If you haven’t noticed already, human beings are highly visual creatures, with sight being among the most important of the five sense. Early man relied on sight as means of survival to avoid predators and other dangers that might eventually prevent them from reproducing. Speaking of, sight was critical in finding a suitable mate!
Fast forward to today and much has changed while remaining the same. For example, while sight is still used to avoid and detect danger and for searching for a mate — or food sources for that matter — people nowadays use sight as a means of determining whether a business is worth patronizing. And this is precisely where website design comes into play.
You may have been cautioned against judging a book by its cover as a child and probably as an adult too. However virtuous this ideal is, the fact remains that humans are — and always will be –highly visual, which is why web design is so critical. In the oft-labeled superficial worlds of online marketing and social media marketing, attractive, functional, and intuitive website design is everything.
Effective website design is an important part of creating a solid, cohesive brand that keeps target audiences coming back again and again. Consistency is everything when it comes to branding and digital marketing, especially when it comes to the visual aesthetics. A company or individual’s website is an essential part of their entire brand, so it’s easy to see how lackluster website design can have a negative impact on the success of a business.
Everyone can relate to the annoying and frustrating experience of attempting to find out more information about a company and the goods or services they offer, only to hit a digital brick wall once a haphazardly designed website loads. If you found this experience to be a major turn off, then you’re not alone.
In fact, you may even be surprised to know exactly how little time businesses and their brands have to capture the attention of their target audience once they arrive to their website; less than thirty seconds! Therefore, it’s safe to say that ain’t nobody got time for poor website design — literally.
So what makes website design effective and therefore good? Well, a lot, but the basics are just plain common sense. First and foremost, a website shouldn’t take an unnecessarily long amount of time to load, and today’s websites should always be optimized for use on smart phones and other mobile devices. So for as “pretty” as websites should look in their outward design, they should also be functional, intuitive, and easy to use.
