What Is Web Design?
In today’s interconnected world, the internet plays a massive role in a lot of what we do. From browsing websites on our smartphones to shopping and of course learning what we want to know.
The internet landscape has become an huge part of how we interact, communicate, and access information. At the heart of this virtual realm lies web design, a captivating blend of artistry and technical wizardry that shapes our digital experiences.
But what exactly is web design? Is it just about creating visually appealing websites or is there more to it? In this blog post, we will go and uncover the essence of web design, taking a look at the many levels of it beyond just colours, pics and text that we see.
Defining Web Design
Web design can be described as the method of putting the idea together, planning and then creating the physical look and functional, technical structure of websites. Using layout, colours, typography, images and interactive elements to make a good digital experience for visitors and for your business.
What we see on the front end of a website is only part of the process and to create a good web design in this modern digital world there are other elements at play such as speed, performance and accessibility.
Design And Functionality – Striking The Balance
Aesthetics, the way a website looks plays a crucial role in capturing the attention of site visitors and making a strong first impression.
Visual elements of course make a huge difference to how people feel about a website and brand. These include the colour schemes, the typography, the imagery, and the layout. Correct colours create specific emotions or an affinity with a brand’s identity. Good fonts enhance readability and projects a sense of personality. Thoughtfully created images and beautiful layouts create a an atmosphere that draws the website users deeper into the website.
However, many people don’t realise that beyond the look, functionality is just as crucial to web design,
Functionality defines how well your website visitors can interact with and navigate through the website.
The functional aspects of web design has many aspects to it. For instance navigation menus, are they intuitive enough? Is the structure of the website clear and concise for people to get what they came for? Do you have calls to action where people would expect them? Is your site responsive enough that it works seamlessly not just on a desktop but all mobile and tablet screen sizes.
In the modern days of SEO there is another aspect of web design functionality that should be seamless for your website visitors. Speed. When people search the internet and click on a link did you know that most people give up waiting for a website to load before 3 seconds?
If you have put everything into making the site look beautiful yet do not optimise the design for speed then users will get frustrated and leave. Google will pick up on this and realise that even though you may have the answers they look for you have a bad functioning site to show in search.
A good functional website makes sure that your users can easily and effortlessly find what they want, complete tasks efficiently, and have a satisfying overall experience.
Aesthetics and functionality can often involve a very delicate balance. You want your visitors to have a great first impression and see the personality of you and your brand. But you also want to not spoil this by having a bad structured site or no way for people to easily access the information they are looking for.
Conclusion
In coming posts we will break down the elements of aesthetics and functionality in web design and help you to build a picture of many of the things involved. The perception is often that web design is just what you see and the building of it but this is far from the truth.
We ourselves build websites on behalf of clients that are built with look, feel, branding as a priority but with just as much priority we look at functionality and speed. We pride ourselves on helping you to get visitors, keeping those visitors and helping you to grow your business.
