Archives July 2018

If you are planning to hire a web developer for your business/personal brand website, or if you are an aspiring web developer who has recently jumped into this field and want to make a big name out of this market, than this article is definitely going to help you a lot.
Let me be clear about one thing, Web development isn’t just about coding, there’s a lot more to it.
Yes you may be called a “Web Developer” if you know how to develop websites and if you have some basic skills this field requires, you may even get some clients too but you will never achieve that level of excellence that you would if you go deeper.
Flexibility in Developing:
Each web developer has a certain skill set that map to one or more particular languages. But you have to understand that when you are working on a website you may need to show some flexibility. By using the word Flexibility I mean you should not stuck to one or some limited languages and widen your code using different languages that could get you some effective results.A good web developer will always understands how most of the things in developing need some additional cohesive work and will always look forward to put them into function the right way.
Self-Management:
Here is where a lot of developer makes mistakes they expect their client to give them information regarding the project but instead of asking what you want to happen, they always indirectly ask how is it going to be done?  For example let’s say the Client asked to get him a design that could get his conversion rates to increase little bit.
Now if you have gathered enough information regarding his objective, you should do everything afterwards on your own. It’s your job to understand and know about what features do increase the conversion rates and your client don’t need to get you all the information.
This factor of ‘Not knowing the Stuff properly’ leads to higher level of Client’s unsatisfaction.

Communication Skills:
The Developer should have great communication skills and here I don’t mean the Language but the way he communicate and interacts with the clients. The Developers which succeed in making a bond with their clients through their way of communicating to them are incredible. Some of the tips for better communication with the clients are:

• Don’t be afraid to ask questions
• Hold Virtual team meetings
• Try to follow up in writing
• Keep them updated

Communication is no doubt one of the most important factors no matter which ever field you belong to and if it’s about the web design of a brand, it’s the thing which works as the base for every other thing.  If you could impress the client with your communication skills he will definitely get back to you.

Also Read: How to become an Expert in Branding with Web Design
Being on Time:
The time punctuality is surely not a debate, we all can agree that for a good web developer with all his abilities and technical skills he needs to be aware of the fact that the client has given him some time limitation to complete his task and if he don’t it’s his fault. But here one thing that all the professional web developers can learn is how those being late with their project delivery can affect their business. Just look at the Stats below ;

The stats says it all, when a customer/client get his project late than what was decided, his chances of coming back to the same  buyer goes down drastically. Let me tell you one of my own examples, when I use to own an online Jewelry business.
Once when I had to get a ring made for a customer and the person who I gave this Job built it the most beautiful anyone could ever do and also was great in his dealing. But he delivered us 7 days late and we never went back to him again EVER. I guess this little story tells us everything.
Knowing the Market Trends:
The market of web design changes every day, things happen every day, and people respond to it differently every day. A good developer will need to stay up to date. He should know about the latest trends of his industry and should be aware of where his field is heading too. It’s not that difficult to maintain and requires no 6^th sense.  Here’s some ways how can you stay updated in any industry;

When the Client finds out that the developer he has hired knows about his market he feels relaxed and this thing builds trust.
“Experts of any field are those people who are able to predict the near future of that industry by understanding the pattern of the current situation”
 Follows the Client:
If your client has hired you for the web development of his website, he’ll surely have some goal in his mind that he wants to achieve but can’t be done with the previous layout of his website. So it’s your job to get it done for him. And how you can do that? By following his guidelines about what he wants, and adding them with your skill set. You need to listen to your client more and more. You should have meetings with him, talk to him, discuss the project and go deep into his requirement.

A good developer will always try to gather as much information as he can and evaluate that information to understand properly what is the thing that his client is expecting from him. When your client has asked you that he want some design that could help him collecting Emails then your responsibility is not just to create a landing page and a traffic source but to be creative that how can you make the people to engage enough that they do subscribe.
So listen to what is the Goal the Client have in mind and then think of what is the most effective way to achieve it?

 Accepts the Flaws:
It’s simply a market rule that whoever guy seems to be more honest the market goes to him. And the same rule applies in Web developing. One quality of an excellent web developer is that he always works responsibly. We all have witnessed those rude and arrogant developers which never accept their mistake, or even if they aren’t rude/arrogant they at least always make lame excuses for their faults. And that really leaves a bad impression on the client.
To be a good developer you need to develop this quality of accepting your mistakes or faults seriously and face your client in an apologetic manner, if you have to, this makes the client think that the next person is sincere with his work and this was just an unintentional mistake.

