Thought Leadership Monday Mashup: Creative Designs

Creative and over-the-top designs can often get in the way of functionality within a website. We have all landed on a site where we feel helpless and let down at the very least. The catch is, plain websites with little to no informational value, don’t make the mark either.

So, how can you avoid ending up with a real mess? We search high and low for creative designs most influencing thought leaders and mashed them up for this week’s edition of the Thought Leadership Monday Mashup: Creative Designs.

“An aesthetically satisfying site is useful for your business and guests as long as you don’t overdo it. Keep in mind the old saying “keep it simple, stupid” – you can definitely tone it down and still have a beautiful site.” (Problogger)

“Google has for years been completely transparent in the way they use their algorithm updates, such as Panda, to maintain the highest level of quality content available on the Internet. Google’s commitment to providing only the highest levels of content in the top rankings of search can be explained best by the 23 questions they released as a basis of ‘thinking like Google’.” (Direct Images)

• The Elements of UX Design and Creating a Memorable User Experience
• FAQ Friday: The Necessity of Creative Designs
• Inspiring Modern Website Design Trends
• Creative Design Concepts to Consider for Your Website
• How to Choose a Web Design Company

If you have not properly planned, established, and documented a strategy, with management meticulously planned, for both project and process your business website could turn into more of a distraction than an aid. Having a creative and engaging website that is successful requires grace and agility. So what does it take to balance form, functionality, all while salvaging creative designs for the necessary added extra?

“In web design, getting the usability right used to be a major goal. Now that most designers seem to master this goal, usability has become like a commodity. As a basic requirement for a functional website, we find its presence throughout the Web. This shift of attention has created space in the field of web design and visual design has regained its central position. However, visual design in its new definition embraces more than just looking pretty. Don Norman split it into three levels; visceral design, behavioral design, and reflective design. Together the three can reveal the full power of visual design and guide you to a successful website.(Usabillia)

Failing to plan is essentially planning to fail when you are redesigning your business website.

A website redesign process should start with identifying the reason for the redesign, the problems you are trying to solve, the challenges you want to overcome and the ways in which you want your new website to be different from the one you have now. You should also identify the overarching goals of the redesign that will drive the process, as well as specific objectives that you’re trying to accomplish. At the end of the day, you should understand what success looks like and be able to convey that succinctly to your web design partner. (Circle Studio)

Not only is planning the process of a website redesign necessary but strategically planning the content and features is just as important. For instance, having high-impact content strategically placed above the fold will help boost conversion rates. 

“A successful website design project involves many skills. Web design, programming, user experience design, user interface design, website architecture, online marketing consulting, business strategy, search engine optimization, copywriting, to name a few.

If the individuals leading the web design project excel at graphic design, programming, or project management, but lack real business acumen, they will be unable to help you define what is really needed. Your project will fail to produce a website that helps grow your business.” (Required Media)

There is real value in finding a balance between website design and website functionality. The aforementioned points about knowing and understanding your audience are vital to the success of any website, especially a business site. The value is in knowing you will find the information you are looking for on the other side of your search result is a security many have become accustomed to—thanks Google! If you want to achieve this, you first have to understand why people are visiting your site, what they are looking for, and how you can best present this information to them to aid in resolving their pain points.