Good designers redesign…Great designers realign
This should also be the case with your website, as the years progress you should make lots of small tweaks rather than a complete overhaul. By building and designing our sites the right way we can make future updates so much easier. It is a case of during the design process posing the question “what if?” …basically thinking ahead and planning for potential future developments which will save time and work further down the line. It is similar to playing the long-game in marketing. Making small tweaks now which will reap huge dividends further down the line even though at the time no one may even notice them!
So a site needs to be able to cope with additions, alterations and entire new sections without the need for a complete redesign.
Concepts should drive a design rather than trends
Design is another vital element you need to consider. It is easy to follow trends which at the time can make your site seem quite a funky place to be…but then a few weeks down the line that trend can have the opposite effect and instead make your site look dated. Your design should be upheld by a concept rather than a trend. Think about the brand values of your client.
Timeless design will conquer forever
The key here is to incorporate timeless design ensuring that everything is done for a reason…this way as trends come and go your website will age like a fine wine continuing to defy the aging process. The two key things you need to ensure are:
- Keep things simple
- Ensure your work is scalable.
Constant evolution
A few sites actually look different every time you visit them…letting the latest article or piece of work drive a whole new look for the site. Also having the background image as the main feature of your website (see previous article “backgrounds are coming to the forefront of web design”) allows you to easily change the whole look and feel of your site by simply changing one image. Repeated backgrounds are also a cool way to do this. A great example of this can be seen at Bolton design.
Give your users a reason to come back time and time again
You need to give users reason to come back to your website and fresh content is the best way to drive repeat traffic. Another plus is that fresh content is great for Google and helps in getting your site up the rankings. Using a CMS is a great way to do this as it allows lots of people from the company to write articles and helps personalise the website as users can also get to know the characters behind the business. A twitter feed is also another great way to drive new visitors and can be incorporated into your site in the form of a latest tweets box.
Social Media…a must
Social media is another key element. It is no longer enough just to have a website and expect people to come there. There are sites like twitter Facebook, and YouTube which you need to have presence on due to the huge number of users whom reside there. Once there you can tempt people back to your site by creating a face book group or tweeting about new goings on or simply giving advice.
Progressive Enhancement
With the rise and rise of smart phones we also need to consider producing versions of your site which work on mobiles, i-phones and the ipad. This is where ‘progressive enhancement’ comes into play. ‘Progressive enhancement is where your build your site at a base level for the most basic of browser, then you add more advanced features on for browsers which have the ability to harness these features.
Design with others in mind
Are you a team player? Well a website which has been future proofed will have a lot going behind the scenes which will make it easier for a new designer to pick up and run with your work if you happen to be away fro the day or have even passed the project on. Things like using clean semantic code and using clear class and ID naming conventions in your CSS, will save so much time for other designers and developers in the future.
The final thought
So I guess my final thought is this: Treat you website as a constantly evolving entity…where incremental refinement is needed .Your website is your biggest marketing tool and should be treated as such in terms of your budget and the amount of time you invest into it.
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