If your website needs a make-over or if you’re starting from the beginning, this list of the top things to consider when designing a website is going to be super helpful.
Audience:
The absolute first and most important thing to consider is your audience! Who do you want to visit your website? What will they be looking for? What kind of person are they, what are their interests? Are there any special things to consider like accessibility? If you don’t have an answer to these questions from the start, you’re “putting the cart before the horse” when it comes to design.
Usage:
Once you know who is going to be accessing your website (audience), then you need to determine how they’ll be using your site. Websites are essentially a hub for all information related to your organization or business. But consider what are the top three things that you want people to do on your site? This could be things like: donate money, subscribe to your emails, complete a form, share your content, learn about your business, and more.
Navigation:
Now that you know the top three things you want people to do on your site, it makes nailing down the navigation much easier. Ideally you want the primary pages of your site (i.e. top navigation) to be in the order of the things you’d like them to learn about or do. For example: 1) About page, 2) Portfolio, 3) Services, 4) Contact.
Content Marketing:
How will you use your website to help market your organization, products, or services? Content marketing through a blog is a popular and effective way to go (though it’s not the only one by any means). Providing valuable, free content to your audience helps them trust you and your brand.
Special Features:
Are there any features or functions that your site will need? Will you be selling anything on your site? Will you need anything on the back-end for internal users, such as a comment log or discussion board? These are important things to consider from the beginning so the website can be developed properly.
Overall Design and Layout:
Notice that the design is actually the last thing to consider when developing a website? That’s because while it’s important, it will be useless if you don’t take all the above things into account first! This is where you want to think about incorporating your brand and visual identity, and the general style or vibe of the website. A helpful thing to do at this point is consider how you want visitors to feel when they come to your site.
Good luck on creating your next website! If you have questions or think you’d like someone to design it for you, please feel free to reach out to me.
