Designing a successful website is completely dependent upon the hint of a spark. A moment of clarity when as the website designer we find the perfect vehicle to express your persona or business. It takes time, focus, and a little bit of luck.
The inner workings of a website designer’s mind
There are thousands website designers in the U.S. and tens of thousands of templates and programs available to create a website. Why should you hire a website designer to create your website?
In a single word: connection.
The spark that we just mentioned is the main ingredient needed to do design a website successfully. Developing a perfect website requires more than a 30-minute Zoom meeting with a client talking about their thoughts and goals for their website. Website designers produce ideas from that simple connection. The inner workings of our mind are faster than the keyboard or the pencil.
Creative brain looking to fine tune the website design and content.
Four techniques we utilize to come up with website design ideas:
- Understanding the client. Spend the time pre-website development to understand the client and the goals they have for their website. This saves a significant amount of post-development angst and frustration. Your client will appreciate it, I promise.
- Creating a Logo design. We offer logo design services and through that process, we uncover what the client is looking to capture in the logo. The logo is more than colors and a picture. It is a reflection of the owner, the company culture, and the business.
- Using the internet to search for information. Key words are important for more than SEO. Key words signify the company’s mantra, their products, and reflects the meaning of their business. Googling these terms provides insight into the client’s industry, community, competitors, and customers.
- Content. Now that all these components are beginning to align, the content is the next critical piece of the puzzle. Content comes from embracing and accepting the information discovered from these three previous points and revealing the client’s voice on the pages. The tone is not yours; it is theirs and no step can be skipped or diluted if you want the content to speak to their clients.
The combination of these four techniques facilitates the process of sorting through the thousands of templates to select a single format to deliver the message in accordance with their marketing strategy.
The design is now ready to take shape. Website layouts are extremely flexible and using a platform such as WordPress or Squarespace demands only our imagination and design skills. We must now apply the hours of discovery, the look and feel of the logo, and the research materials we combed through to create!
Photo by Elena Kloppenburg on Unsplash
Have we ever scratched a website and started over?
You bet we have, and we’re not ashamed to admit it.
I recently worked on a website for a magnificent woman who owns a wellness practice. In simple terms, she is thoughtful, deep, and dedicated to helping others find their peace. I started the design work and as I began to draft the content, the two pieces did not come together….at all. I spent hours so frustrated that I was not feeling it. I emailed my client and asked her to trust me. Trust that I was taking the design in a new direction. She agreed, and the content poured out of me onto the pages. When I delivered the content manual to her, she said, and I quote,
“This is so beautiful I was literally on the verge of tears reading it. I had chills. I know most of it is my own words, but wow. The flow is lovely, and I can see it in my mind. So excited!”
(Author’s note: Thank you ‘R’, that note made my day.)
It took me two hours to find the perfect images for her website; to reflect the content and her persona.
Who would you like to do your website design?
I hope you say Put Another Way. I love what I do, and hopefully conveyed that passion to you. Select a time in my calendar and let’s chat about your website and what you want it to be. I know we can get you there.
Izzy, our office mate resting after a strenuous morning of website design
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