5 Web Design Mistakes Your Business Needs To Avoid

As a web design and development company in Pune, we do a lot of work designing our client’s websites. Surprisingly though, we also spend a lot of time re-designing old websites and giving them a fresh look. Another reason we get so many website re-design requests is because of the relatively common web design mistakes that are previously committed. In today’s topic, we’re going to talk about the 5 most common web design mistakes most companies make that should be avoided at all costs.

Common Web Design Mistakes To Avoid

1. Not optimizing your website for mobile

One of the top cardinal sins of web design since 2016 is not having your website optimized for the smaller screens. Since 2016 Google has been focusing more and more on a better mobile-first experience and for good reason. People spend so much of their time on their phone that it only makes sense that your business should be represented well on the phone as well. People don’t take that into consideration while designing the website. They design the website to look unnecessarily flashy, too heavy with a lot of graphics and photos, but all that leads to is a heavy website that takes too long too long both on mobile and desktops and that the users don’t enjoy looking at.

2. Not optimizing your website for SEO

Now you may be wondering how Web Design affects your website SEO. Well if you read the previous point carefully you’ll notice how speed is a factor in both web design and SEO. Now a faster loading website won’t necessarily give you a higher ranking, but a slow website will definitely be penalized compared to its faster competitors. Web design plays a role in SEO also because if your site is designed well, your customers will love to visit it and spend more time on it. The more time they spend the better signals they send Google and the higher your rankings will progress.

3. Simplify the Layout

Another common error that most web design companies in Pune tend to make it that they make the layout of a website, web page too complicated and complex to show the effort they’ve put into the design. We at CodePlateau believe that the hardest design is a simple one where a lot of different elements work together seamlessly. Of course, clients tastes might differ from time to time but in most circumstances, we would definitely recommend something clean and simple.

4. Use Clear Communication

Within the first 10 seconds or less of having your customer visit your site, he should be able to tell what business you’re in. Even if he has never heard of your business ever before, the communication on your website should be crystal clear. While we’re on the subject of communication, we also need to talk about the typography you will be used as part of your web design aesthetics. Using clear easy to read fonts will go a long way in helping your content consumers enjoy their time on your site.

5. Not using Social Media Icons

People love sharing what they love and you as a business owner should provide your customers with every opportunity to share your website or your blogs with them. You can do this by adding your businesses social links in the footer on your website while also providing sharing options across the blogs and other content you may have. The more viral your content, the more exposure for your business.

Conclusion

It’s easy to summarize how to avoid making web design mistakes by always remembering one mantra for web design. When designing a website, always have the customer in your mind before anything else, design only for him and you’ll go a long way to make your business successfully online. If you need help with your company website, get in touch with the professionals.

Importance Of Web Designing In SEO

There are a lot of naysayers that don’t understand the link between a Web Designing and SEO process. While these two may seem complimentary to each other they need to work hand in hand if your business is to succeed. It is no longer about “if you build it they will come”, it is actually more on the lines of “if you build it well, they will come”. Here our take why website design is very important for your websites to search engine optimization.

5 Reasons Web Design is important for your business

1. Better Web Design More Visitors
Your website design will depend on the customers you would like to attract to it. For the younger generation a simple website without a lot of bells and whistles won’t be suitable while if you add too many “new age” features in your website and your customers are from an older generation they might not enjoy it as much. Now if you wonder what does SEO have to do with this remember that a lot of your SEO ranking has to do with the customers you can attract to your website and how long they stay on your website before moving on.

2. Site Speed
Another important aspect of SEO is how fast you‘re able to provide the required information to your customer. The quicker they receive the information they more they’re willing to stay on your website. Not only does the speed on your website matter for technical SEO, the speed at which the user can locate all the relevant information while on your website is another important aspect of how loyal of a consumer he becomes. Site speed itself is an important parameter that Google judges in ranking your website in its search.

