best UX design practices and innovations, AMgrade puts forward the user experience simplicity and efficiency. We offer attractive and laconic design solutions combined with balanced usability that altogether provide the required functionality and contribute to the customer’s business growth. Our experience allows us to divide the design development into 3 simple steps and be proficient in completing our projects with no extra costs:
1. Interaction with the customer. Our initial task is to define the scope and purposes of the project, the customer company’s profile and its target market.
2. Analysis. Here at AMgrade, we work over all the possible interaction options and define the functionality requirements.
3. Prototyping. Using prototyping results in a well-crafted interface built according to UX design requirements with customer expectations and business tasks taken into account.

With our team of experts, AMgrade is able to provide customers with unique interfaces developed according to their specific requirements (device type, input method, screen display etc.).
We are looking forward to receiving your feedback on this issue: feel free to contact us with your ideas, so we can help to design and develop a unique website for you.