“St. Pete has a mini doughnut factory!” Patricia, our Environmental Designer, blurted out.

We promptly turned to our phones to find their website and Instagram page, because it’s 2017, and the ‘just Google it’ generation is keen on research. Like their affinity for browsing Amazon to see whether they can get a better deal online, the same growing number of people are also analyzing your business’ web presence before they decide to visit your office space.

While a fast, sleek site can pique interest in your brand, an outdated and overly complicated one can just as quickly turn people away. To ensure your website is getting the right amount of clicks and views, keep these three pointers in mind when it comes to good web design.

Helimix Web Design – Clear ph Design

Don’t be tempted by templates

Although the lure of templates can be great — they promise to be inexpensive and quick to launch —  don’t be fooled. They have some major downsides:

• Templates are unsupported and are prone to break over time
• The most attractive templates are often downloaded hundreds of times. So, while you think you have found something special, so have all your competitors.
• Templates are largely unchangeable. You won’t be able to rearrange the layout or add a video onto a page that doesn’t have that element already built in.

Instead of trying to tell your brand’s story with all of these constraints, do away with the templates. Have your website custom-built and well-maintained.

Where’s my phone?

With our phones constantly by our sides, it makes sense that more than 60% of search queries come from mobile devices. Making your site compatible on mobile means more than just scaling it down to palm-sized. A UXplanet.org‘s blog lists a number of ways to optimize your website’s design for mobile.

For one, use more negative space to draw the user’s eye to your important content. Providing enough white space around images and design elements is crucial for improving readability on a small screen.

Helimix Mobile Design – Clear ph Design

Secondly, make navigating your mobile site intuitive. The site should be easy to tap through and simple to use.

Finally, don’t make your users wait. An Awwwards study found that if a web page takes longer than 3 seconds to load, 53% of users will exit the page.

Let your website tell your story

Your website is your mood board reincarnated in the digital world. Everything from the site’s visual content to its color scheme should allude to your brand’s story.

Eckerd College Web Design – Clear ph Design

With its “Think Outside” slogan, Eckerd College was trying to not only sell its academics, but also the tropical outdoor environment they use as a classroom. For our recent reconstruction of the College’s website, we gave light-filled photos and unique footage of campus life center stage on every page.

If you need help developing your brand’s digital presence, read more about Clear ph’s web design services here. If you have a story on paper, let us tell it through code!