3. Navigational Ease
Another important factor that could decide your website SEO is the ease with which users can find the information they’re looking for. I touched on it briefly in the last point and while they may seem contradictory to one another, how fast your potential customer can find the information he’s looking for can go a long way in ensuring that he keeps coming back to your website anytime he has any trouble with your particular skill set and needs answers. You’ll be steadily increasing your brand loyalist and reducing your dependency on paid ads to grow your fan base.

4. Professionalism
Another reasons companies rely on trusty web design companies in Pune for their requirements is because a well-designed website gives an air of professionalism to their brand. According to research, a customer is more likely to choose a business based on the quality of their website. A higher quality website gives an assurance to the customer that the business is to be trusted and they can do business with them.

5. Changes With Time
As with most things your customer preferences will change over time. As your audience matures so will their choices. If you are planning to grow with the company, it then becomes imperative to be able to change as per their needs. While the keywords you target will most likely not change you can always aesthetically revamp your website to continue to make it more attractive to your prospective customers.

Conclusion
Don’t let people tell you that web design and SEO are not linked because as we’ve discussed it above they very clearly are. If you are looking to build a new website for your organization or overhaul your existing website to match the needs of your current customers, you’ll need the services of a professional web design company in Pune that knows their way around both SEO and Web Design. If you‘d like to know more about how we can help you change your website to get more customers, get in touch with us today.

How to Build A Successful Brand With Your Web Design

It takes a lot of hard work and time to build a brand, something that’s recognized worldwide. However, there are always a few tips that you could use to speed up the process and start impressing your customers immediately. Now while there are many ways in which you can build your brand a simple process is to use your website. We’ll be looking at the best ways to build your brand using your website design.

7 Methods to Build Your Brand Using Web Design Quickly

1. Choosing The Right Theme
Your customers want to be able to associate your brand with some kind of personality. If your brand is focused on the youth you want to be able to inject some colorful personality theme to your website. Your website theme will decide the rest of the brand decisions on your website. I don’t mean a WordPress theme you choose, I mean the overall theme of how you want the website to look and the vibe you want the website to give off.

2. Choosing The Right Colours
Your web design theme should be centered on the right kind of colors. Each color should try and represent a unique brand identity if possible. Another thing of note here is that colors are very representative of emotions so pick colors based on the emotions you would like to evoke in your customer.

3. Be Consistent
No one likes inconsistencies be it in your product specifications or brand. Each aspect of your web design should be consistently designed. Use the same colors on each page of your website. Use the same fonts for the content. Your fonts for the headline and main body can be different but you still need it to be consistent.

4. Watch Your Tone
Your brand proposition will decide what kind of tone you should set for your content. If you’re appealing to businesses you need to be a little bit more formal but still friendly. For a younger audience try to be friendly and fun but informative. Whatever your tone may be you still need to be genuine in everything you say to your customers.

5. Show-Off Your Logo
Your brand logo is one aspect of your business that you can proudly display whenever possible (ideally place it on every page). Now logo placement is crucial. Such is the industry that unknowingly a trend has formed which usually brings out the best results. The best location to place your logo is actually on the top left of the screen because our eyes have naturally been trained to look there for company logo placements. Companies have tried for some unusual placements and it does occasionally work but when you’re just starting out with the brand building exercise we would recommend you stick with the top left corner of your website.

6. Evident Value Proposition
What many companies fail to understand is that their value proposition is an invaluable part of their company brand. There are some really important factors that go into building a value proposition for your business but that’s a whole other story. Make sure the value proposition is clear, concise, and something that’s truly going to provide value to the customer. High up on your website where the customers can see it immediately upon entering. Make it stand out from the rest of the content. Many websites use sliders to display their value propositions and you could try the same. Although, I always say different is better.

7. Be Unique
Speaking about ‘different is better’ make sure your web design is set apart from the competition. If you need inspiration you can always try and see some of your competitor websites. If you don’t find anything too fascinating that’s actually good news. Now you can try and combine different elements from various websites and make it your own (as long as it follows a single overall theme)

Conclusion
While all this may seem simple it really does take a professional eye to look at the details and make sense of all the pieces to help them fit together. If you need help building your brand, please do get in touch with us right away and we can get started on your web design and brand building strategy.

