Things you probably didn't know about designing websites

The problem with Web Design

One of the biggest problems we face as a web design agency is explaining to our clients exactly what their hard-earned money is paying for. Many people see a website as a quick job that they want to get done as soon as possible and never think about again. Many people also don't understand why it can take designers 40+ hours to build a worthwhile website. Beyond what users see on the surface, a website can have many more layers of complexity behind the scenes by monitoring users and analysing how they interact with various functions to improve the experience. At larger design agencies, there is often around eight different specialised roles that all focus solely on websites in one way or another. Some of the roles are as follows, Digital Designer, UX Researcher, UI Designer, Front-End Developer, Full-stack Developer, SEO Specialist and Motion Graphic Designer, etc. Therefore, many websites for bigger companies can end up costing well over £50,000. There is a big difference between designing a website and designing a website well. Many other agencies may promise a one-page website for around £600, but I can assure the level of professionalism that £600 will get you, will not be worth wasting your money on. At Influx Studios, we like to think of ourselves as the perfect middle ground. We don't charge £600 nor do we charge £50,000 however our websites are always engaging, eye-catching and most importantly they boost sales.

So how does this relate to what we do at Influx?

Two things to remember when you hear the price it costs to have a website built:

1) The sheer amount of time it takes to build a website properly and well.
2) The levels of expertise involved from a design standpoint before you've even touched a piece of software or started brainstorming.

Professional web designers have a vast range of skills, such as:

• Visually Hierarchy - arranging various elements on a page based on the importance.
• Typography - a great understanding of fonts, font trends and the difference between fonts for print vs. fonts for web.
• Content strategy - the constant development of a business’s objectives and vision for the future.
• Wire framing - the initial design stage before adding colours and visuals, it only focuses on content and information architecture.
• Coding - the process of writing codes to create a website or app.
• Usability & Accessibility - the understanding of how to design for anybody and everybody regardless of disabilities or technical expertise.
• Behavioural phycology – how users interact with and use a digital product, app or website.
• Video and Imagery – a thorough understanding of various file formats, compression techniques and what makes for a compelling image or video.
• Colour swatches - knowledge of colour swatch codes, current colour trends and different colour profiles such as RGB, CYMK and HEX.
• Current web-design trends - keeping up to date with current web design trends, what looks good and what works well?
• Motion - Website are living products that users interact with - animations, parallax and gifs are just a few of the ways we can add motion to a website.
• Rebranding - the method used to rebrand and rethink a business in the hope of presenting itself in a better more modern way in the future, a way that their customer will most likely prefer.
• Cross-browser testing - the ability to test a website across multiple various devices, browsers and viewports to ensure anybody whoever visits it will have a streamlined and easy to use experience.
• Analytics - testing and monitoring website traffic to better improve the user journey or overall experience later down the line.

"A good designer builds a website that simply exists; a great designer builds a website that increases sales, broadens brand awareness and continuously improves based on user's behaviour."

Although this list is a good starting point, it is by no means an exhaustive one and we hope this gives you a better understanding of where your money goes when you arrange to have a new website designed and developed - It's not quite as simple as some people may think.

What steps do we encourage to take as a minimum?

We appreciate that every business is unique, with different budgets and diverse needs. There isn't any clear-cut answer as to what steps you should or shouldn't take; it just boils down to the specific business and their various goals/objectives.

For more information or to have a chat with one of our team please reach out to us on our live chat!