Know what to design before you design

06 Dec, 2013

(Interaction design tactics for visual designers)

This is for those young web developers who must be guiding their fingers around their laptop, ready to make a website. Hold your horses there. What and how are you planning to start? Starting a website needs as much backend research as a new business venture. And what should you do to make your design look better? Perhaps we can, just maybe, guide you through as to how?

Understand your audience.

Source: http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/09/wisdom-ignoring-crowds

Web design agencies conduct a thorough research on their target audience before they walk in guns blazing on the battle ground (battleground meaning web developing platforms). Know what sites your target viewer visits, how often he/she visits them and by what means does he/she visit them and then make sure your website is compatible on those devices. Best way to go about is to ask them personally. Granted it will be super awkward at first but that is how you get the best insight over your viewers surfing patterns and their expectations from your website.

Design for a dialogue

Your website will speak to your viewers. Web design companies stress on making understandable connections between the content for your viewer’s feasibility. Moreover your website should be designed in a way that it gives your users feedback every time they do something wrong. Using interactive flowcharts or icons to prompt user every time they do something right or wrong can be one way to go about it.

Source: http://www.taylorswebsites.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Creative-Website-Design.jpg

Let something off line inspire you

Look for ideas elsewhere. CSS templates can be a good place to seek online inspiration but then again, a completely out of box idea will come from outside the box (box referring to online). Go grocery shopping and look at packaging, different adverts and notice the different typography, color combination that can be applicable to your site.

Innovate

"Do one thing every day that scares you."
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Designers usually have a specific signature shape, text style, positioning that they are proud of and use it everywhere. But please note that it is not much of an achievement as all the current designs will pretty much look like the previous ones. And viewers will notice that.

How to start?

Now when you actually sit down and start designing your website, you tend to start from the head. However often the inside of the page is what attracts the viewer's most. Leave your header alone for a while and start working on the basic skeleton of your website, improvise as you go along.

Simplicity

Make your design simple. You don’t want your viewers to lose themselves in the flashiness and completely overlook the point of visiting your website. Instead you want your viewers to stop and linger at the simplicity, yet the sophistication of your site before they click away to their link of purpose.

Understanding the technical stuff and taking input

Understanding your java scripting, CSS, HTML 5 can be a start to implement on your carefully laid out plan to make your masterpiece. Also the most crucial part is to take input from the trustworthy programmers and web developers. Don’t be hesitant to ask for second opinions but also be careful who you turn to for input or help. Many expert designers become de-motivated at the hands of self-proclaimed advisors who ran errands of printing flyers and establish themselves as experts. Avoid those hooligans who say the design "doesn’t feel right". You’d rather ask a toddler for an opinion then.

4M Designers have the right web developers for you who know their HTML CSS inside out to make your dream website come true. After all starting a website is like trusting and investing in a right person who will make your web design aligned with your needs.

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