Need A Modern Web Design? Follow These Tips

Since you first completed work on your website you’ve pretty much left it alone. Your customers were coming in non-stop and you couldn’t be happier. Until now. Lately, with the competition blossoming you’ve had to step up your game as well and what better place to start than with your website. Your primary source of leads to generate new business. You want to go from stale and outdated, to new and fresh for your website. You want to get with the modern web design tips to completely overhaul your website and this list will help you do exactly that.

Best Modern Web Design Tips

1. Mix and Match Layout

Recent studies have shown that when online, customers are more prone to paying attention to your website when the layout is slightly off-track. Online shoppers and your website visitors are so used to seeing the same layout on every website that most of the time if you’re not doing something different, the site visitor has already tuned out half the website.

If your website layout forces them to pay attention by providing something interesting and inviting for their eyes you’ll be in a much better position to hold their attention. Your layout forms the cornerstone of the modern web design element of your website.

2. Custom Graphics and Icons

Welcome to the 21st century where everything needs to be snazzy and highly individualistic. Your website needs an identity and it’s your graphics and icons that lead the way in providing a sense of individuality to your website. How many websites have you seen lately that use the same tired icons to represent their business? Everyone has the same icons and graphics on their website which can actually work to your advantage.

By providing your customers with something different you’ll be way ahead of your competition when it comes to attracting new customers and keep your current customers happy.

3. Colours

Bright is best. We don’t mean your background, which in our opinion should remain white. We mean your header, footer, links and other elements on your website. Choose bright colours like light yellow, darker shades of pink, leaf green. All these are apparent favourites with the consumers online today.

4. Typography

Calibri and Cambria seem to be the official font of the internet. Almost 7/10 site probably use the same two fonts for their website when there are literally thousands of others to choose from. Why should you choose differently? Because people pay more attention to what they’re reading when they need to focus a bit harder to read the text. Our eyes have gotten so used to reading the Calibri and Cambria fonts that our minds tend to drift while we’re reading.

It’s a scientific fact that hard to read fonts promote better recall.

Choose your website font carefully. Especially if you’re providing in-depth, text-filled content which your users rely on. Using a different but pleasing typography will actually help your customer’s and they’ll keep coming back for more.

5. Transitioning Text and Animations

Another fascinating aspect of the modern web design methodology is to use exciting animations and transitions to captivate your audience. Video is one of the fastest growing formats of content delivery. You should link to some useful YouTube videos in your content, but the next best thing is to provide a healthy dose of animations and transitions to your website.

Conclusion

While it may seem easy, you’ll probably need professional assistance to guide you through revamping your website. That’s where CodePlateau comes in. CodePlateau is one of Pune’s best web design and development companies. Having worked for several large national and international clients, CodePlateau is in a perfect position to help transition your business into the new era. Get in touch with us today to find out more about how we can help each other prosper. Remember, your consultation is on us.

Does Your Website Need a Mobile Makeover?

When is the right time for your website to get a mobile makeover? As a professional web development company, here are some things we suggest you look for:

Responsive Website Design, What’s That?

For starters, a responsive website fits into any device used to access it. Smartphone users are set to touch 2.5 billion in 2019. Upgrading to responsive website design is no longer an option. Remember that your website markets your product or service 24/7. You will lose out on both loyal and new website visitors if you don’t upgrade.

“Mobile First” is a fast-growing and business-viable website design approach. Google already ranks responsive, mobile-friendly websites higher. This one factor should be enough reason for you to make the switch to responsive mobile-friendly website design.

Mobile Website Navigation Made Easy  

We have established that no website can do without a mobile makeover. Let’s consider the little but important details now. The smaller mobile screen size can cause major website navigability issues. Enhanced website design can help you counter this problem. Your mobile website would be better off with crisp, precise, prioritized content. Everything has to look accessible, organized and clean in a mobile website. A dynamic search text box, for example, is best used in a complex website mobile makeover.

