How Do Cultural Differences Impact the Web Design Process?

Designing websites for audiences of different cultures can be complex, as it requires a deep understanding of how they influence design preferences and user experiences. Yet, web designers can create meaningful digital experiences by adapting their approach. Cultural differences majorly impact web design, and several strategies can help navigate these challenges.

The Influence of Culture on Web Design

When designing for a global audience, designers must remember that cultural differences go beyond language. Every aspect of a website can garner alternate perceptions based on cultural values and norms.

For instance, when it comes to visual aesthetics, Western cultures often lean toward minimalist designs. They prefer clean lines, ample white space and simple color schemes. Conversely, many parts of Asia have visually stimulating websites with bright colors, dense layouts and intricate details.

In North America, users expect streamlined navigation with a focus on speed and functionality. However, in regions where relationship-building is central — like some Middle Eastern cultures — websites may include more social elements. These components typically involve an integration of collaboration and personalized content. Cultural differences impact web design in various ways, and designers must adapt to them to build trust and engagement.

Cultural Considerations in Web Design

To design for a global audience, web designers should have a deep understanding of cultural preferences and practices. This involves a few key considerations, such as language and localization. Beyond merely switching languages, localization means adjusting the design to reflect cultural differences, such as regional symbols, idioms and colors.

Cultural backgrounds also heavily influence reading patterns and website layouts. In Arabic regions, people read from right to left, which differs from Westerners. Therefore, everything from menu placement to scrolling behaviors should align with the website’s intended audience.

Lastly, symbolism and meaning are crucial. From images to icons, each can carry varying connotations across cultures. For instance, a thumbs-up can be positive in one culture but may be offensive in another. While gaining this understanding of symbolic meanings may take time, designers can ensure they use symbols that communicate the right message.

Designing for Clients of Different Cultures

When designing with cultural differences in mind, web designers must adapt their approach to ensure the final product resonates with diverse audiences. Several key strategies are available to help.

1. Research Cultural Norms and Preferences

Before starting any design project, researching the culture is essential for attracting the client’s target audience. This includes studying popular design trends, color symbolism and cultural attitudes toward technology.

In Japan, communication tends to be more contextual and reliant on shared understanding. This can affect how a designer presents content on a website. However, the U.S. and Germany prefer direct communication, where clarity and straightforwardness are key. Web designers should understand these preferences to align the site with users’ visual and emotional expectations.

2. Structure Client Meetings for Participation

Effective communication is critical when working on site designs across cultures, especially when face-to-face meetings are impossible. For example, it can be hard to understand someone on the other line of a phone call when facial expressions and body language are nonexistent.

Therefore, it is important to structure meetings with international clients to encourage participation. Particularly when access to nonverbal feedback like body language is limited, people with marginalized identities or those from more reserved cultures often find it harder to jump into discussions during phone calls. To mitigate this, incorporate nonverbal communication such as chat functions or reactions, or specifically invite others to chime into the conversation. This ensures everyone can share their input and create a more productive meeting with clients.

3. Use Flexible Design Frameworks

Designers should allow for flexibility in their frameworks to meet the needs of different cultures. This means creating layouts, color schemes and features professionals can easily adapt to suit various audiences. A modular design that allows for changes in visual elements makes it easier to cater to specific regions without starting from scratch.

4. Study the Six Dimensions of National Culture

Geert Hofstede’s six dimensions of national culture include cultural insights such as power distance, masculinity versus femininity and uncertainty avoidance. These dimensions appear on world maps and provide a valuable understanding of how cultural values shape behaviors.

In turn, these dimensions help designers comprehend how users interact with websites. For instance, cultures with higher power distance mean hierarchical structures are more common, so formally structured websites are preferable.

5. Use Testing and Feedback

Testing and gathering feedback are surefire ways to understand whether a design is relatable. Conduct usability tests with users from the target culture and solicit input on key design elements. This will uncover cultural blind spots and allow a website to evolve in a way that meets audience expectations.

Adapting to Cultural Differences in Web Design

Cultural awareness and adaptability are key in designing for global audiences. Take the time to understand peoples’ norms and streamline the process using a flexible design framework. Leveraging these strategies will strengthen the workflow and strengthen relationship-building with clients worldwide.

Wireframe vs. Mock-up vs. Prototype: Differences and Use Cases in Design

Design is an ever-changing field, as trends shift and more people go online. Twenty years ago, very few businesses had a digital presence compared to the millions operating brick-and-mortar stores. Today, most companies of all sizes have websites. Because each brand has a unique focus and customer base, determining the best design methods for each client requires meticulous planning.

