Designing or redesigning a website is not just about layout and colour schemes. There’s more to consider before you enthusiastically jump right in. Here are things you should consider when designing websites.

Determining the Purpose

To answer this, defining the purpose of your organisation is a good start.

Stick to your organisation’s mission statement if you can not define a single purpose. Now, back to the website. Keep your mission statement in mind as a guiding path to decide what direction you need to go with your website.

Audience

Now ask yourself what your organisation wants to convey to its audience. What are the services and what is the audience segment that falls into your category. If your target audience is teenagers, your design will be different compared to the target audience which is over 60. Define key elements that your audience might like, the kind of layout they would prefer, type of functionalities that will benefit them. Design that serves a company’s audience triumphs over any trendy design out there.

Brand

Your brand voice translates into the design you choose. Your brand message takes the shape of a website and conveys qualities like reliability, trust, etc if you choose the right kind of content and design aesthetics. For example, if your website is of academic purpose that serves children, your website design should speak the language of children. Your brand’s colours, fonts, symbols, phrases, and standards should align with the taste of children.

Architecture

The blueprint of your website is the architecture. Decide the layout of your site ahead of time. Write a sitemap, finalise hosting options; and decide on a content management system. Now evaluate how easy the website can be maintained. Is it scalable? Will the design accommodate content changes? If your backend is sorted, the frontend will sustain very long.

SEO

Do your keyword research beforehand. Besides navigation and URL’s, on-page content you’re using and keywords will play a key role in forming the structure your website. If I want people to find you for “Best restaurant for momos” a good way to structure your website would be to have a specific page highlighting that keyword and to represent the keyword in your URL.

Accessibility

The information and services your brand offers must be easily accessible for your audience. Keep the functionality of your website simple and clean. This allows any kind of audience, with or without internet proficiency to easily access the information they are looking for. Look for the speed your website is taking to load in all kinds of devices. Your site will need to work on a touch screen, smaller screens, on any browser and operating system. Before you build, create a wireframe of your proposed design and do user testing.

Expressing your brand’s individuality will help you stand out from the crowd. It is important to maintain a balance and not to overdo it. All the information on your website should be concise and to the point. It’s always great to add a personal touch that will make your audience sense a human voice behind your brand. Whatever the type of design you choose, it should always lead to gaining more clients and stay as relevant at all times.