Professional Website Design

One of the hardest things for me to do is to submit a web site for review. It’s a cruel world out there but it’s that cruelty that makes us better at what we do. After all, if we want to be a professional we have to listen to our peers.

Will It Succeed or Will It Fail?

As professional web designers we need to understand our craft well enough to set up a site that will pass the criticism of our peers. Rather it passes or fails is in our hands, after all we are the professionals.

I’ve heard web designer’s time and time again blame the design on the client. It’s the web designer’s job to educate the client, after all you are supposed to be the professional. Take the time to walk your potential client through the basics of web designing.

A client that understands web standards, user experience and usability is a lot easier to work with than a client that does not.

An educated client will know that colors affect our emotions and that the choice of colors used in the design was used for a reason. They will look deeper into the design and understand why the choices were made and how they will affect the end user.

The Client is the Boss

I believe in educating my clients but I do not believe in shoving a design down their throats. I’ll show a design to the client and explain why we did the things the way we did, taking them step by step giving them my reasoning behind the look and feel of the site.

At this point the client and I will figure out the best way to move forward with the website. I’ll critique the design while talking with the client, even pointing out things he might have missed that I feel could be better.

Once this is done we will move into the final stages of the web design both the client and I understanding what those stages are.

We Are A Professional Website Design Company and We Work With Professional Business People.

If a client comes to us with the attitude that he can get the same job done by a 10 year old, then we let them go find the ten year old.
We are professionals and building a website that will compete in today’s market takes time and planning. It takes a professional web designer to build a website that will yield a return on the investment.

I did an article a while back about colors and how they can affect our emotions. I found it fascinating that colors can create desires in us without us even knowing it.

But did you know pictures do the same thing?

In two studies, young Dutch children share more candy with others after being primed with attributes of Saint Nicholas compared to being primed with a dwarf in the control condition. In a third study, children evaluate sharing more positively after being primed with attributes of Saint Nicholas, and more negatively after being primed with the Toys R Us logo, compared to being primed with a dwarf.

If you didn’t understand all that I’ll try and clear it up a bit.

Kids wanted to share when they were shown a picture of Saint Nicholas and didn’t want to share when shown the Toy R Us logo.

Just like when picking colors, we need to pay attention when picking images for our website.

Images on your site will create a desire when the site visitor sees them, you need to make sure they create the desire your website desires.

A couple pretty cool looking designs from Nikon for their COOLPIX camera. I thought I’d post them here and say that I really like the designs as well as the text.

We all have a color DNA what’s yours?

This goes for your website as well.

I’ve always been fascinated with how colors affect the way we think and feel, as well as our actions.

Some colors affect us more than others and some people are affected more by the colors but just the same we are all affected.

When it comes to designing your website, to ignore the power of colors would be to ignore an essential element of a good website design.

Another extremely important element to colors is not only the properties or emotions each color conjures up in each of us, but also how combinations of colors make people feel. And to further complicate your perfect color selection you also have to be concerned with the fact that people have to be able to read your content or the most beautiful color in the world will be for nothing.

No matter how important the content on your site may be to someone, if they can’t read it due to bad color selection they will leave in search of another site to serve their needs.

Here are only a few colors and what emotions have been shown to be raised with each.

* Green jealousy, good luck, and harmony
* Blue calming, peaceful and builds trust
* Red color of action, anger, Love, impulse and impatient
* Purple nobility, spirituality and creativity, passion
* White pure color, innocent and clean
* Black serious, mysterious, mournful and lifeless
* Yellow happy, cheerful and joy
* Orange positive, enthusiastic and warmth

People believe you can even see colors in music, one thing is for sure though, colors cause a physical and emotional reaction in each of us. Colors can cause headaches, sickness, relaxation, pleasure, tension, passion, peacefulness or irritation.

So when it comes to your website design, choose your colors wisely.

Web Page Design

All successful web page designers and web design experts want have the same ideas when it comes to your website design however, they will agree on the fact that your design needs to be professional and interesting to your website visitors. Of course, there are some fundamental things that need to be included in a business or corporate website or web page design.

Call to Action

The best websites get to the point without happy talk and focus on helping people complete key tasks as quickly as possible.

People don’t have time to hunt for information or a link, they scan pages looking for what it is you can do for them. It’s crucial that you get site visitors to act. Now!

You’ve got 3 seconds to tell me what your site is about, 10 seconds to tell me what you can do for me and 20 seconds to tell me how I can contact you or purchase your product.

Design a Logo

Typically, a logo’s design is for immediate recognition as well as in building trust for your site.

Color is important to brand recognition, but should not conflict with its functionality. Colors create certain emotions and the designer should use the colors to convey the company’s thoughts and desires.

For instance, loud colors, such as red, are meant to attract the attention of your site visitor and less is usually better. While blue, helps to build trust and more is normally better.

Language

Your content needs to be easy to understand and easy to read.
Write as if you’re writing for a third grader and don’t mess around, get to the point.

Text Size Matters

It is important to consider the size of your text. Reading off a computer screen is a lot harder than reading printed text, and it’s the reason we need to you use a font and size that is easy to read.

You can also bold headlines and key points.