You must fully understand a business’s needs before developing a website, app or product. How you set things in motion depends on the end user and company goals.

What Are the Differences Between Design Frameworks?

According to Cognitive Market Research, the global web design market is worth an estimated $56.8 billion and will grow 8.5% annually through 2031. With a growing market comes a lot of competition for design work. The more organized you are with your processes, the happier your clients will be and the more referrals you’ll get.

You may use one or more methods to design a site. Understanding what each does and when to utilize it allows you to move between structures and present a viable product to your clients. It’s also easier to make big changes during the planning stage.

Wireframes

Wireframes are one of the most commonly used formats in design. In its simplest form, the wireframe shows the basic layout plan for the site and features that may be added. They work great for early collaboration to get a vision in place for the finished design.

This stage is about effectively communicating the basic ideas of the site effectively to stakeholders, as getting a client on board with the overall design sets the tone of the entire project.

Mock-ups

A mock-up shows the aesthetics of the design and gives the client some things to consider. These are often utilized to show options for the finished product. They are usually based on the wireframe and contain the basic look agreed upon but include a lot more detail, graphics and colors to begin bringing the design to life.

Here, a designer’s job is to do more than just present a visual — the designer essentially becomes a verbal and visual storyteller that narrates to the client how each element will look and function together to meet user needs. As 60% of an innovation leader’s role lies in effective storytelling, and first impressions are 94% design-related, this phase could arguably be the most important when getting clients on board with a final design.

Prototypes

A prototype is usually the final stage before approval. It gives you a chance to test that everything works as intended. Some people call this a staging phase. The client can interact with the interface and see how it functions.

This phase mainly involves guiding clients through different scenarios and use cases, demonstrating the site’s value and effectiveness at meeting consumer needs. It gives the designer’s clients a final chance to ensure they feel confident with their investment before moving forward.

Examples of How to Use Each Type of Model

Most designers will use all three at various stages of the design process. To better understand how each functions, consider a mock design job and see how the designer moves through the different phases of the project.

Phase 1: Concept

The designer meets with a new client and collects ideas to determine what they want for their website design. The customer signs a contract and the designer gets to work. After a bit of research into the industry and what competitors offer, they use a wireframe to lay out what the website will look like.

The client receives a rendering that shows the different pages that will be on the site, as well as the navigation structure and content. Any special features of the design plans for the site are also laid out in the image. Some back and forth tends to happen at this stage.

Phase 2: Aesthetics and Tweaking

Once the client approves the basic concept, the designer gets to work coming up with a design that matches the brand’s personality. They use the wireframe to lay out a background, hero image, icons and headings.

The website is starting to look more like a site, but the elements of the design are not yet clickable or interactive. The client still receives a two-dimensional image for their consideration. At this juncture, they may have a few style changes.

Phase 3: Testing and Final Approval

The final phase of the design process usually moves the concept into a prototype. Webpages are created in a staging area that the designer, client and key players can access.

The designer clicks through each link or button to ensure the site functions as intended. They may also run tests at this time to see how long the pages take to load and what the overall impression from the target audience is. Work is ongoing after approval because the designer must ensure the client is happy with how the site functions.

Use Each Tool at the Right Time

The key to successfully using wireframes, mock-ups and prototypes as a designer is tapping into them at the appropriate time. A strong wireframe can help you sell the website or app concept to a lead, but the prototype shows just what you’re capable of designing and why it will help your customer’s business.

How Designers Can Implement UGC for Enhanced User Engagement

Deepen audience engagement and heighten trust factors by including user-generated content (UGC) in your marketing strategy. Brands can save time and money by turning to their loyal customers to create content they can share and shore up their lead-generating machine. 

Enhancing user engagement via UGC is simple. Incorporating these features into your website, app and social media designs should be seamless. Here are some ways designers can add UGC features to websites to encourage their use. 

1. Incorporate Social Media

Finding new ways to reach your audience is challenging in the sea of voices on social media. Business owners can tap into the power of influencer marketing and get people with an audience similar to yours to post about your brand. 

Adding those details to your website in the form of a scrolling feed or reviews can build a cross-channel environment that increases engagement. Developers have access to plugins that automate content sharing. You can also add links to your social pages to encourage participation and gain followers.

Another idea is to ask your users to generate posts for you. According to research, around 83% of U.S. adults use YouTube, and another 68% are on Facebook. There is some crossover between platforms, but it’s safe to say most American adults use social media frequently. You can include embeds of posts with positive mentions as mini testimonials on your site. 

