5 Easy Steps to Make Your Website Your #1 Employee (6 page)

I’m going to return now to something I discussed earlier in the book, and that is purpose
—
your purpose as a business.
As we dissect the elements of visual design, we still need to keep our focus on your ultimate purpose, or goal.
Is your purpose to sell a widget?
Or, is it to sell a high
-
level professional service?
Maybe it’s neither.
Perhaps in your case, the purpose is not to sell anything outright, but rather to present a polished and professional image.

No matter what the purpose is, it must be identified
…
and the design must be created to help you achieve that purpose.
One essential consideration in this regard is who your audiences are:
W
hat are they looking for?
What
are their expectations?
What hardware and software do they use? What will
they
see (perceive) when they come to
y
our website?

It is easy to become subjective when designing your business’s website, but it is important to step out of your shoes, and into those of your prospective customers.
These are the people who are going to make or break your business based on their reactions and actions upon visiting your website.
Once you have determined the purpose and lined it up against an understanding of your customer, it is much easier to design a site in which all of the design
elements work together
to achieve
the web
site’s main purpose.

The second area of focus when embarking on your website’s visual design is branding.
A website is the first impression many people have of a company, and it should
visually communicate
who you are, what you do, and what you stand for.

Much of the branding comes from the overall
design
of your website
…
and, within the layout, there are a number of elements.
T
hree
easy to see
layout
elements
that play a role in branding your business on your website are
your color scheme,
white space, and graphics (which includes things like images, photos,
masthea
ds, and
logo artwork
)
.
What do all of these visual elements suggest about your business?
Are all the elements complementary
?
O
r do they compete with one another, thus confusing the viewer?

The goal is for all of your visual elements to seamlessly create a strong image of what you do, what you offer, and what you provide.
Ironically, a very common mistake represented on many, many websites is that the graphic elements do not work together to tell that story
…
so much so that the viewer is left with absolutely no understanding of what the business does (much less why that business is excellent or special).

As I just mentioned,
design
is a
multi-faceted
area of
focus
when designing a website.
Although most people cannot consciously identify the reasons why, a good layout makes people feel comfortable with the website (and the company it represents), while a tightly packed layout makes people subconsciously uncomfortable.

A primary element of the effectiveness of a website’s
design
is its
color scheme
.
The fundamental use of color
in any marketing endeavor
is to help convey feeling or mood.
For example, a mix of deeper blues and grays ofte
n is used to convey integrity; c
ompanies like IBM, Boeing and Chase
—
all whose purpose is to earn, and keep, their customers’ trust
—
use
these colors.
On the other end of the spectrum, shades of red and orange are frequently
used to get peoples’ attention
, to excite them
: think
about brands such as
Coca Cola.

As much as the
color palette is key
—
it
must work with the graphic design elements and artwork to convey the visual impression you
are aiming to convey
—
so, too, is the use of
white space
within the layout.

White space can be a tricky feature to manipulate when building a website, and yet the use of it is very central to the viewer’s experience on your website.
One of the most challenging aspects of white space is that the appearance of it can vary, depending on the size of the monitor your customers are surfing the Internet on.

For example, on larger monitors, white space can appear magnified, creating large border areas on the pages.
Too much white space gives the appearance that there isn
’
t much content on the site and therefore the site doesn
’
t have much to say
. Probably not the best approach,
unless your name is Getty or Guggenheim
, and you don’t need to say anything for people to know who you are
.

On the flip side, there is such a thing as too little white space.
For example, when you look at the ads in a print newspaper, and see an advertisement that is overloaded with too much content, it
might make you feel like there is too much to read, so therefore you do not read it.
This is due to a
lack
of white space.

In reality,
one of
the intended
function
s
of white space
on a website might be referred to as
breathing space.
Fortunately, good website designers understand this delicate balance.
They will ensure there are sufficient, yet not overly large, margins on the top, bottom, and sides.
They will also consider and manipulate
the space between the lines of text
—
the greater the space, the more breathing room.
(Note that t
his space is directly impacted by the typeface chosen and point size used
, which are additional elements of a good website design.)

Breathing room, however, is not the only function, or even the primary function of white space. White space is also about directing the viewer’s attention. That’s why museums use large amounts of white space to focus your attention onto a very tiny block of text. A good designer will use white space in creative ways that most of us would never think of.

Photos, drawings and other graphic artwork
are essential ingredients for most websites, and they all
have several different uses in design.
The most b
asic
way to describe their function is that they are there
to tell a story
.
A carefully chosen
photo or visual
can do wonders to
help establish brand identity and product identity.

The tricky aspect of a graphic such as a photo is that it is part of the content or material that needs to be
designed into
the website. The shape, content and size of an image all affect the impact of the page; since all the graphic elements on the page work together, they all need to be carefully considered by a designer so that the end result has a strong and lasting impact on the reader.

Many times people ask if I can “drop in” a photo or graphic here or there, and what I have just explained is the reason that the answer is not always yes.
In order to make the right impression on the viewer, any and all graphic elements must be looked at as puzzle pieces.
Alone, they do not do anything visually; together, they embody an image that tells a story.

There are also a number of
secondary use
s
of smaller photos and
visual aspects.
One of the most important
is to help draw the readers’ eyes across the page
(combined with the skilled use of white space)
.
The objective of your website
design
is to keep the reader on it, and direct their attention to the call to action (common calls to action are to contact you, make a purchase, or click a link).

When designed properly, the graphics
, color scheme and layout
will draw the viewers’ eyes to the intended areas of the site.
When not designed properly,
elements like these will distract a reader
,
or
,
even
worse,
lead them away from
your message and site.

Now I would like to offer a demonstration of a v
isual
web
site
design that I view as not having been done correctly.
I did not get permission to include the home page here, but you can view it at this link:
www.kidsastronomy.com