Web design disasters should be avoided at all costs, but unless you know what to look for, it might be hard to spot where mistakes have been made. These core tips will let you launch your online presence without stumbling at the first hurdle.
Choosing a design agency
This is one of the most important decisions to make if you are outsourcing the design of your site to a third-party firm.
There are so many businesses and individuals offering such services that the choice can become overwhelming.
Working with a reputable organisation, perhaps a web design Gloucester company such as Digitel, is a good start. However, you also need to think about other important factors, such as your budget and what you want your site to achieve. Getting external feedback on the design before it goes live is also sensible because it will help weed out issues that you might have missed.
Considering users
It may be tempting to build a site that you assume is suitable for your target audience without checking up on their needs and expectations. This could take you down a problematic path and create issues that are costly to rectify.
Instead, you need to look at what a user will want from your site, what you can offer above and beyond your rivals in the same industry, and how able you are to compete in the modern marketplace.
Engaging on mobile
Mobile has been dominant in the world of search engines for more than two years now. You can expect most visitors to your site to be using a smartphone or tablet rather than a desktop PC.
As a result, ignoring the need to take a mobile-first approach to web design is a big mistake, and it’s one that is made all too regularly. Responsive design is the best way to avoid this, allowing pages to automatically adapt depending on the size of each screen on which they are viewed.
Speed Bumps
Impatience has been bred by ever-increasing internet speeds, so unless your pages load quickly, your site will suffer the wrath of agitated visitors and unforgiving search engines.
Key web design decisions will impact page load speed, so optimisations that target this area are essential. Avoid embedding uncompressed media files and ungainly plugins where possible.
