Our Philosophy on Building Great Websites
If you’ve already searched for design agencies on the web, you may have noticed that most of them spend a lot of time talking about themselves. Our philosophy takes a different approach – we prefer to talk about you – with the main emphasis placed on your business goals and what you aim to achieve with your website. The key areas being -
- The purpose of your website
- Your Target Audience
- Your message
- Your on-line strategy
With that in mind, we’d suggest the first stage would be to define the “Goals” of the website in relation to the requirements and aspirations of the business or organisation involved.
Defining the Goal
Every website should have a distinct goal or number of goals that are measurable.
A goal can be anything from communicating with friends and associates through to making profits by selling products or services online (e commerce). Your goal in the first instance may even be to have a web presence so potential clients don’t regard your organisation as being backward!
Once you have defined a goal (or number of goals), it’s equally important to define:
- The target audience. i.e. Who you want/expect to visit your website.
- The actions you want to result from their visit. i.e. Making an online sale, getting them to make an enquiry etc.
- What benefits you are giving and receiving from having the website.
Defining the Key Functions (The actions)
Once the goals of the website have been established, it’s important to define the actions required by site visitors to meet the goals. An action is any traceable sequence of events carried out by the end user.
Examples might include:
- Getting in touch – either by phone, email or via an online form.
- Disseminating Information.
- Signing up for a newsletter.
- Completing a questionnaire
- Commenting on a Blog
- Downloading or buying products
- Using an online tool
Of course, there are other intangible benefits that your website might provide to an end user that don’t result in direct “actions”… i.e. simply providing “peace of mind” to an existing or prospective customer would be considered as such.
If you haven’t already done so, then it’s also useful to check out the competition, for ideas, likes and dislikes.
Establishing Your Design & Development Preferences
Once you have formulated the goals and functional requirements for the website, it’s time to start building a picture of how you anticipate the site coming together – with regard to structure and design theme. This doesn’t need to be a definitive exercise – Your web designer should be able to add a lot of input and suggestions at a later stage, but it helps to have some ideas to feed into the requirements you approach the designer with in the first instance.
As follows are a few that we feel should be mandatory:
- The website should adhere to recognised standards. The site should be written to conform and validate to the standards defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) – this will in turn, mean your site should be cross-browser friendly (i.e. Appear the same across various different types of web browser).
- The website should be accessible. In web terms, this means that it conforms to the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
- The website should be clean, crisp and fast loading.
- The website should be easy to use and inoffensive (see below).
Our Tip: Easy to use and Inoffensive – The WOW factor
Webbies often get asked to produce a website with the “WOW factor“. The “WOW factor” is a term that means different things to different people. Often, the person or business commissioning the website have grandiose plans for extensive animation, splash screens, cartoons, garish designs… This isn’t the WOW factor – A bold garish design with “off the wall” colour schemes may seem bold and innovative to some people, but may really put off other site users – Find the happy medium.
If a person wants to buy a pair of shoes online then their mission is basically to find the desirable pair of shoes at the right price in the quickest possible time. They don’t visit an e-commerce site to watch an animation of shoes tap dancing across the screen. Leave cartoons and needless animation that add zero value to those experts in their own field. People watch the Simpsons for that type of entertainment. They likely won’t be visiting your website for (or be impressed by) to be “dazzled” by irrelevant attempts to stand out.
Our own interpretation of the “WOW factor” is a site that is very simple to use, clean, crisp, user friendly, fast loading with great content. Basically, the site that delivers it’s underlying message quickly and concisely is the most effective. Google has the WOW Factor and you don’t see slow loading animation on that website.
The WOW factor should mean Winning on the Web and nothing else.
Perhaps more important is our guarantee to each of our clients -
We guarantee that we will continue tailoring the design and content of the bespoke website within the fixed price we provide at the beginning of the project.
As a result, You, as the client ALWAYS get the finished product you dreamed of.
Clients and Testimonials
To date, we believe we do not have one single unsatisfied client on our books. We can provide testimonials for virtually every single project we have ever worked on. This is not an idle boast – it is something that WestWindMoves is very proud of.
The old adage that a happy customer will tell 2 or 3 other people about their experiences and an unhappy customer will tell 10 people or more, is a fair statement and we are driven by the fact that happy customers can often lead to repeat and new business.
Clients typically range from large corporations, academic institutions down to sole traders and individuals. All projects, whatever the size are treated with same professionalism that has earned us our reputation.
Call us now on 0151 482 5573
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