2013 February 17 Archive - EXEIdeas

Just like how a couturier can’t design a dress without knowing his muse or how a chef can’t cook an entrée without knowing his diners, a web designer can create an effective web design without knowing the site’s target audience. In fact, knowing who your readers are is the first crucial step in web designing. It sets the direction of the site and serves as the basis for any design decision that has to be made.Knowing how to target your audience is one of the most often overlooked web design tips because marketers want to dive in right ahead on the aesthetic components of the site. However, a truly effective web design uses these visual elements not just for aesthetics’ sake, but to communicate to an audience.Using Google Analytics:Yes, Google Analytics is not only a tool for SEOs. It can also prove valuable for web designers. Knowing the search terms that lead your visitors to your site will provide a glimpse of what type of individuals they are — their motivations, desires, fears, etc.Aside from keywords, you can also set the foundation for an effective web design by digging deeper into the GA data. For example, does your homepage have a significantly huge bounce rate? If yes, this means that your homepage design is not catchy enough to hook your visitors into the inner pages of your site. Knowing the exit pages is also critical as this will help you identify the pages that are not capturing the interest of your audience. Through these insights, you can use the necessary design adjustments.Utilize Your Blog and Your Social Media Accounts:If your company has a blog (which you should since fresh content is important in online marketing), you can actually create an entry to trigger a discussion about what your visitors like or dislike about your site. The entry need not to be long. In fact, a few sentences would suffice. Ask questions. “What do you like about our site? What do you think should we add, remove or change? Do you have any wish list that you think we should include in our design?”Before you know it, you’ll be flooded with comments and the beauty of this method is that your visitors can build on each other’s suggestions creating a robust and meaningful discussion, not to mention a huge number of ideas.Further, one of the most effective web design tips in terms of determining what your site visitors want is by utilizing your social profiles (again, if you are not present in social networks, your marketing strategy is quite outdated). You can create polls in Facebook or create a survey in Twitter. The possibilities are limitless.Tailor Fit Your Design to Fit Your Audience:After you have culled all insights, you can now start implementing changes to create an effective web design. Some of the visual elements you need to focus on include layout, typography and the graphical components. As the old adage goes, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” In this case, an effective web design is one that targets an audience and gives them a rewarding browsing experience. #ath { background:#f8f8f8; margin:0 0 40px 0; padding:10px; border: 3px outset #e8e8e8; -moz-border-radius: 10px; border-radius: 10px; overflow:hidden; font-size: 14px; } .pro { background:#FFF; float:left; margin:0 10px 0 0; padding:4px; border: 2px inset #e8e8e8; } .social { float:right; } About the Author:Mr. Deepak Gupta is a successful online blogger and an expert web designer. He is associated with a responsive website design company india that provides industry based web designing services and very well takes care of designing aspects of various clients.Find Me On GooglePlus