Marketing Mailbag : Bothwell Marketing, Inc.

Energize Your Website With a Makeover

published in the Daily Journal

Dear Outdated:
Well the good news about site redesign, as opposed to building your first site, is that you have already completed the "Information Architecture" phase of building a website. You have complete content, you have a site architecture in place, and the navigational hierarchy is established. But, as you pointed out – is it pretty?

Let's face it. There is a wide range of website design out there - not all of it good. And the growing population of savvy web users can tell the difference. When contemplating a site redesign, take a fresh look at your site with the following thoughts in mind.

Does the color scheme jive with current trends (while not falling into the "trendy" category).
Do the colors clash?
Is there "flow" to the site? Does the eye go to the most important features first, or is it distracted by superfluous elements, animations or graphics?
Are all of the elements placed in boxes, or has a more imaginative approach been implemented?
Can the visitor easily locate the navigational elements?
Do you have to scroll horizontally in order to see the whole page?
Is the site content organized coherently?
Is the overall effect pleasing to the eye? If you can't be objective about your site, ask friends or colleagues for their honest opinion.

Let's discuss some design basics. First: color. Color has a language all its own. Color evokes emotion. For example, red is associated with power and action, blue with trust. Much of color's power is subliminal, but its influence is unquestionable.

On to layout: A website can, and should, break out of the "box". That is, your eyes need not detect a discernable grid with elements placed in neat little boxes for a site to appear clean and well-organized. Breaking out of the box, having design elements cross the lines of the grid, is far more interesting, not to mention innovative and creative. A site should also fit within the browser window. Horizontal scrolling is unacceptable under most conditions, and too much vertical scrolling means one thing: too much information on one page, and a longer loading time than necessary. Another important aspect of layout is the placement and handling of the navigational elements. Links to the different sections of your site should be displayed logically and accessibly. Your visitor should be able to get where they want to go, easily, and they should be able to get back to where they started from with one click.

Photographs. Photos are an easy way to enhance your viewer's experience. Photographs need to be optimized for use on the web for faster download, but not to the extent that they become degraded. If many photographs are used on your site, there needs to be consistency in the quality and color value. For instance, photos of attorneys should all be professionally shot, at the same angle and distance, and under the same lighting conditions. Photos should also demonstrate consistent color quality.

Many sites today are using Flash, a program by Macromedia used to create animations or "splash" pages and in some cases entire sites. Flash is a powerful and innovative tool - many award-winning websites make extensive use of Flash – but the same design aesthetics apply. Is the use of animation appropriate or is it distracting? Does it take too long to load?

So back to content. Yes, people are primarily looking for information, but the "look" of your site is important. Good website design says a lot about your firm. It says you are professional, it says you are current and contemporary in your approach to business, and it says you care about the visitors web experience. It may be key in differentiating your firm from others. People want to access information quickly and have it presented in an aesthetically pleasing way. Since the visitor to your site is a potential client, so should you.