May 2018 - QL Tech

To truly understand the web design process, you must look beyond just the outward visual appearance of a website a little deeper. An exciting career for a creative problem-solver like you. Turning text and images into gorgeous sites that customers love to visit and companies are proud to show off. Keep reading to discover important facts that you should know about the web design before paying for web design services.

What Web Designing is Really About?

The web design industry is a constantly progressing industry. It undergoes constant development and expansion. The players in this industry are in a constant system of changing themselves. By changing themselves, they update their website and its offerings. In doing this, they formulate goals which they nurture until fruition. Particularly in the education industry, a website undergoes a number of updates. In the education sector, a website can provide online tutorials, offer a community blogging platform, offer a blog series and cultivate forums and discussions.

The education industry has embraced online learning. Through this, it integrates technology into the learning process to offer online courses. These are either an extension of their classroom counterparts or are conducted only virtually. Courses in website development, coding, digital marketing, learning languages such as PHP, etc are all taught virtually to students who opt for them. This technological development in education has virtually created another sub-industry in education, that of online learning. This industry is slowly growing through small developments.

Web designing promoting Social Interactions

Through community blogging, websites have developed another revenue stream. Website owners have started encouraging community blogging, wherein proponents of one thought or idea come together on a particular site and discuss it. They try to support or oppose the topic being discussed. This gives rise to a debate. Such debates are making community blogging sites entertaining. This entertainment is more interesting than what we are offered in the media. Through community blogging, users communicate with others of their ilk.

Through a blog series, websites are inviting people from all walks of life to write for their website. People post their opinions, views on subjects of their interest. Some of them also write informative pieces about certain topical issues that matter to them. Such initiatives are a dime a dozen today because business owners want to engage with their customers to take their feedback on their products and services. This activity is necessary to tailor the product or service offerings as per the needs of the customer.

Through interactive forums and discussions,

business owners propagate the idea of freedom of speech. This also empowers people by helping them find their voice, among a crowd. They discuss the pros and cons (as the case may be) in the active forums and discussions and put forth their point of view. Such activity is encouraged by each business owner. He gains by this activity in that the user is communicating through his website and using its features. During this activity, the user also browses through the products and services on offer and makes a purchase.

7 Important Facts about the Web Design Industry

Here, we will discuss Seven important facts about the website industry that you should be aware of. These facts are culled from extensive research done on many websites and their offshoots. Many small businesses were also surveyed to find out this information. A lot of effort has gone into collecting data from customers and converting that into understandable data. The raw survey data was not actionable. This activity has been conducted to understand the Seven important facts about the web design industry.

1. All web browsers render differently

Different browsers render websites differently. When you look at a website using the Google Chrome browser from your office, it may not appear the same as when you look at it using Mozilla Firefox, from your residence. This is because the two different browsers give different rendering effects to the same website. This means it all depends on parsing and rendering of a website by a browser. This activity gives different results for different browsers for the same website.

2. Design dictates which part of your website users will focus on

The internet has changed the way users browse and read the content. As per a Neilson Normal Group’s report, websites, which are successful in garnering traffic, have recorded a 47% improvement in usability. Web design professionals can use heat maps and analytical tools, which tell them which buttons on their website, are popular. This can cause large ramifications for the successful updation and design of websites. Such information can help web designers.

3. A two-year-old website may be too old

In the web design industry, technology changes at breakneck speed. To keep pace with these changes, professionals must update themselves at regular intervals. Moreover, business owners should also update their websites regularly. If a website is not attended to for more than three months, it becomes too old. A website, which has been stagnating for two years, will be even older. Regular updating of websites is common in the web design industry. Merchants who do not follow this are sure to be out of business.

4. Templates will condition the navigation of your website

Templates will condition your navigation of your website

Templates may help you design an attractive website, however, when the time comes to update that, templates will not allow you to do it, the way you want it. Templates will condition your website updation. Once a template is used, the website updation has to follow the path of the template and cannot be modified the way you want. Therefore, when designing a website, avoid opting for templates. This is apparent considering templates are rigid and condition the website design in a particular format.

5. Images or videos can have a positive or negative impact on your business

When inserting images or videos into your website, try using their optimized version. Not doing this will make your website slow to navigate. Users do not have the patience to wait until a website with heavy images and videos opens. Such images and videos tend to drive away users from your website. Therefore, it is best to use images and videos that are optimized for websites.