Personal Advice:

• We are done with what matters technically and the factors which when you follow help you get more Clients with more Satisfaction, but along with all these I can advise you some other tips too.
• As being a part of a Web Developing agency I know very well what get the client satisfied and what brings him back with more business for you, that’s just one word, “Care”.
• Care about what your clients goals are, what he expects from you what he is looking for, what is the perfect solution for his problem and that’s it.
• It’s a people’s world without getting things more complicated understand one simple fact if you’ll show them your sincerity and honesty towards their work they will never let you down, it’s just human’s nature.

Every business, every brand strives to make their name big out in the market, but how you do it? The best way is to ‘Build a Brand’ and in this age of the Internet there are millions of ways you could brand, through advertising, through promotions, through Content. But still there’s one thing which is believed to be the most important. That’s your Website.
Your website is literally able to give you a more professional and uplifted look for your brand, and especially if you can focus on small details of your website design you can get a lot out of it. Your website design if it’s really good enough can get you a great engagement rate.

Color Scheme:

We know colors stimulate your mind in different ways, and now it has been proved scientifically that different colors can also engage your mind into different emotions when you see them. For example the Color “Red” is associated with Danger so whenever you see Red color you immediately focus on that. Let’s have a look at the picture below

This is a Resume Building website and as you can see there are multiple options and text written on the page, but still they main heading named “Create Resume” has been given the Red color and it’s because they want you to focus on that particular heading more than any other.

Textual Design and Fonts:

Different type of textual design will convey different type of messages to the audience. As simple as the font will be, the audience will take it as simply without taking interest. But its up to you and it varies from websites niche. For example look into the pictures below:

So the first design has pretty simple Font used and it’s great for that particular website as it’s a website design of a photography brand. Thus they use Pictures as the message conveyer to the audience more than the pictures. While on the second picture which is the design of a Fashion brand, they do use different type of Fonts to give the website a more ‘Funky Look’.

Theme of the Website:

So every website have its own theme, and by it we mean the way its structure is built, the way different sections are separated, the way its organized overall. It actually depends on what your business actually is.  Let’s have a look on the comparison of the images down here:


So you can see the first image shows the website of a primary school and the second one is a website offering some courses for personal development. Now if you look at them you would notice there aren’t that many sections in the first picture that are in the second one. Sections like “Online Courses, Books, and Certifications” don’t have any kind of replica or similar one in the first picture because for a primary school that many sections aren’t needed and all they need to put on their home page is a button saying “Contact Us”.
This may seem like really simple and basic to focus on but believe me a great amount of people still make mistakes understanding this portion and how to manage it.

Reflect your Brand:

In your website design keep one thing in mind that your website is going to represent your brand to the audience. The way your visitor thinks about you or have an image in his mind he need to be shown as exact image on the website. So how exactly is it done? Let’s have a look on the web design on a big brand such as ‘Nike’

This is the homepage of the Nike’s website, so when you look into it what do you feel? Don’t you feel inspired and motivated? It’s exactly what their brand stands for. Thrill energy and motivation is their brand’s pillars. If you adopt the same strategy your website will definitely make a good impact on the audience.

Images in the Design:

Images are a great way of making people engages with your content. When a visitor visits your website Images are the thing that attracts him the most. As a study says that:
When Learning humans focuses 80% on what they see and the rest is reading and hearing.

Use the perfect images for your page but keep in mind that above of all the pictures need to match the Image of your brand. Let’s take an example of a big name of the industry “Apple’

Now when you look into the homepage of apple’s website you get to see a big picture of “IPhone X” this design has been there since the IPhone X was released. So when you visit their website, a big neat and clean, astonishing picture of the Latest IPhone X adores you and that’s their strategy that whenever a visitor visits their website he should feel the fire of their Latest Mobile Phone. So you have to be creative with how you use Images in your design.
Now let’s look into the picture below, showing the web design of a Cosmetic Company;

The Homepage of this website is showing a picture of a Model, and when you look at it you start to focus on her blue eyes because they are attractive. And that’s what they are aiming for as they are promoting their latest Eye-Liners. They have used the art of using the images to connect with the reader in a better way.

Innovation in the Design:

If you want your company and your brand to get the top position you have to be a step ahead than the market. Try to introduce innovation into your design and differentiate yourself from the other people in your field.  Just like some of the developers are using the latest “Material Design” in their codes, to give a better appearance.

Adding material design in your websites at the right pages and using them creatively can lead you to better engagement levels. The material design actually helps you to put the details to any page and it helps a lot in getting the users attention and making him to engage deep into the content. That’s why developers always choose Material Design over Flat Design these days.

Personal Advice:

If your visitor isn’t feeling the context of your brand through your website that means your visitor isn’t engaged with you properly.
You may have an incredible personality, you may have the best product in the world but if your website’s design isn’t mapping up with it you are going to lose.
Still today a lot of people don’t take their website’s design that seriously and never bother to go deep down on what matters in a good design and thus their brand lose in the market.

