Old and Tired Web Designs Hinder Your Business Progress

If you have stuck with the same website design through thick and thin, the chances are pretty good that you might be getting tired with it. And if you are getting tired of it you can be sure your web visitors will be as well.

The trick is to know when it is time to change and renew things for the better. Things change and advance quickly online and this means you could end up with an old web design sooner than you might think. If you have had the same design for a while now, it might be worth consulting a professional designer to see if you could revamp your website. You may well find you can revamp your whole business as well.

Of course you may not be sure if you have reached the point where your old design is old enough to get rid of. But if you consult with a professional designer you can get some input as to whether you are able to produce something new, modern and dynamic to better represent your business in the future.

The truth is that old and tired designs will harm your business more than anything else. If someone comes across your website and it looks very basic and old, they might be forgiven for wondering whether anyone is still running it, or whether it has been forgotten about and consigned to the scrapheap. This is not the kind of opinion you want people to form, so if you are ready to make the most of your website it might be time to give it a makeover.

Now some people immediately think of the cost of doing this and how it might affect them. But normally you will bring in more business as a result of having a fresh new website and design – especially if you promote the changes ahead of time and when they take place. So remember what you are getting here and how much it might be worth to you in the future. This is the most convincing reason there is to get a new web design.

Avoiding the Bells and Whistles

Website design is a powerful tool. When it is used correctly it can engage the visitor and keep them on the site and the page. But it can also be too powerful for some to wield. This is why it makes sense to hire a professional in web design when it comes to creating or overhauling your website.

Let’s think about what you want your customers to experience when they land on your site. You want them to be engaged and drawn in. But you don’t want the bells and whistles that some people feel they have to include. Think of an overuse of Flash or too much content packed into the page. These are the bells and whistles of the title. Sometimes you can have so much to choose from that you don’t want to miss out on any of it. This is understandable but you can end up scaring away the very people you drew to your site in the first place.

If you have ever heard the saying ‘less is more’ you will know where we are coming from. Good web design is all about knowing what matters and knowing what doesn’t. This might change to a certain degree from site to site, depending on the audience you are targeting. But in many cases simplicity beats complexity more often than you might think.

How many times have you visited a website only to find that you feel bombarded by information the moment you arrive? The webmaster is clearly eager for you to know everything there is to know right from the start. But their eagerness can put you off staying for any length of time at all.

Don’t underestimate the chances of this happening with your site. Make sure you enlist the help of professionals like Ratio7 to prevent that overload situation from occurring. The bells and whistles might be tempting to you, but they will put off anyone who makes it to your home page. You want visitors – either for clicking your ads or buying your products or services. Don’t send them away through eagerness.

Is Your Website Embracing the Future?

There was a time – a good few years ago now – when all you had to do to get online was to whack up a very simple website with a very basic design.

Nowadays of course all this has changed. It’s not enough to have a website anymore – you have to have a site that looks good, feels good and works just as your customer wants it to. If it doesn’t, you’ll lose customers. It’s that simple. This is why many businesses are enlisting the services of experts in web design – like the team at Ratio7 – to create a strong and dynamic website design to impress their customers and visitors.

But there is more to consider here as well. For instance more and more people are looking at websites on their smartphones and iPads and other similar devices. How user friendly is your site when it is called up on one of these devices? If you don’t have a mobile version of your site, now would be an excellent time to get one. This makes it much easier for anyone on a mobile phone to view your site. If you have ever tried viewing a normal website on such a small screen you will know how frustrating it can be. Even if you decide to check the website later when you have access to a proper computer, you might forget to do so, or decide to go elsewhere instead.

You can see then how important it is to have a website that is capable of embracing the future in this way. It’s not enough to have a good website anymore. You have to have one that is able to be viewed properly no matter how your customers decide to access it. That’s why it pays to get the experts in, so you know exactly what you will be offering your customers.

You might consider teaching yourself how to do all this. But where does that leave the rest of your business? Your target should be to create the best website for all platforms as quickly as possible – and to hire the pros to do it for you.

Getting the Balance of Words and Images Just Right

Your website is a window onto the world – a window through which potential customers can look to find what they need. It almost seems as if everyone knows what a good website should look like, but actually designing one and getting the right mix of words and images is a lot harder than you think.

