Are you unhappy with the design of your website, or have you been receiving complaints from customers and site visitors? Were you determined to build your own website, only to be overwhelmed and ultimately unsatisfied with the results? There’s no shame in admitting that your website is poorly designed or that you’re in over your head, and we can help you identify what’s wrong and what you can do to fix it.
What Happened To My Website?
Perhaps you decided to build your own website or chose to hire an amateur or student designer. Maybe you even spent a considerable amount of money and hired a “professional” web designer or design firm, only to be disappointed with the results? No matter the cause, poorly-designed websites are still being created and released every day.
No Universal Design Standard
Unlike the technical standards that dictate how websites should render in web browsers and present content in universally-accepted formats, there are no standards for website design. Individuals, companies and organizations are free to design websites however they see fit, and web designers are free to create sites that they believe are acceptable to their clients. This means that almost all websites are created primarily for the benefit of one group – the visitor.
Design For The Target Audience
Websites should not be designed based on the tastes and whims of the site creators, but instead should be designed to appeal to site’s target audience. Since there are no universally-accepted standards for web design, it can be argued that imposing design standards is ultimately subjective. Yet a general consensus does exist among experienced web designers and users that certain design choices can prove to be detrimental to the aesthetics and usability of a website.
Check Your Usability
To begin, it is important to ask if any part of your website provokes a reaction of “Too much!”. Does your website have too much content, especially if that content is jumbled together or disorganized? Are there too many pop-up windows, large graphic files, or advertisements? Is your site slow to load using a standard consumer Internet connection and a moderately-powered PC or device due to an excess of content? Finally and most importantly, does your site present too much multimedia?
Content And Devices
Next, it is important to identify the accessibility of your website and content. Are site visitors able to successfully view your website using a mobile device, such as a tablet or smartphone? Does your website present content that is easily accessible to visitors with visual impairments? Is your website easily to navigate, and can users easily find information or content contained within your website? Finally, does your website render properly in modern web browsers, using current web technologies?
Reorganization
Depending on how you answered these questions, your website may simply need a bit of reorganization, or it may require a complete overhaul! It is important to determine if a solid website infrastructure is in place – did you recently launch or upgrade your website, and did the designer utilize a modern, versatile Content Management System such as WordPress? If so, you may be able to simply reorganize, revise, or replace your existing content. However, if your website is old, or if it was built using on an obsolete platform or with non-standard or obsolete technologies, an overhaul may be necessary.