If you’re reading this, chances are you know what a website is.
But do you know what a good website is?
The term ‘good’ is actually very much relative, which you probably don’t want to hear. So I apologise, but this isn’t going to be a checklist guide on how to have a brilliant website.
How good your website is, depends on your business and the image you want to portray.
For example, a website for an artist selling their paintings, would be ‘good’ if the website didn’t detract from the art that is for sale; more enhanced it. For this, I would utilise solid blocks of unobtrusive colour, avoiding the use of large photos and big blocks of text. After all, people will be buying the art because they like the look of it, rather than because the website had some cool photos and a bunch of writing on the homepage.
On the other hand, a website for a house painter would look totally different. They won’t generally be selling products on the website, so the content that is on the site will need to be something to draw in customers. Photos of brilliant looking houses they’ve painted in the past, along with lots of testimonials will go down very well. If you’re looking for a painter, seeing they do a good job, as well as hearing they do a good job will really help secure you as a customer.
There is also the nitty gritty to consider. Things like SEO (search engine optimisation), analytics and all that. The sort of thing that gives the best of people a headache when they try to make sense of it.
Now, on to the things that really irk website viewers.
The main thing is sites that just aren’t intuitive.
They may try to be too arty, too fancy or just don’t make sense. There could be moving animations that do little more than slow the site down and make viewers’ eyes hurt. There could be lots of photos that don’t make sense to what the website is about. There could be big blocks of text that aren’t well written, or even seem to be related to anything.
It’s these sites that make potential customers do a u-turn quicker than a politician who’s been called out.
I know, the website designer (if there was one) was probably following a brief and just doing their best to meet the customer’s needs. But they haven't focused on user experience.
That’s one benefit of CREAM – we’re more than just a website design service. We’re a wide-spectrum marketing, advertising and design company. What does that mean though? Well, it means we know about a lot more than just one topic. Plus, we employ the services of some of the best creatives on our shores.
When building a website, we think about who it is for, what they do and why they want a website.
So, I guess if you do want a checklist on what makes a good website, that’s it – who, what, why.
The WWW of Websites.
