Website Design & Development

A professional looking design helps tell potential customers that they are in the right place, helps them navigate through the site and feel confident in dealing with your business.

Visitors to your Web site are interested in discovering more about your business and making buying decisions. Which is why design is an integral part of the process, but what if you are working on a tight budget and can not afford a bespoke design?

Website Design Options

An effective website is a combination of branding, design and functionality. The branding element is the choice of colour and style; helping to build the overall image and feel of your site; this is important as it allows visitors to recognise your brand and feel confident that they are in the right place.

For there are two design options:

Template-based design
Custom Design and build

Template-based Design

Templates are not necessarily a bad idea and nor are they cheating. A template can be used “off shelf” with very little modification, or used as a framework and heavily customised. It is not unusual for a smaller business to start with a generic template when starting out, and then move on to more customisation before instructing a completely bespoke design.

Customising a templated design to match your branding can save a lot of time and money: this is the preferred approach for most small businesses.

Custom Design and Build

Once the budget allows for it, I would always advise a business to employ a graphic designer to create a bespoke design. However, experienced graphic designers are not cheap!

The full design process involves a graphic designer, usability experts and developers of different disciplines. The process is not quick and is obviously expensive. But well worth it for businesses that can afford it.

There is, however, an entirely reasonable intermediate step. Working with existing artwork, such as a logo, letterhead or shop signage we can create a website design, built on WordPress. A website for your business that is completely customised.Find out more

Website Functionality

You will need to give some thought to your potential visitors and what they will want to do on your website. Some sites are online brochures, providing a brief overview of the products and services on offer. Other sites aim to offer more functionality, for example, account management, order tracking etc.

Some design and functionality ideas to consider:

Are your visitors likely to view your website on a mobile device or computer
How will potential customers contact you
Do you want to take and process orders online
Will customers be able to create an account and login to check on the status of orders
Do you want host audio or video files
Do you need an online chat facility

We can discuss your requirements and how your site may need to adapt. Don’t be put off if you are not sure about any of this as we can spend discussing your options.