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.

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.

Five Common Mistakes That Designers Must Avoid

Graphic design, web design or any design requires a lot of groundwork, extensive research and a constant understanding of the client’s requirements. As a professional web design and web development company, we would like to document some common mistakes that designers make:

Hazy Idea of Client Requirements   

The root cause for the problems that follow later is clearly the lack of understanding. The client requires one design pattern. The designer adds his own core ideas to the design. The communication gap is more than evident in most cases.

Avoid project disruption by noting down client requirements specifically. In an email write down all the details of the discussion and get it confirmed with the client. That requirement document is now the reference point for all design related matters. You will be surprised at how smoothly things go after you clarify.

Font Choices

Font plays a critical role in web design. Often a bad font choice ruins all the good work. If you go for distinctly different fonts for the headings, subheadings, and text, even neat design can look chaotic. Ask yourself the following questions. Is the font legible and complimenting the UI and UX design? Is the font just the right size? Do your eyes strain when you read the font?

Counter Unrealistic Expectations

Certain clients can end up with unreasonable expectations for the project.  When you know that a particular requirement is not viable, convey that communication immediately. For example, if the client is expecting a huge volume of work within a ridiculous, limited timeframe, have further client discussions. Delivering high-quality design will require a reasonable amount of time. You need to clearly convey the deadline parameters for a smoother design project execution.

Don’t Blindly Follow Trends

To be aware of the latest design trends is one thing. But to apply a popular and trending design element to a project on a whim can be disastrous. Once a new trend takes over, the design can look quite outdated. What works for a different audience and sensibility, may not work with another set of users. Understanding your target audience is thus of paramount importance. Let your creativity speak for itself but within the framework of project requirements.

A Final Check

Spell check? Done! Don’t stop there. The client will also be looking at the design. So make sure you have a definitive checklist of the client requirements before you pass on the website copy to them. Have you worked out a consistent structure and spacing? What about white space? Is the right communication going out as intended? Working on a project for long hours can make you less objective at times. Get potential users to have a good look at the website and tell you what they like and don’t like. You will end up finding more problems from a user perspective.

These are some of the common mistakes that designers make. What are the other mistakes that you have observed designers make? Do share your thoughts as comments.

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.

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.

How to Choose Fonts that Fit your Brand?

Fonts play a big role in creating a brand perception among customers. Selecting fonts that go with your brand can be a tedious task. How do you narrow down your choices and select fonts that are good for your brand? The following are some creative benchmarks you can apply to make your font choices:

Know What Your Customer Wants

Approach this like a date you are going to. You wouldn’t wear your night pajamas and flowery slippers to your date, would you? So, similarly know who your potential customers are, what kind of lifestyles do they lead and therefore what kind of font will appeal to them. At the same time, retain your brand’s personality through the fonts.

Beyond Serif and Sans-Serif

Times New Roman, Georgia, Freight Text, Garamond, Caluna are popular Serif fonts. They add edge and class to the brand. Helvetica, Verdana, Dejavu Pro, Avant Garde, Arial, and Optima are popular Sans-Serif fonts. Serif fonts are said to be easier to read as individual letters are more clearly lettered in comparison to sans-serif fonts. There is also decorative and script fonts that can add uniqueness to your brand. You can also combine fonts, to get a brand new font as a combination of all required font features. Which one would you go for?

The font must match the design and business purpose. Before you buy or download a font, list out the personality traits of your brand to make your search more concentrated. This way, you already have a fair idea of what your font choice will look like. Bold, serious, cheerful, robust or rebellious? Mirror your brand qualities on the fonts and you should have made a shortlist of your font selections.

Readability & Versatility Check

Apart from your brand design, your font must be clear and legible when you have to convey something of importance or otherwise. Check which font size fits and whether the font is web optimized. Also, check the spacing between two words, the lowercase, and uppercase heights. Sometimes a font can look less readable in italics. Also, try the “I and L” test, ensure that “i” and “l” in lowercase do not look identical.

Avoid Familiar Fonts

Your customers may look through your brand if the font is all too familiar. Look out for fonts that convey what you want to, yet are stylish in their own way. Try combinations of fonts in body text and bold, you never know what can surprise you. Sometimes an ordinary looking serif font lights up in bold. The key then is to experiment but try out fonts methodically.

We hope the suggestions shared in this article will help you select the right fonts for your brand. If you have any other suggestions with regard to font selection, do share!

Want More Money? Start Effective Icon Design for Better UI

Any website or mobile app icon design has to convey a specific purpose. Icons add aesthetics to the screen, help save on screen space. But primarily icon design have to aid your users, help in branding, drive user attention and response. The idea, from the graphic design aspect, is to keep it simple. Easier said than done you will say. Here are some key pointers to effective icon design for better UI:

Balanced Icon Design Detailing

Instant communication of an action, idea or object is the attribute of good icon design. Too much detailing can render an icon with no logical or meaningful connection. As a rule, opt for minimal detailing to clearly convey the mobile app icon design’s purpose.

When Google first adapted a simplistic grid icon on its homepage as a one-point access to all its Google apps, they received multiple help requests enquiring about the apps’ location. The users just couldn’t spot where the grid icon was on the page. Somehow the lack of detailing had ended up too elusive for the users. That is why, striking the right balance, trial and error are important steps too.

  

Out of the Box Design Tweaking

Unless the client had made clear specifications, go beyond standard design conventions, without compromising on usability and visual recognition. For example, see how the Pinterest icon gets away with an outrageous text font while combining two circular clean white, vibrant bold red combo diameters to convey its image-intrinsic brand. Sample how the iOS music app djay 2 uses a vinyl for an icon yet conveys a modern appeal.

Visual Perception Aspects

Closely consider the following factors while designing website and mobile app design icons. Know your target audience, right down to their age, cultural attributes, level of education and general development. Find out, in what environment will the product be used? What will be the expanse of the product’s local or global reach? How does the audience identify with graphics, what specific elements distract and engage them? These are all vital questions.

The Scalability Factor

Try out your icon design on the device or website in multiple sizes and settings. While designing, focus on a unique shape or quality that retains its effect in any size or scale. Check that the icon looks great with various background colors. Perceive how the design complements the UI.

Eye for Aesthetics  

You are aware that a set of icons and each individual icon in an app or website have to be aesthetically alike. But how do you ensure a pleasant subtle uniformity? Concentrate on little things, like the specific size of the square or rounded corners. An acute sense of style, lining and color textures helps immensely in this process.

We hope that these icon design tips provide you with a new perspective on designing icons for website and mobile apps and contribute to a better UI. Please do share your comments below.