Getting loyal customers is no easy feat, no matter what kind of business you are. Customer acquisition is a drawn-out process, and every mistake you make hurts your business. With competition rising, there is hardly any room for error. Still, many companies make grave errors when signing up a web design company. Hiring the wrong web design company can hurt your business in ways you can’t imagine. Many of these stem from lack of experience and can be easily sorted. But if your web design company makes some of these common mistakes regularly, it might be time to opt for a switch:
Not Looking At It Like A Customer
“People value design that values people” – Mark Jenkins (Experience Design Director, 72andSunny)
You might want to sit down for this one. Who did you make your website for? If your answer is “the customer”, then you are on the right track. The next step is to sit back and look at your site objectively, like a customer. Is it easy on the eyes? Is the design too busy? Does it get the message across? Users like minimalism and hate clutter, so make sure that your design is not too cramped. The users will scroll, they prefer scrolling to a design that puts too much information in too little space.
However, different users may have different expectations. And your web design company must take that into account. While minimalistic, leisurely design is unequivocally preferred by B2B customers, B2C customers are attracted by effective branding and to the point design. So it is very important to know your customer and plan website design accordingly.
Ignoring User Experience
“If you think good design is expensive, you should look at the cost of bad design” – Ralf Speth (CEO, Land Rover)
Users are an impatient lot. They are unforgiving, have short attention-spans, and are famous for being hard to please. Your website usually has about 15 seconds to impress a visitor. If you are lucky, that is. Mobile users are even more difficult, with less than half the attention-span as compared to PC users. They are also pretty fussy, mobile users are five times more likely to leave your site if it is not optimised for mobile and tablet.
It should be clear, in light of this, that you have no wriggle-space when it comes to design strategy. An unclear shopping path, for example, will spell instant doom for your website. Customers also like to ask questions, so your website must go out of the way to facilitate that. Customer support tools must be prominent and easy to access.
Most UX mistakes are easy to avoid with a little planning and brainstorming. Trust us, it pays off.
Trying Too Hard
“Design should never say, ‘Look at me.’ It should always say, ‘Look at this.’” – David Craib
Your website has a very specific purpose, pointing the visitors towards your products or services. Good design is a means to that end. Many website design companies forget this and place too much emphasis on the design instead of the purpose it is meant to fulfil. This is a number one rookie mistake, and a really common one at that.
Your site’s design is meant to direct user focus, not hog it for its own. That needs to be made crystal clear. Take some time to select the best design that achieves that without being too over the top. Outlandish designs have their place in website designing, but that is limited to few niches only. Your business, most likely, does not fall in one of those niches. Being too unique may actually hurt you.