Faster Customer Connect

Your website gets multiple hits every day. Why aren’t they converting into business then? It is highly probable that your website needs to be a mobile-friendly website to be visited by more people. Mobile search is used by most customers now, compared to using laptops or other devices.

Mobile customers are looking for an immediate response. Upgrading your website and optimizing it for conversions is more likely to generate a larger customer base.  The customer also forms an opinion of your website within the first ten seconds. That is where a well-designed and structured mobile website makes a difference.

Easy Website Maintenance

The mobile version of your website will always be easier to maintain. You need not update both the desktop and mobile version. A responsive website requires only one update. A mobile-friendly website is both present and future-ready. With the right approach, it is easier to engage the customer on a mobile device. The experience is more exclusive and personal here.

We have shared here only some of the many reasons as to why you must switch to a mobile-friendly website. Do let us know your views on the article.

How to Ensure Successful Web Design for a Target Audience

To create a truly amazing website design, knowing your target audience is half the battle won. You may impress a client with an attractive layout and graphics. But to exert a major influence on the website user, you need to understand them first. Here are the things you can do:

Highlight the Customer Problem You are Solving

How does your product or service make your customer’s life easier or better? What is the USP of your business? List down the points, create a shortlist and highlight them on your website content and design. The problem and the solution that you are offering must be among the first things your target audience must notice on your website.

Know More about your Customers and Competition

Make a list of your current audience. Find out what demographic (age, gender, profession, income) do they belong to, what are their characteristics and buying habits. Once you know your audience, refining the web design to suit their changing needs is a constant process.

If you new to the market, see how your competitors have used their web design to attract more target customers. How are they positioning and pricing their business? What are their customers talking about on social media? You may choose a different design approach, as a contrast to your competitors.

Set Up Web Design for Catchy Text

Many web design companies don’t realize that the web design must compliment the website content. You can’t have a furniture website have the design elements for women’s attire, right? Explore and shortlist specific audience-appealing words, phrases and punch lines. Use these words sparingly, but effectively. Allow the design to blend with the words adding emphasis to the intended communication.

Color, Layout, Fonts & Images

Most of you know that color psychology and correlation plays an important part in web design. The trick is to match colors with your target audience’s preferences. Beyond generally known color response theory, the more important thing is the effective use of the right color.

For example, see how women-centric websites use green, blue and purple (women’s favorite colors according to a survey) to a white background to convey friendliness and trust. See how Facebook uses blue for trust, while Dell uses green for conversion buttons like “View Details” or “Buy Online.”

As per our experience in working with clients, older audiences prefer a fixed-width layout, while a young audience looks for trendier, stylish design with a strong use of color. If required, take a survey of most preferred websites among your target audience for a deeper understanding.

How to choose fonts to fit your brand is one thing. Maintain consistency by using a style guide. The guide need not be complex. But define a clear set of font attributes that the target audience will like. This will make it easier for the web design team. They will know which fonts to try out and which to avoid.

Depending on your audience’s preferences, use either images or illustrations. The image shouldn’t merely be attractive, but add to a focused user experience. Don’t undermine navigation, functionality, icons and interface controls for accommodating images. It’s better to follow convention in functionality design than to confuse the target audience.

Conclusion

Update your target audience data every 6-12 months. This will help you deliver the best in audience-oriented web design on a consistent basis. Ensure successful web design for you and your clients by making use the information mentioned above.

Web Design Trends We Absolutely Love in 2018

As we approach the middle of the year, here is a list of web design trends that we have absolutely loved working with, in 2018.

Bold and Bright Colors   

Experimental color themes are finding more takers this year in web design. A combination of bright colors can convey happiness and set a positive mood. Another feisty way of using bright colors is the monotone technique. If used as a background for content, monotone enhances readability.