Images speak a thousand words, or so we’re told. But content is king too, and content is what people come to read. We all like images and they can catch your attention long before the words on a page do. But the two components of a website have to work together to have the desired effect on anyone who visits that site.

There is no dream equation or formula that unlocks a great web design. It’s not as simple as putting one image in place for every four hundred words you use. If only life could be that simple. This is why it’s best to get the experts in when it comes to designing a website that makes the most of each component. It’s the only way you can be sure of getting a website that is designed to do what you want it to do.

Furthermore the words and images need to be working together and not against each other. When you’ve got the skills of an experienced web designer working for you, you can be sure that the balance will be much easier to strike than if you were to tackle it on your own. You might have ideas for your website but actually getting them to work and making them real can be very difficult. Just how big should your logo be, for example? Do you have so many words for the home page that you’re tempted to squish them down to fit them all in?

Less can be more when it comes to web design. But you can only get the balance of words and images just right when you think of them as two halves of the whole. It’s the only way you’ll get the website you want.

What’s Your Website’s Purpose?

Whether you are having a site built by scratch or doing a redesign of your existing site, it is really important to examine the reasons you have a website at all. Sound obvious? It isn’t. If you look at your own favorite sites, you will find that they serve many different purposes. For a graphics team like Ratio7 to build you exactly what you want and need for your business’s website, you need to explore the various types of sites and determine which one suits your business goals. A site may have several purposes at once.

The most basic site is informational. This is a site that tells a potential customer or visitor what your business is, where it’s located, its hours, how to contact you and maybe a bit more. These sites are fast and easy to construct and usually only involve a page or two. All sites have some basic information on them.

The next is a site that educates and/or is used as a reference. It might be a site like Wikipedia or Grammar Girl with information on everything or just on grammar and writing. Or it could be a health site with information on conditions or illnesses.

Some sites are inspirational. They provide you with stories and photography and music on various topics like personal development, spirituality, psychology and new age practices.

Promotional sites are also common. They generally promote a celebrity, a rock band, an author, a product and more.

Then there are those that entertain. While YouTube certainly has educational and inspirational purposes, it is most often turned to for its entertainment value. Most humour sites like Funny or Die and LOLCats are both highly trafficked and entertaining.

Finally, there are e-commerce sites. These sites exist primarily to sell you something. Amazon.com is one. Ebay is another. The best e-commerce sites combine many of the features of other sites (education, entertainment, etc.).

Knowing what your end goal is can help the exceptional team at Hertfordshire’s Ratio7 design or retool your site to be the most efficient, exciting, and popular site possible! Let us know how we can help.

What Your Design Team Can Do

Graphic design firms, like Ratio7, probably take for granted that the general public understands what they do and what their service offerings are. So, what can you expect in regards to services when you contact Ratio7?

The core of where you begin is with branding (or re-branding). A graphic design firm, like Ratio7, will meet with you to build a visual concept of your company. This includes core values, culture, your target demographic, what you actually do, where you are located, what the history of your company is and the story of how it began. All of these help a design firm develop your overall brand. From that point, they begin to develop a logo. A logo will be used in a variety of ways and will help identify your company quickly.

Next will be a Web site, from the ground up or a redesign of an existing site. This will involve examining your search engine optimization, your meta tags, your user experience (UX), copywriting and the general design and how it fits with your branding vision. We can create and install flash animation. If you need a blog or templates for Twitter or MySpace, we can do that too!

Then there is print. Your design team will develop a whole print series: business cards, brochures, advertisements, post cards, flyers and whatever else you need (cd or video covers, special events products) . Part of all these branding efforts will be copywriting which should be vibrant, engaging and understandable. Ratio7′s copywriting team can also do translations to make your materials more accessible.

Finally, there is new media. Video production is important these days and a cutting-edge graphics firm like Ratio7 can help you creating exciting and engaging video for your Website or promotional DVD’s. We can also upload these to your site or onto sites like YouTube.

We hope this helps you understand what a top-notch graphic design firm can do for you. Don’t settle for less! Feel free to contact us for a consultation on any of these services-and if you don’t see it listed here or on our site, don’t hesitate to ask!