2. Create Membership Tiers

If you use a content management system (CMS), such as WordPress, you can let people sign up to be contributors or editors on your site. You can set articles to only publish once approved to prevent anything inappropriate from appearing. 

Adding interesting articles to your website drives traffic and shows visitors you keep things updated. If you have customers who’ve used your product for a long time or in unique ways, ask them to share their stories in a post you can add to your site.

Create a template users can follow to keep your site looking consistent. Tapping into the power of a content management system can prevent a hodgepodge look in your design as various people contribute. 

3. Include Reviews

Adding reviews and testimonials gives you UGC that drives engagement and improves trust. People are much more likely to listen to what their peers say about your business than any claim you can make yourself. 

Be cautious about where you gather reviews. Businesses have come under scrutiny in recent years for generating falsely inflated reviews that make their offerings look better than they are. If you use actual customers to add their honest feedback, you can use reviews as a UCG. Add an area on your website where they can post comments if they purchased the product. Utilize widgets to include Google Reviews or Facebook Reviews. 

4. Maintain a Forum

Forums are still a popular way for people to connect with like-minded consumers. Many happen within social media groups or on websites. You’ll also find people posting on comment sites such as Reddit. However, for niche topics, boards on your site can attract quite a bit of traffic and generate endless content possibilities and ideas for more in-depth articles. 

Create topics based on what keywords people search for on your site. If visitors frequently have a question, what better way to get it answered than through their peers? You’ll generate engagement as people post and comment on your forum. 

5. Create and Publish Interactive Videos

Studies show around 81% of marketing professionals use video to increase sales. This surge in video content makes sense, as video media encourages shoppers to linger on a page longer, which typically means they will spend more. Finding a way to combine the power of video with UGC may drive more traffic to your website and increase mentions on social media.

For example, ask customers to post a short clip of how they use your product. Ask them to share video testimonials — a particularly important part of your video strategy, as more than 70% of consumers trust brands more if they have positive video testimonials available. Or, you could create a contest highlighting some aspect of your brand and select a winner.

Encourage customers to participate by giving them calls to action they can use for inspiration. Ordinarily, people may not know where to start, but you can ask them to open a video with a phrase such as, “ABC company helped me …” The overall aesthetics of the design can draw them in and encourage them to learn more through a video presentation.

6. Tweak Your Landing Page

Focus on your customers and find out what they think of your brand. Your design may need to change to reflect all the amazing UGC created to showcase your company.

Change your landing page so it features UGC. Add a slider at the top with embeds of social media posts mentioning your brand. Embed a video one of your top customers created. Find little ways to incorporate what your customers say about you, and your brand image will become one of the top in your industry. 

Leverage UGC Wisely

Some of the content users produce may not match the tone of your brand. You must carefully sort through what’s offered and keep the things that match your image. Enlisting the help of customers to come up with new items to post can save you time and money and lend authenticity to your business. Take the time to set standards and vet each piece carefully for the best presentation possible.

Should Your Business Site Feature a Portfolio on the Landing Page?

Your landing page is often the first impression visitors have of your business. A well-designed site means the difference between a user who bounces away and one who converts into a lead. Should you include a portfolio on your landing page? Will it distract from the buyer’s journey?

The answer isn’t cut and dried. You might find a portfolio works well on one landing page and not another. In a Databox survey, researchers found a 26% average landing page conversion rate across industries. However, some sites saw rates as high as 70%. Your goals should start where your site currently is and gradually increase until you hit the range you desire.

Does Your Business Site Need a Portfolio?

What does a portfolio do for your business site? You’ve likely seen galleries on sites for home builders, interior designers and cosmetic surgeons. If you can show a clear before and after or how your product is unique, a portfolio inspires users.

Yes: You Offer Custom Options

Companies offering custom solutions can best showcase their abilities via photo galleries. If you build homes, create outdoor landscapes, create home decor or do any other type of custom work, then a portfolio on your landing page is a must.

Utilize your portfolio to show off your best work. Choose only photos highlighting what you do best. If you add detailing to cars, share a range of common requests such as pinstripes and more detailed work such as flames down the side of an old Chevy.



Grace Point Contracting offers custom options based on the needs of each client. Note the highlighted gallery image in the screenshot above and the details on how they added new siding, windows and doors.


Potential customers want to see the quality of work before contracting, so the images highlight their abilities, the process and the beautiful finished product.

