We generally look at the internet as a visual medium and this is why brands rely on several interfaces to provide appropriate experience to their audiences.
Web design involves the entire process of planning, conceptualizing, arranging and displaying a brand’s contents on a designated online portal for awareness and conversions. This process encompasses several different aspects, including web page layout, content production, web graphic design and user experience design. Web design goes beyond just aesthetics to include the website’s overall functionality.
As a business, it is important to know the role of a functional website towards business growth. To set yourself up for success as a business, You need not just a website but an awesome website which begins from nailing your website design at the beginning, from your website’s structure and layout to images, colors, fonts and entire graphics design.
Web design is often used interchangeably with web development, and this is wrong as web development is the actual coding that makes a website work. First you design, and then, you code. In building a website, you need both website design and web development. And most of the time, you can find web designers who are also skilled in web and UX development. Check out Chilling Design for UX, Web Design and development.
Web design has numerous components which work together to create the desired finished experience. Some of these components include web graphic design, user experience design, interface design, search engine optimization (SEO) and content creation. These components determine how a website feels, looks, and functions.
Let’s take a look at them.
Web Graphic Design
Website design
Web design is not just text and information, it is more about data visualization, a medium of expressing artistic creativity, and optimizing the presentation of information to meet the needs and expectations of different audiences. The use of graphics on Websites enhances the visual experience for users.
Web graphics are visual representations that are used for Website design to improve and better enable the representation of data, information, an idea or feeling. Web graphics may be for entertainment, education, or to emotionally impact the user, and these elements are crucial to the strength of branding, clarity of illustration, and ease of use for interfaces.
Examples of web graphics may include photographs, maps, patterns, diagrams, architectural or engineering blueprints, typography, schematics, line art, charts, and many other image forms. It involves everything from the colors and fonts to the general layout of its pages.
The most important task in web graphics design is to translate the brand’s identity to the design. The target visitors must be able to relate to the designs and properly see the page as part of that business’s presence.
User Experience Design
A website UX design is the look and feel of the web’s interface. User experience design creates the shapes of the digital landscape of a website. It guides people through the website’s expanse, and gives them something that affects and connects with how they feel from visuals to content, structure, and navigation. These all come together to give the target audience a memorable experience.
User experience basically concerns itself with the end users’ motivations. Why did the user check a website? What solutions is the user seeking? UX tends to look into the mind of a user, tailoring a great experience that will give users what they’re seeking, and in the least complicated way.
The elements of a website design like navigational options, buttons, calls to action, and other interactions control a user’s journey through the website — with quality content filling out the substance.
User experience also involves great user interface design. Which concerns itself with the specifics of a design, from the typography to the look and feel of buttons and other interactions which gives a website great aesthetics. User experience designers who have tested and grown their skills take into account what users want from a web design and then build an experience during the design phase that will meet these user expectations.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Web design also involves working with search engine optimization (SEO) specialists to make sure that Google and similar search engines properly crawl and index your website content. This helps your website reach better positions on the search results ranking, and also reaches a wider audience and users that are looking for solutions that your business offers.
Although most aspects of SEO are largely related to content writing, website design plays an important role in making sure your website’s codes are clean and that usability does not hinder user experience. All of those factors are decisive in determining your ranking position.
Content Creation
Content creation is the most important part of website design. Creating great content is the chief of every good web design, and the best way for brands to engage with their audience and improve conversions.
Content creation is the process of identifying ideas, informative solutions and creating a written or visual representation of these ideas in order to capture your user’s attention and proffer solutions to their problems. From creating a content strategy to deciding which form you want the content to take, formalizing your strategy (keyword or otherwise), and then actually producing the content.
Most content creation processes usually involve thorough rounds of edits with other stakeholders before content is ready for publication on the website.
Since content can take several forms – Written content (blog posts, Landing page, home page, about us, contact us, etc.) videos, eBook, infographic, advertisements. The content creation process is always as simple as it might often seem. But doing it well can truly impact your business growth. In fact, recent research shows that creating quality educational content makes customers 131% more likely to buy from your business.
Creating quality content starts by creating a well-established process which includes Ideating, Planning, Creating and Publishing.
In conclusion,
Web design is arguably always a huge part of a powerful business presentation. However, such as any other components in your business strategy, it needs to be based on correct decisions during your planning and execution stages.
Creating a website based on the wrong choices and decisions can have a negative impact on your entire online presence and even your business
Certain factors must be considered when designing a website to guarantee its quality which includes Aesthetics, Usability, Content quality, Speed, Mobile-friendliness, etc.