We also love using duotone (two colors make up an image).  It allows us to distinctly express the emotions that particular colors convey. Text attains prominence over duotone. Overlaying is another effect that can be easily created but needs to be used sparingly.

Cinemagraphs

Since it’s invention in 2011, cinemagraphs have been used to attractive and alluring effect in web design. How are cinemagraphs created? Usually, Photoshop is usually used to edit an HD video to create a still frame and retain a moving frame within the same shot for effect.

Cinemagraphs are very effectively used in various marketing campaigns. Imagine wine spiraling in a wine glass in the otherwise still image of an outdoor family lunch table. The glitter and sparkle on the diamond ring on a jewelry website homepage are among the many good uses of cinemagraphs.

Sticky Navigation   

We refer here to chat boxes and other navigation elements too. Sticky navigation works best for action-oriented websites. It is also ideal for long pages, where this design element has replaced ‘back to top’. Mobile users are already aware of sticky navigation while browsing websites. They are bound to love any web design element that adds ease of use to website browsing.

The psychological connect of sticky navigation is the browsing confidence it gives its users across demographics. The user has the feeling that they are constantly interacting with the website and are never lost.

Split Screen Design

More websites are opting for a single screen divided into two vertical screens conveying two different messages. A distinct illustration, text or image conveys the characteristic of each side. This design element is great when you contrast two messages or want the user to be attracted to a particular communication.

Striking singular colors and impactful typography builds user interest in split screen design. Drawing user attention to an action button is easier in split screen design, especially when the button on the left side of the screen. Since most users now have large screens on their mobile devices, split screen design is a favorable web design element for now.

How to Get the Best from Your Web Designer

You have hired the right web designers. The real test now is to get the best output from your web designer for your ongoing projects and website design solutions. Having worked on over 150 global projects as a professional web development company, here are some tips to ensure that your web designer delivers at an optimum level.

Never Rush the Design Process

Always set a reasonable deadline for the web designer. The client will love to have a brand new website ready in a week or a fortnight. But rushing your web designer to speed up things will adversely affect the design quality. Quality work will always take a certain amount of hours.

Evaluate and outline the work process in advance to accommodate both the designer and the client. Plan the workflow efficiently, ensuring that your web designer is never hurrying through things.

Encourage an Initiative-Driven Culture

When a web designer approaches you with a problem, don’t be too eager to lead them to a ready solution. Instead, encourage them to come up with innovative solutions to the problem. Unless you don’t get them used to confront problems, their experience and knowledge are bound to suffer. The long-term results could be your web designer’s gradual loss of interest and general lack of confidence in their work.

The Website Analysis Exercise

Here’s an exercise your web designers can practice once a week. Let the designers select a bunch of their favorite and successful websites with good web design. Now, direct them to make a list of 15 things that they think is cool about the design. The reasons for selecting each of these 15 things must also be documented.

You and the web designer can now discuss the common points they like across all the analyzed websites. This practice enables the designer to learn and practice design aspects. The design aspects picked up from the exercise can be included in the web designer’s approach, style or work process for better website design solutions.

Random Practice

As an ongoing practice exercise, along with the project work, let your designer create a random website based on the set of requirements you provide them with.

Treat this exercise seriously. Provide the web designer with specific design requirements. Set a deadline for the design and arrange a dummy client call between you and the designer. Discuss the design from the client point of view. This exercise will get your designer ample practice to interact with the client, understand specific requirements and execute the design accordingly.

Summary

These are four of the many practices we adhere to at our web development company in Pune. Implementing these practices ensure that our web designers are independent, constantly learning and assured about their work. Job satisfaction is another positive outcome of these practices.

The Top Logo Design Trends 2018

The logo is the brand’s face and character. Customers remember an image or a design longer than a name. As a professional web design company, we have worked with a varied set of customers. Logo design is always a tricky business. Here is our list of logo design trends for 2018.