Yes: You Sell Services

Not everyone is great at selling themselves. You might be the best vinyl vehicle wrap installer in your state, but if you don’t know how to convey the message to potential business to business (B2B) buyers, you may miss out on sales.

Your landing page can serve as a sales tool, so you don’t have to pitch yourself as hard. You can even pull it up and use it as a prop when talking to potential clients. Use the portfolio to showcase the work you’re most proud of.

Kentucky Dent Guy uses a portfolio on his landing page to highlight some of the more challenging dent repairs he’s capable of. The photos automatically rotate, so you can see how he fixes bumpers, door dings and hail damage.

Since each job is unique, this allows leads to see if his service might work for them. He also includes a way to phone and text him to get a fast quote.

Yes: Before and After Is Your Lifeblood

A portfolio is the perfect solution for any business that does improvements. For example, if you own an interior design company, landscaping firm, dental practice or anything that goes from start to finish with an improvement, you can showcase the before and after photos in your portfolio and make a powerful impression.

Select images with startling contrast. Think about the services and products making you the most profit and highlight them on your landing page portfolio.

Streitz Dental Arts shows their abilities by placing side-by-side photos of before and after smiles on their website. Some of the images are startling, which encourages clients with severe dental issues to contact them.

When to Avoid a Portfolio on Your Landing Page

You might wonder if there is ever a time you shouldn’t put a portfolio on your landing page. Of course, there are times when it will distract from the sales funnel and not add much value to your site. Here is when you should say no to a landing page gallery:

No: You Sell a Consistent Product

If you sell the same product that does the same thing for each customer, you may not need a portfolio. You might be better served highlighting the image in use or showing it from different angles.

Consider the details a customer needs to make an informed decision about buying from you. If they only need price, product details and a few images, avoid a bulky portfolio and keep the page streamlined.

No: Your Bounce Rate Is High

Do site visitors land on your page and immediately bounce away? You may have too much clutter on your landing pages. Remember to focus on a single goal for a single element on your site.

Who is your target audience? If you drive visitors from Facebook to collect a free guide and capture their emails, you shouldn’t distract from the purpose of the page. Add a simple form and let them know what they’re getting in exchange for their information.

Powerful Portfolios for Your Site

There is a time and place to add portfolios to your business website. Think about the purpose of each page and whether an image gallery adds to your goal and moves the user toward an action.

Add new features and test to see how users respond. Over time, your use of images should improve and you’ll know what drives your target audience. In the meantime, add photos when it makes sense and adds to the discussion. You can always take them down again and try something else.

Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. Eleanor was the creative director and occasional blog writer at a prominent digital marketing agency before becoming her own boss in 2018. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.

Attorney Legal Services Website

We worked with attorney Lora Holman to put together a great site that would work for her law office. The site includes a large list of services she offers, with a detail page to increase specific SEO on the site for those particular services and keyword phrases. We also created a back end of the site for easy editing, addition, and removal of posts, pages, and other content.

5 Steps to Write a UX Design Proposal

Given how digital technology became commonplace in our society, users’ expectations from the platforms they use also evolved. According to published data, 94% of people won’t trust a website or app with outdated design, with 75% basing the business’ credibility on design alone. Statistics suggest that 52% of users won’t use a website because of poor aesthetics, with 90% who stopped using apps due to their poor performance.

Your website, app, or online platform may be due for a visual and User Experience (UX) design overhaul. This is where writing a proper UX design proposal comes into play, as it can help you outline your design in great detail. Let’s tackle UX design proposal writing in detail to enable you to build a better platform for your users in 2021.

Reasons to Write a UX Design Proposal

So, what are UX design proposals all about? They are documents that help businesses outline their UX redesign plans for an app, website, or online product. Typically, companies don’t write UX design proposals if everything in said product is working well and their user bases and revenue continue to grow. However, businesses also want to outperform their competitors and position their brands properly on the open market.

According to reports, 80% of users are willing to pay extra for better UX, with 70% of business leaders seeing UX as a competitive differentiator. It’s not enough for a mobile app or a website to simply “work” – it has to be aesthetically pleasing, engaging, affordable, and functionally up-to-date. This is where UX design proposals come to the forefront. Writing such a document before tackling a major UX design overhaul of your product can lead to several benefits, including:

  • Full understanding of your product’s current pros and cons
  • Assurance that the new UX design won’t be worse than the current iteration
  • Making sure that the new UX design has long-term viability
  • Ability to outline the development timeline and budgetary needs properly
  • Freedom to pilot the new UX design with test groups and spruce up defects

Writing a Great UX Design Proposal

  1. Outline the Pressing Issues in Current Design

The first item on your agenda should be to audit the current state of your product. What exactly leads to your writing of a new UX design proposal? Is your website or app underperforming, experiencing technical difficulties, or is lagging on UX design trends?

