The Puzzle of Home Page Design

Category: Design | Posted date: 2020-03-18 05:37:06 | Updated date: 2020-03-18 05:41:01 | Posted by: Jesza

Home page design isn’t almost headers, content, and footers. it's about asking the right questions and ensuring those questions apply to your website visitors. It’s about finding solutions to problems and bringing it together within a cohesive design.

Have You Ever Wondered?

How do I make my website memorable?
How do I confirm people stick when they hit my home page?
How do I confirm website visitors probe my content and explore my product or service offering?
How do I confirm website visitors take a flash to succeed in bent us by email, phone, or inquiry form?

If you read those questions and thought “yes that's exactly what i would like to ask” then know you’re not alone. I do know a lot of people, marketing departments, and corporations who all wonder an equivalent about the planning and performance of their website.

If you're taking a step back and skim through the list, you’ll notice all the questions included I or me. None of them focused on the visitor.

Best Practice in Home Page Doesn’t Include Me or I

Best practice in home page design is about website visitors, their needs, and their wants. It isn’t about a thought that's cool or something you'll have seen on four other websites. it's about your target market, what they have , and the way your offering can help.

We receive variety of inquiries every day from people who’d like us to assist create a replacement website or update their existing website. In most cases the inquiries go a little like this:

I am inquiring to see if I can get a price for you to redo our current website. Please have a glance at the link to website provided and get back to me.
We are considering upgrading our website. Are you ready to help us?
I would sort of a website that appears exactly like XYZ.com. are you able to create that for me?
I would like my website to be more professional, are you able to please help?
Can you check out my website and tell me what must change?
I know my website may be a mess and I’d such as you to wash it up.

A lot of people and organizations tend to style websites consistent with their own needs or they base it on an internet site they’ve visited and liked. Or, in additional recent years, they consider a cool internet marketing idea and need to implement it.

All of this is often fine, but what they repeatedly fail to do is compare this idea or need for update to what their website visitors need and need . I’ve found this is often very true if the web site is brand-new and therefore the idea is mentioned as “cool.”

Have You Ever Asked Yourself?

Who comes to my website?
Are these visitors all similar or are they broken up into groups (website personas)?
What problems do these people have and what issues are they trying to solve?
Can my product or service offering solve these problems?
What content do I even have which will best articulate my solution and supply assistance?
What next step should the web site visitor take so I can help solve their issues?
How can the visitor and that i stay in-tuned with each other?
Can the visitor easily contact me?

What we’ve done is just take the first questions and redirect them in order that they are more focused on the visitor. This task is straightforward , but repeatedly overlooked.

Now take those above questions and apply them to your existing website. How does your website answer those questions? If it doesn’t, it's time for a refresh.

What Should You Consider in Your Website Refresh?

There are many elements that enter the core design of an internet site . I’m not talking about each and every page. Instead I’m pertaining to the most design elements, home page, header and footer.

Below may be a list of some website design elements we review, discuss, and plan for in early stages of our projects:

Elements of a Website Header:

Logo
Tagline
Social media icons and/or references
Search box
Primary navigation menu (core destinations)
Secondary navigation menu (secondary destinations such as account or login)

Elements of the Core Home Page:

Rotator or static image
Video
Site introduction or overview
Featured content
Persona call out and directions for movement
Call to actions
Promotions and/or deals
Recent blog posts
Upcoming events

Elements of a Website Footer:

Widgets for lists to core content
Contact information
Site navigation to sitemap, policies, terms and conditions
Disclaimers or legal notices
Copyright

That’s tons stuff right? Yes it's and why I don’t expect new clients to possess answers for all of the things within the list, it might be great if they’ve thought through a number of it and the way each would offer assistance for his or her target market and visitors.

If they haven’t, I’m happy to steer through it with them and dissect the various elements and the way they will help provide solutions for visitors.

Web Design is a Puzzle

I recently had a friend tell me that I’m a fan of puzzles. I’ve never believed that to be the case, but once i assumed about it for a moment , I knew he was spot on. I do like puzzles. Thinking back in time I remember spending endless hours with the Rubik’s Cube, missing link, and therefore the Pyraminx Pyramid Puzzle. I solved all three and to the surprise of my parents, I mastered the Rubik’s Cube rather quickly.

As an adult I still like puzzles, but now i prefer puzzles with a purpose.

I fell crazy with SEO years ago because it had been a puzzle. Trying to work out what the search engines wanted and the way it might alter ranking was fun. Google has become tons more transparent, therefore the puzzle is not any longer as challenging. As such, it's completely removed the fun factor on behalf of me .

My love for puzzles is now focused on website design. For me, the puzzle is knowing our client’s target market, their visitors’ needs, their offering, then making it all close through website design. That puzzle changes with each new client and every new website. It stays fun each and each time.

If you’d like me to help with your puzzle, just reach out to us and let us know how we can help.

We’ll start with a whole lot of questions and then we’ll put the pieces together as we design your new home page.