I would personally advice everyone with any kind of brand owner ship to understand how critically your website’s design affects your business.

Further Reading:

– Why your Business needs a Website Today!

We all know about the power of the internet today and I am sure that you accept it as a fact. Now how do we utilize this power of Internet to get the best out of our business? You take multiple steps because you might have heard it from any social media marketer to have a presence on Instagram or Facebook.
And along with this you might also have heard a lot that today your business don’t necessarily need a website. So let me tell you one thing, there may be some things that some social media platforms covers for you but there is a huge list that shows what they lack and only a website can get for you.
So let’s have a look on what exactly a website can get your business;

Website helps you in Marketing:

We all agree that without marketing a business will die soon. But before you spend any penny on some advertising campaigns on different platforms, before you run paid promotions or things of that nature you need to get a website as a foundation.

 
The reason for this is because when you create the advertising campaign you need to drive the traffic to somewhere the details of your product are completely given in a simpler and easy to understand way, and that can only happen if you have a website because its design can be changed the way you want it to be. For example checkout the picture below, all the details for the product are given there and for the user he will get all the necessary information very easily.

 

More Customers for your business:

Just as said before a website acts like a foundation for your business. And no matter what size your business is or what industry you are into we all can agree that in 2018, Ranking your website in Google Search Engine can always help all of us getting more exposure.
 

Just like the picture above shows the results of the Google Searches for the Keywords “Plumbers” and “Hot Dog”. Now these things aren’t what people usually look for on the internet right? But still it’s been searched about 10000 times an average month. Thus if plumbers or Hot Dogs get searched that much time how profitable would it be for you to get a website built and to get it ranked on Google’s Search Engine.
Also Read:  Untold Secrets of Better Branding through Web Design

Better Branding:

Your own website can get you more control on your design which in turn can help you brand better. Every brand is different from other, even if they belong to the same industry. Look at the pictures below these are two ladies wear web designs and it shows the difference as the first one is funkier and the second one is comparatively decent.

 

The way you want your brand to be shown in the eyes of the customer’s is the way you should get your website designed. Thus if you think by having a Facebook page or anything like that you are having a good internet presence for your brand, it’s a mistake. You need to have a website of your own where you could better showcase your brands position and Ideology as you have more control on it.

Builds Credibility:

All businesses need the best image in the customers eyes. And if you succeed in doing that your business is definitely going to succeed too. Now having a website for your business get the customer to believe that you are professionals, we are talking about the psychology of the customer that how does he feel about your brand.

People do trust a company or a brand more when it has a website and “trust” is the number one thing every company thrives for and expect from their customers. Similarly, about 97% of customers’ today checkout online reviews and search for that product before buying it.

Better Engagement with Customers:

Along with bringing new customers your business need to keep a connection with the previous customers too. Now having a website allows you to have a better way to Story tell and continuously engage with your consumers. A website for your brand will help your customer to get what he wants exactly instantaneously. For example let’s take the example of Nike’s website,  and look at how it helps them:

Now with this website you can see that there are lists and sections so that when the customer visits it he will click onto the section he want to visit only, it will keep his search comprehensive. Thus there will be better user experience and engagement.

The Competition in the Industry:

Your market must have competition just like there is competition in every industry or market in the world. You need to beat all the other competitors and that’s the only way your business can survive. And this aggressiveness requires you to have a website because your competitors have it. This logic may not make any sense to some people but before judging what I just said have a look at the stats below.

As you see above from all the businesses a great percentage of them already have a website since 2014 thus if you don’t have one yet you are definitely left behind and it’s time for you to stand up.
Also Read: How Do You Become an Expert Web Developer [Each factor Explained]

Promotes your business tremendously:

The website of yours is there always, 24 hours a day without any break it helps the visitors get what they are looking for. That’s the beauty of it, some pages build with some complex lines of code promote your business continuously to everyone visiting it. Just like Paul Cookson said;

A website is like a group of your employees working to serve everyone that visits your office the only difference will be that it works even when you sleep.

Beat the Big names:

Internet changed the way everyone use to look at any industry. It’s because today every small brand or business have the opportunity to compete with the big names of its industry by being digital and up to date. Getting a website developed can be the first step forward towards this competitive journey.

Now when a customer looks for a specific product and you know you offer that product better than some of the big brands of the industry than you have a chance to get the customer, because today customers are more interested in the quality of the product rather than getting it from a specific brand.

People believe the internet like they use to believe other people when getting a review for a product and statically 89% of them do it.