UX redesign is a major project, one which will take your team months to implement properly. This is why your team will want a clear outline of exactly are the issues with the current build of your product. If your writing skills are lacking, you can order product review writing from a trustworthy service to help in the product review and auditing stages. Use your strengths as a software developer and UX designer to describe what caused you to write a UX design proposal before moving further.

  1. Define the Outcomes of Implementing New UX Design

What would the hypothetical results of implementing a new UX design look like? As we’ve mentioned, rolling back a non-functional UX design to a previous build will take up unnecessary resources. For your UX design proposal to hold under scrutiny, you will need to outline the very objective benefits of its implementation. Depending on the extent and specific areas you want to address with your UX redesign, some outcomes can include:

  • Improved product stability and visual appeal
  • Better user engagement and market acquisition
  • Optimized future updating and development processes
  • Elimination of outdated code and visuals from the UI
  1. Describe the Development Timeline and Budget Needs

Once you’ve outlined the cause of writing a UX design proposal and the benefits of implementing it, you should proceed to describe the development timeline. How long will it take you to test the new UX design and implement it on a live build? Subsequently, what do you need in terms of manpower and resources to develop your UX design?

It’s best to be as objective and critical as possible when writing this section of the proposal since your team will want concrete referential information. Be realistic about how much time and resources you need, and your proposal is more likely to be approved for full production.

  1. Back your Claims with Social Proof and Statistics

You can help your cause by including references and statistical research based on UX design. For example, studies show that 88% of people are unlikely to return to a website after poor UX.

Your colleagues and decision-makers within your company need to be aware of current UX design trends to make an informed decision on UX redesign. You can go a step further and collect user feedback on your app or website and include it in the UX design proposal. Social proof coming from your user base is essential, as it will indicate what works and doesn’t work for your audience.

  1. Create a FAQ Section to Cap Off the UX Design Proposal

Depending on how tech-savvy the decision-makers in your company are, you may want to write an FAQ section into the design proposal. This can serve as a great referential segment for people who are not designers or programmers but still have a say in approving your document. Some questions you should aim to answer include:

  • How do we define a “successful” UX design?
  • Why do we need a UX redesign at this stage?
  • What will we do in case the new UX design doesn’t catch on?
  • What will happen if we go over budget or breach the development deadline?
  • How will we test the new UX design before going live with it?

Answer each of these questions with a short 2-3 sentence paragraph to show foresight and critical thinking. Answering “taboo” questions in a FAQ section will increase the likelihood of your UX design proposal being approved.

Making Good Use of your UX Design Proposal (Conclusion)

Once your UX design proposal is greenlit, you should stick to it as much as possible. Don’t deviate from your plans to justify the trust put into your hands. If any changes need to be made to the UX design proposal, you should ask for additional approval before course-correcting. Going into a redesign with a concrete plan is an amazing way to showcase that you are not only a designer but a decision-maker.

Author’s bio. Jessica Fender is a copywriter and blogger with a background in marketing and sales. She enjoys sharing her experience with like-minded professionals who aim to provide customers with high-quality services.

How to Design the Perfect Portfolio Page to Best Represent Your Brand’s Quality

One of the best ways to attract new clients is showing them your top projects. Your website portfolio page is your chance to highlight your expertise in specific areas. You can use it to stand out from the competition and make a strong impression so they remember you when they are ready to hire someone.

According to Internet Live Stats, there are approximately 1.86 billion websites online. However, not all are active and some park on top of other domains. Still, you’re competing with a lot of noise to get your portfolio page noticed. People have many options on where to spend their time. Make your page interesting enough that they want to devote some of their day there.

What is the secret ingredient that makes one portfolio page stand out from another? You must grab attention, showcase the wide scope of your work and instill the idea your brand is high quality all with a few photos and text. Here are the steps to achieving the perfect online presence.

1. Choose Your Best Work

Selecting only the photos highlighting the top quality work you do might seem like a no-brainer. However, it’s easy to hone in on the project you completed and not realize the photos don’t truly do it justice. Your portfolio is about more than just great projects. It must encompass great pictures to highlight your abilities.

