Great websites are much more than pretty pictures

Image of women working

Good website design isn’t just about ‘design’ as we know it – it’s about functionality, template-driven pages, easily-managed content, navigation, messaging, layout, and so much more.
So, you’ve got the go ahead for a new website and you’ve found a fab designer to help you realise your dreams (if not, we can help). But, where next? What comes first?

It’s so important that the design reflects your brand. The images need to be carefully chosen to reflect what your customers expect from you. But you also need to add in an aspirational angle, to suggest the future direction of your business.

It’s so important to include the web developer as early as possible in the plans, maybe even before you get carried away with fonts and Pantone references…

When designer meets developer

Here at Kimble Communications, we’re working on a great project for an established business that wants to reposition its offering. It’s a perfect example of when designer meets developer.

When all we had was a rough site structure, we talked it through with the developer to get their input into what worked and what didn’t.  Then of course, we took on his suggestion to create the initial designs for mobile technology first.

“It’s far easier to scale up a design from a phone screen rather than attempt to fit a desktop design onto a phone screen. It’s good to create a design which works on a smartphone and only once you’ve done this should you start to think how it could be conveyed on a laptop or desktop.”

Then, with the homepage designs ready, we discussed next steps again with the developer.  we discussed the look and feel of the secondary pages and creating a small handful of templates that could be used across the site.

“Thinking about re-using templates throughout the site can reduce the cost of the build and also creates a well-structured, considered website.

It also means that the developer can work concurrently with the designer – delivering small builds for the team to tweak every step of the way.”

Oh, and then there’s the copywriter who needs to input their valuable ideas. And the copy can’t be written in isolation from the SEO! The more the merrier as far as we’re concerned…

For us, good website design is about working together, discussing ideas and sharing mini-milestones along the way.

 

© 2024 Kimble Communications. All rights reserved. | Sitemap | Privacy