How to Understand
Basic Web Design
At pageBuzz we have started
building more and more designs for customers which is contrary to
our original business model of strictly do it yourself websites.
But we now realize the market
has changed and people need more and want more, so here we are
adding more more layer to an already complex business.
As a result I figured it was
time to start educating people a little about design, so they can
explain what they want and realize what we need from them to
create a custom website design.
Typically we get calls
and people say things like, I want 5 pages, about me, home,
products etc. And I want blue, red and orange and I want it
to be nice.
Now as a person building a
website, that is just a headache. First lets talk about colors.
You want red? 
There are thousands of
variations of red and I know this from painting cars for many
years and everyone wants RED but they all want a different Red. So
when you say red and you completely understand what you want, my
head is spinning trying to figure out what red you actually want.
And that is true of every
color. If you ask for blue and you want a dark blue and I give
you a light or baby blue or a blue with a gray tinge, you will
not be happy.
So as we discuss the design
you will need to show us a sample of the blue you want, either in
an image, a website or by giving us the color code for the color
you want.
Websites are designed around
color schemes, so having the right colors is critical.
If we spend 10 hours working
on a design and you say, hey, that blue is a little too dark, it
is not like we can click a button and change that color in all
the images, and pages that it is used. So having the correct
information to start with is important. Or it might take another
10 hours to fix.
So lets look at some
basic information we need to consider before starting a design.
- Menu location
- Page Colors
- eCommerce or
Not eCommerce
- What does the
user plan to add?
- Business Model
- SEO
- Features that
need to be added
- Customer
Demographic
- Supplied
Graphics
Menu Location
This seems like a simple thing
but to determine where the menu goes, we need to know what is in
it. For this reason we ask the users to add all the pages they
want in the menu before we can start their design.
Designs are done backwards,
first we build the content then we build the design around that.
It is not practical to design a website and then try to fill it
with stuff.
You need the stuff first, then
you create a design that fits.
eCommerce or Not
eCommerce
For example if you plan on
having ecommerce, how many categories do you have?
People always want links to
the categories, but until we have the categories and products in
place we don't have anything to link to.
So it is not even possible to
start designing before you have the content in place.
Page Colors
Everything is keyed off of the
main color scheme. The text colors, borders, roll over effects,
and accent images used. Without a clean color scheme it is just
not possible to build.
So using a color chart to give
your designer the colors you want is very important.
What does the user
plan to add?
Since the overall design
should be sleek and clean it is important to know what all the
links will be before starting. If the user ads a blob later, how
will that fit into the current design?
We have people ask for top and
bottom menu placement then they go and add 50 buttons so the menu
takes up the entire screen. This is a mess and could have been
handled differently if we knew the user planned on adding
everything including the kitchen sick.
Websites like pageBuzz.com
have thousands of pages, but just a few buttons and that is done
by good planning. Just like the management section for building
the websites, we can't have 2000 links on every page to get to
each of the 2000 programs used to manage the websites.
Things need to be organized
and simple and people enjoy the ease of use we offer then in the
management section but when they build their own website they
forget about the people using it ad it often becomes one big mess
over time.
So planning for the future is
a big part of creating a design.
Know the Business
Model
What is the business model? Is
it strictly a shopping site? Car dealer, Realtor, information
website?
We have to do research into
the market. We don't know every business and what their
competitors are doing and websites are very industry specific. So
we need to look at what other designers are doing in that
industry and try to stand out.
Sure, the mechanics of the
websites are the same, but someone shopping for handmade quilts
does not want to see the same thing as someone shopping for a new
car. So the look needs to be tailored to the customer base.
Know the Customer
Demographic
What is your customer base?
Men 18-30 or women 50-70?
If the customer base is young
menu we might use girls in bikinis but if it is older women we
would use something more appropriate and less offensive to them.
If you have a broader market
it is important not to use things that would offend anyone or
turn them away. If you have a more targeted market you want to
appeal to that market.
If you never plan on selling
to 70 year old women you don't have to worry about them liking
the design, if you sell to 18 year old boys you need to have 18
year old girls on the pages just to keep their attention.
So balancing that line can
sometime be hard. Understanding the customer demographic will
determine what you can or can't do with the design.
Customer Supplied
Graphics
I the best cases scenario you
will provide the graphics that you want to use, a logo, colors
and pictures. Then the design is much easier because the designer
knows what you are looking for.
But you will still need to
show a a few websites that you like. This is the most important
thing because we can't crawl into your head. So the only way a
designer can get an understanding of what you like is if you can
show them.
Unfortunately, this can
sometimes be a difficult process, because what the designer see
is not what the average person sees.
Designers look at style,
design elements and techniques.
Business owners look at the
pages listed, programs and elements.
To try to bring
the gap into perspective when people look at cars they see
something different than car designers.
Designers look at
styling, the slope of the windshield, the angle of the
headlights, the spacing of the wheels from the doors, the
height of the roof over the body line, the way the lines on
the hood meet the front grill.
The average person
look at a car and sees, it has 2 doors, 4 wheels and it is
red.
So when you show a designer a
website, they are looking at it from a completely different
perspective than you are, so make you you articulate what you
like and what you don't like.
It is up to the designer to
try to understand if it is the colors and use of gradients that
appeal to you our just that it has a slideshow on the front page.
Some time trying to get
someone to explain what they want is like talking to someone in a
different language. It is hard to really know what they person is
saying or means.
So when you decide to have a
website designed, understand, it is only going to be as good as
what you can explain, provide or show the designer. The more you
provide, the closer they can get to your vision.
Hopefully after reading this
you have a little better understanding of what designers need to
know. and if you get a design done, you will have all of the
information ready for your website designer.
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