Make sure any photos you use clearly show the before and after of your work. Take the time to invest in photo editing and excellent equipment so your images aren’t filled with shadows and poor lighting. Select only the best images.

Ronald L. Receveur, DDS offers dental implants. They showcase their best work in their “Smile Gallery.” You can scroll through the different images to see the beautiful smiles they’ve created.

Something they add to their portfolio page that works particularly well is a link to patient testimonials. Click on any video to hear more about what their service did for the person and get a glimpse of what their smile looks like in real life.

2. Add Trust Factors

When people land on your page, they have no reason to trust you. Even if a friend or family member referred them, they’ve not done business with you before. You must show them you can be trusted. You can add several trust factors to your portfolio page to show you’re honest.

In addition to reviews and testimonials, make your contact information easy to find. People want to know they can get in touch if something goes wrong after their purchase. Add any organizations you belong to, such as professional trade associations or the Better Business Bureau.

3. Utilize Case Studies

There may be times when you have a particularly challenging task to complete. Highlighting how you were able to overcome difficulties shows clients you don’t stop until you find the right solution. Case studies give you an opportunity to share photos of the finished project, but also dig deeper into the story behind the job.

Illuminated Integration shares the details of a job they did for Otterbein Church. The task was to convert a gymnasium into a church sanctuary. They had to figure out how to create a welcoming atmosphere that suited the needs of a large, modern church. The company worked on lighting, acoustics, audio, video, curtains and atmospheric controls.

4. Tell Them Who You Are

In the midst of sharing stories about your projects, make sure you show potential clients who you are. While telling customer stories, tell your own story. What do you stand for? What is at the core of why you do the work you do?

At a minimum, include a short about section and a link to more details. Your portfolio page is an excellent location to share a video about your brand story.

5. Share the Details

Your portfolio is about more than just the finished product of your hard work. People want to know you understand the steps involved in getting from Point A to Point B. You must tell a story as you share examples of your work. What was particularly challenging about the job? How is it unique from other projects of a similar nature? Show off your expertise.

Walnut Ridge Landscape Design shares their three-dimensional plan for the space next to a photograph of the finished project. By showing site visitors their concept, they prove they can come up with a plan and bring it to life.

6. Include a Call to Action (CTA)

You might not naturally place a CTA button on your portfolio page, but the goal of the page is to seek new leads. When someone views your images, the ideal result will be they want to hire you.

Make your CTA easy to find. Ideally, you’ll include a link near the top of the page offering a free consultation or quote. Some people will click the button right away and others will spend time perusing your portfolio, so you may want to add a second button under your gallery or to the side.

Try different placements until you find the one your users respond best to. Conduct split testing, adjust the wording, try different colors and keep tweaking until you’re satisfied with your conversion rates.

Quality Over Quantity

Your photos are the face of your brand online. It’s better to have a few high-quality images taken by a professional photographer than a ton of pictures with fuzzy focus or dark shadows. Ideally, you’ll choose a wide range of projects so you can showcase your abilities, but don’t be afraid to limit yourself until you have the right ones to prove your worth as a business.

Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. Eleanor was the creative director and occasional blog writer at a prominent digital marketing agency before becoming her own boss in 2018. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.

5 Winning Strategies: Amazing App Design

Designing an app is a far more precarious endeavor than it was some years ago. The design of an app relays its purpose and identifies a marketable target audience. However, you could have the technical and aesthetic design down to a science and still come up with a dud.

Creating a hit every time is unlikely but creating successful apps consistently and also a powerful personal brand for a company’s leaders can be accomplished by following a few strategies.

  1. Study your customer

The first thing that any development company needs to do first is to study the customer. If an ideal target audience is already selected then you and your team should poll them for their reactions to the design. If your audience is unknown you can start identifying them by studying what the market dictates.

You can target the customers who download similar apps to your own or find which apps are drawing the most viewership and design accordingly. Regardless of the individual plan, it is vital that app companies understand their customers and what they want to see out of an app.

  1. Put UX design first

Mobile app developers must start making UX a more important part of the design process. All of the largest companies on the planet invest heavily into the user experience and all that it entails. Customers who feel as though they have been interacted with and engaged are more likely to provide patronage to your app.

UX is often misunderstood as a lesser technical craft that only concerns itself with the aesthetic. UX design is the totality of an application from open to close. Response times, custom deep links, and customer satisfaction are all important facets of the UX designer’s toolbox. An app with great UX design is an app that is created to make an impact on its audience.