The Return of Hand Drawn Logos

A lot of our clients prefer hand-drawn logos for its limitless creativity and the natural, non-digital touch. Many pioneering companies use hand-drawn logos to emphasize a fresh, out of the box appeal. Designing logos by hand is a quicker, spontaneous practice. The iteration cycles also take less time compared to digital technology. Also, hand-drawn logos provide the brand with a rich, genuine vibe.

Geometrical Familiarity

Minimalism or to convey more in less is finding many takers this year. For instant customer connection, familiar geometrical shapes are becoming an integral part of logos. Curved circles, sharp triangles, rectangular and square shapes are easy on the eye. A combination of geometric shapes conveys the brand’s value, culture, and vision.

The Unforgettable Monogram Touch

The strong symbolism that monogram logos convey is the stuff of legend. If used with the right letters, color gradients, sharpness, and finish, monogram logos attain an iconic appeal. Monogram logos are making a comeback, helping brands convey trust and confidence among customers. For further inspiration, browse through the Volkswagen, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel and General Electric logos.

Optimised for Social Media

As more and more brands are making their presence felt on social media, businesses are rethinking their logo design. Some brands are tweaking the logo colors, or making them sharper and compact to register easily in the potential customer’s mind. Simple colors and textures are in use to make the brand more attractive and inviting to the target audience.

Negative Space Artworks

The popular use of negative space has endured and with good reason. A well-made negative space logo is a work of art, drawing attention upon itself. They convey clarity, creativity and professional capability. The subtle variations leave well-designed negative space logos open to interpretation. Depth is another attribute, inciting the customer to be fascinated by the design aspects and brand connection.

Grooving with the Grid

The grid stands for balance and is at the core of any good logo design. Mobile app design has adapted grids for maximum impact. The potential for experimentation is endless in a grid-centric logo. It provides a strong aesthetic sense, at the same time conveying excitement and new beginnings. The grid should be around forever, by the likes of it.

We have recollected here the logo design trends we have witnessed in 2018 so far. What do you think are the other logo design trends that will be popular this year? Please share your comments.

Five Things You Need to Change on your Website

Creating an engaging website is imperative for any business.  As many readers must have discovered, maintaining a great website is no easy task. Here is a list of things that reveal why your website is not popular with your users. We also share some tips to optimize your website:

Loading Time

Loading…Loading…Loading…

Your website can’t take too much time to load! Millions of other websites are competing for user attention. Don’t make your users wait. Unless the users want to visit your website nobody is going to wait that long.

You lose 20% of your conversions to every extra second your mobile website takes to load. About 50% users expect your website to load in 2 seconds. The same user percentage will leave the website in the third second. (Google Statistics)

So start working on speeding up that loading time now!

Home Page Clutter

A cluttered homepage will turn off users. Our suggestion? Start again with a fresh perspective. Segregate the core elements you want on the website.

Consider why your target audience should visit your website. Restructure the content, website design, UI, and UX. Use image sliders to showcase your prime content. Attractive and creative image sliders can encourage users to further explore the website.

Zero Interaction

If there is no interactivity, why have a website? Encourage your visitors to explore the website with clear calls to action. Have more groovy elements to entice your users. Short videos, animation, online polls, exclusive comments section, contests and other interactive elements. You get the drift.

Grammar Errors & Typos

Typos and poor grammar are bound to put off your website visitors. Get your website content checked and corrected by content and language experts. Don’t rely on online grammar checking software to check your website content. Most software is not reliable. Each software uses a varied set of grammar rules to auto correct. The results are usually inconsistent.

Using Images Effectively

If your website images are too dull and unappealing, traffic is bound to suffer. Captivating images attract a larger percentage of users. Apart from blogging, images are the most important form of business content. Statistics don’t lie.

Visual elements dominate 74% of social media marketing, way ahead of videos and blogs. An audience provided with text content along with an image retains 65% of the information.

Conclusion

What do you make of the five things listed above to improve your website traffic? How can we ensure constant user engagement? How do we generate business leads through the website? Please do share your comments.