“Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose,” Charles Eames, a famous American designer, once said. Eames might have been talking about architecture and furniture design, but his quote applies equally as well to websites. Your website should be designed in such a way that it does not distract the viewer from their purpose, but rather, enables them at all times.
Even though the importance of having a great website is hard to argue in an age when the ecommerce market is now worth over a trillion dollars, a large majority of small businesses lack a truly functional website. As case in point, only 55% of businesses have a website that is mobile-enabled for web browsing.
You may have realized that better web design is the key to taking your company to the next level. But where should you begin? Here are three ways to update your website.
1. Ecommerce Web Development
“Our website doesn’t have ecommerce web design — but that’s because we sell out of our storefront” is something many in the ecommerce web design industry hear time and time again. Although the logic is understandable, it’s incorrect. It’s important to always offer your customers options for online sales. Many people desire the convenience of ordering ahead of time or making sure the product is in stock at your location. They won’t call you up — they’ll just look for other ecommerce websites instead.
2. Start Using CMS Software
CMS stands for content management system, and it’s what many businesses are using today so that their website can be quickly and easily updated without an extensive understanding of web technology. Joomla and WordPress are two big names in this industry, and they are used for well-known websites like CNN, Forbes, Mashable and Boing Boing. These CMS platforms are popular because they offer plugins to customize your site — with a few clicks you can easily install a shopping cart, contact form, and so on.
3. The Best Design Gets to the Point
When it comes to people viewing websites, saying that many have a limited attention span is one way to put it. As a recent Slate piece points out, the average web visitor will only read 60% of a page they land on before leaving. You can’t put a thousand buttons, explanations and images on your page assuming that everyone who arrives will be pleased to scroll down and around looking for the relevant info. Get rid of lazy graphics that flash or do nothing to enhance reader comprehension.
Is ecommerce web design important to you? Let us know in the comments. Continue reading here.