  1. Learn from Agile developers

One of the biggest deterrents for software development companies is the management philosophy. Development environments that are too draconian or restrictive are likely to fall victim to any number of ailments that befall broken development teams.

The emphasis on teamwork helps all of the developers to stay focused and engaged while developing the app. No one wants to feel excluded or unheard and the agile method makes sure that not one of your developers goes unheeded.

  1. Ask users to help improve your product

Getting help from your audience while your app is in development will guarantee that your product finds success, even if it’s only with a few. To stay ahead of the game you will want to be as flexible as possible with your app and use email marketing as a way to get in touch with your audience and thus, get their feedback regarding your app.

The design of your app should always be up for review and if a better idea comes along then it is usually worthwhile to institute the change. This means that your team and their ideas should be flexible as well. An app that is designed well on the market has probably been through several iterations before it was released.

  1. Be flexible

Once development is settled under a specified plan then you will want to test the designs on your audience. Ask them to give you honest feedback so that your team may develop an app that is better suited to the market. There is no better person to tell you what needs to change than your customer.

Keeping your team flexible will guarantee that your product won’t ever be outdated or old hat. Most importantly, ask the experts in the field about their apps and their process for developing those apps. You can learn invaluable strategies from developers who have been through the rigamarole many times before.

Rather than hoping your team survives it may be all the better to initiate a new development philosophy. The agile method is one such philosophy that believes in open communication, constant improvement, and iterative app development.

Consult with professional UX designers, UI designers, and any other technical experts you can find to get ideas about how to make your app more appealing and marketable. Oftentimes, app developers simply need an outside voice to tell them where to aim next.

App developers who take full advantage of the resources available will undoubtedly find success. Creating an app with an amazing design is as simple as asking questions and always looking to improve.

Ways to Improve User Experience Through Web Design

Over the last few years, much has been said about user experience or UX, which, in a nutshell, pertains to how a user feels about using a product, application, service, or website.

For webmasters, the concept of UX just got real when Google announced that it would be an official ranking factor beginning in May 2021.

With Google rolling out page experience signals in ranking, it has become imperative for webmasters to ensure that people get nothing but the most helpful and enjoyable experience when visiting their sites.

So far, the best way to improve website UX is through web design. From boosting site speed to improving readability, here are some web design tweaks you can make to enhance the user experience.

Improve Page Speed

Internet users these days expect web pages to load in three seconds or less.

If loading your pages takes longer than that, they will likely bounce off to a website that loads faster.

If you’re not sure about your page speed, use Google’s Page Speed Tools.

As for web design tweaks that will help improve your page speed, some of the things you can do include optimizing your images and keeping the use of heavy graphics, custom fonts, and pop-ups to a minimum.

Make Website Navigation Easy

Bad website navigation can make a business lose customers. With the poor user experience that difficult-to-navigate sites provide their visitors, them bouncing off a website is understandable.

Website navigation needs to be easy to provide a good user experience. Some of the web design adjustments you can make to improve navigation include:

  • Making all navigational elements clickable
  • Featuring drop-down menus
  • Putting up a working search feature
  • Anchored navigation bars
  • Internal linking
  • Linking the logo back to the home page

Use The Power of White Space

Your website can offer a much better user experience if visitors find your content easy to read, and that is something that white space does very well.

Also referred to as a margin or negative space, white space gives your content a lot of breathing room, making it look more enticing to read than walls of text.

Aside from making pages more readable, white spaces also provide harmony and balance to your page. More importantly, white spaces make your calls to action (CTAs) stand out because the page no longer looks cluttered.

Keep the Design Clean

For a web designer, it’s easy to give in to the temptation of showing off their graphic design skills and end up with a website that’s practically begging for attention with the wanton use of animations, flashy colors, and other loud visual design elements.

Aside from slowing your website down, unnecessary visual elements also turn people off. In this day and age where minimalism is already a thing, keeping your web design simple and clean will always win people over.

Rid your web pages of unnecessary stuff, and you’ll have a much cleaner interface that will unfailingly enhance the user experience.

Make Mobile-friendliness A Priority

There are three billion smartphone users in the world today. Mobile users have long outnumbered desktop users, and they deserve every bit of effort you can make to make your pages look great on their devices.

Mobile users, in general, don’t relish the idea of pinching, zooming, scrolling sideways, or tapping on very tiny buttons of non-mobile-friendly sites. If your website forces them to do that on their devices, then you’re not providing them with an excellent user experience.

You can change that by switching to responsive web design, which will make your website adjust to the size of the screen people are using. Responsive web design gives mobile and desktop users alike an optimal browsing experience, which leads to a better UX.

