Nigel Wilkinson
Managing Director of Daneswood. Nigel has been in sales and marketing since the 1980's and run digital marketing agencies since 2000.
The ideal position for your website is that you have a stunning-looking website that appeals to your target market, which is easy to use, navigate and take action, whether buying, enquiring or subscribing.
However, like everything in life, the secret is in the balance, and there are compromises to be made. The designer wants simplicity, clarity, and nothing to distract from the beauty of their creation. The UX team (User eXperience) want massive buttons with clear Calls to Action that leave your visitors in no doubt about what they have to do next.
The good news is that a well-designed user interface can increase a website’s conversion rates by up to 200% (Forrester Research), and 94% of website users say that the design of a website is the primary reason they mistrust or reject a website (Ironpaper).
Which in simple terms, means great design boosts trust and conversions, so having a well-designed website puts you on the right path straight away.
However, design is not the golden bullet, as 88% of users are less likely to return to a website after a bad user experience (SWEOR), and a study by Forrester Research found that implementing a focus on customer experience can increase conversions by 200%.
So, how do you create a website that is not a disjointed compromise but one that is a Win/Win, one that looks great and is user-friendly to get those all-important conversions?
Well, not putting the cart before the horse is a good starting point! By that, I mean that often designing the website is the first step in the process, and it shouldn’t be.
Wireframing the website, laying out what needs to go where, how visitors will navigate the website, what information they will need, and how you will guide them on their journey, should be the starting point.
Once you have that decided, get the designer to make the layout look pretty rather than the other way around. Here’s the analogy… If you were creating a new garden, you wouldn’t plant beautiful flowers everywhere and then decide where the paths and the barbecue goes. You would plan the layout, then put flowers and shrubs to beautify the landscape. It’s the same with a website.
Don’t jump straight to the design. Take time to organise your content, what you want visitors to see and what you want them to do. Then make it look fantastic. That way leads to customers aligned with your brand and increased conversions, allowing you more time to smell the roses along the way.