These are just some of the ways you can enhance UX through web design. Partner with a reliable web design agency to make the necessary adjustments to your website design, and you’ll discover more ways to make the user experience even more remarkable for your visitors.

 

About the Author

Shawn Byrne is the founder and CEO of SEOPhoenix.net. Shawn started his career in I.T. troubleshooting workstations, servers and networks, then went on to doing SEO as a side project and quickly found success in ranking websites. It was easy for him to grasp not only the algorithms but also the technical side which most SEO strategists miss and neglect because of its complexities. SEO Phoenix then grew based on its own rankings and referrals.

 

Effective Use of Fonts in Web Designs

Do you know that sometimes little things make a big difference among professional web designers and incompetent web designers? It is little things that we often ignore and don’t pay any consideration to. If you are a professional designer, then you might know these facts or those little things that are stopping you from becoming a master in your field.

If you have experience in designing a website, then you might know all the little points that make a big difference.

Have you ever tried to make minor changes on your website that resulted in a significant contrast? Yes, this is what I am talking about. Fixing ignored results is a considerable improvement that left us surprised and pleased at the same time.

Okay, if changes are so uncomplicated and easy to make, then why not do it 100%? If you want to give a professional and eye-catchy look to your website, then don’t even try to miss these tiny errors that may create a big problem in the future. Now you might be thinking that what obstacles I am actually referring to? Let’s proceed with the topic.

Effective Use of Fonts in Web Designs

The actual topic that I want you guys to understand is the complexity and significance of fonts or typeface that we use on our websites. The use of fonts in designs referred to as Typography that can impact significantly on your website.

With the right typography, you can make people understand your website in a better way. Now, how true is this? Let’s go in-depth to prove my words.

Why Should You Care About Font Design?

Do you know that Steve Jobs is called as the father of typography? Is it just because he originated ten fonts? No, it is because those ten fonts had made a vast and remarkable significant to our industry. He got this recognition because fonts play an unimaginable role in our website that can’t be contradicted.

Let’s make you more impressed and gratified.

Everyone wants a change in life. We, as human nature, get gloomy while looking at the same thing for a long time. Have you ever wondered that for how long we could look at the same style or design of font? Of course, we can’t. Choosing the right font for your website can do wonders that you can’t imagine.

Let’s come straight; typography reflects the context of your work. If it is done right, then it will have a powerful impact on the users. With the right typography, a user can easily understand the logic of your design. If you haven’t chosen the right fonts for your website, then how come you will be able to make them know your design?

Now, let me elaborate on this topic by mentioning points that will allow you to stop for a while and will force you to think that why you should care about Font design.

1- It Creates a Specific Identity

Believe me or not, but the fact that you can’t deny is that a specific font conveys a particular message to the reader or a visitor. It depends on you that what type of message you let to communicate them. For example, if we use Montserrat font in our graphic designs then its impact will be different on our audience, however instead of this if we use any other font then there will be a big difference. The fonts vary from website to website. You can’t utilize the same style or the same size as the font for every website. Understanding the importance and nature of fonts for your newly created website is a symbol of a professional designer.

2- It Helps You to Grow

Using the right font for your website assists you to flourish your business. Now, how much right is it? Let’s verify this point with a little example. For Instance, you have made a website on a specific niche. If you have selected the right fonts that are easily understandable, then the chances are that people will agree to read the entire context of your website with comfort.

On the other hand, if you haven’t chosen the right nature of font or size of the font, then the user will switch to someone’s else website where he can read the same context with a better font quality. Isn’t it make sense?

3- It Attracts the Audience

Choosing the right font for your website attracts your customers. It let them stay on your website due to good readability, and good readability comes by selecting the readable fonts. If you want that more and more customers visit your site, then be selective and be careful in choosing the font. A perfect font conveys a certain mood or message to the audience, so make sure it won’t be the wrong one.

4- It Develops Conformity

When you use the same font or two fonts repeatedly, then it helps to create harmony or conformity, and the user remained stuck to your website. However, using so many fonts in a single context make people confused, and somehow, they lose their interest, so that’s why fonts have so much importance.

Final Thoughts

So, here are a few points that you should consider before designing a website. As a professional designer, you should never avoid little things that may disturb your entire site. Try to adapt those things that have a positive impact, and try to avoid those mistakes that have a negative effect.

I hope you will find this article useful and informative, and it will help you to make the most excellent website in the future. Consider these points and be a professional web designer.