6. A good website design costs from $500 to $5000

A pricing infographic by a popular website states that the design costs of a good website range from $500 to $5000. This range is so wide because it includes the design cost of the website, the cost of optimizing the content of the website and improving the loading time of the site on search engines. Depending upon the density of a website, the costs of website design vary so widely.

7. There is a difference between responsive and mobile web design

When you view a website on your mobile, you are viewing its mobile version while when you are viewing it on your laptop or desktop, you are looking at its responsive version. The mobile website is restrictive, while responsive design is flexible. Flexible website design allows modification of websites according to the interface through which it is viewed. Thus, it is better to view websites on your laptop or desktop.

Conclusion

Thus, we have seen above that the web design industry is a constantly evolving field. The more flexible your website is, the better it will be for you. Therefore, when you design your website, make it reactive and not a mobile one. A responsive website will allow you to make modifications in it at a later date if required. However, a mobile website will not allow that. A mobile website will only allow you to update its content and not its design.

Taking the example of the education sector, you have seen how a website changes form, in the introduction to this article. You have also seen that in order to keep updated with the latest design changes happening in the web design industry, a professional have to upgrade himself periodically. If he does not do it, he will be thrown out. Similar is the case with web design professionals and graphic designers. They have to keep themselves in the knowledge of the latest improvements on the design scene.

In the above piece, you have seen how dynamic the web design industry is and how you should design dynamic websites, which can be modified later, if, required, in order to counter your competition. In this industry, your competition is twofold. One it is with the other designers and on another front it is will constantly evolving the technology. If they do not upgrade themselves at regular intervals, they will be outdated and will not be able to offer their services. There is a lot of material online, which will help web designers, and graphic designers upgrade their skills to remain in the game.

This post is by guest author, Junaid Ali Qureshi. This article has been edited and published with the author’s permission.

The term behavioural research might be relatively unknown to many people in the advertising sector but what if I told you it has the ability to improve the outcome of your marketing strategies, sometimes by even tenfold, if executed to precision.

As the name implies, behavioural research is a research section that focuses on finding what variables can have a direct or indirect effect on an individual’s habits.

These can help a marketing campaign better communicate their message to the consumers. For those still unconvinced on the benefits of behavioural research, read on as we list a number of benefits.

You Can Make Your Company Seem More Trustworthy

People are more in favour of conducting business with a company they deem to be trustable and are familiar with. By understanding the behavioural patterns and habits, you can market your company or your product in a manner that pulls at the consumer’s emotional strings.

An emotional connection will ensure that consumers keep coming back to your company after the first time around. According to a study done by analysts, a marketing campaign that had a more emotional tone to it always outperformed generic campaigns that were not emotional. This was true in all aspects of marketing.

Allows Your Marketing Campaigns To Stand Out From Other Campaigns And Competitors

Humans stay on autopilot mode for large amounts of time. Whether it is in the bus on your way to work or driving for long periods of time, we generally do not pay attention to a familiar environment that we have become accustomed to, unless we come across something that is unfamiliar.

Things are no different when it comes to the general public. If you have a generic marketing campaign, then chances are that your consumers are not going to regard it either. In order to get them to notice you, you need to step out from the usual boring campaigns and come up with something powerful enough to draw their attention. This does not mean changing just the also message but can include things like changing where your campaign will be seen or how it will be made use of. All these aspects will be significantly easier when one has access to information about the consumer and their behavioural patterns.

It Helps You Center Your Company Around Your Consumers

To start with, extensive research into the consumer’s behavior and habits will allow you to centre the firm around the consumers. The majority, if not all, companies tend to get embroiled in internal issues, politics, focus more on other ventures and projects and so on.

When this happens, it is easy for a company to lose its way, head in a different direction and most importantly, lose touch with their customer base. Behavioural research allows you to stay on course and make serving your clients a priority.

The importance of meeting the expectations of consumers, understanding what is it that they want. And how exactly they want it cannot be stressed enough. For instance, if you wish to open an e-commerce site, it would be great if you can find behavioural patterns in your consumers. That can assist you in developing the site in a manner that fits their behaviour before you hire magneto developer. Or invest in a magneto development company.

You Can Project the Impression of A Popular Company

Crowds are always wary of a new or relatively unknown product in the market. If they feel that the company or product is new, they will think twice before buying it as opposed to buying a product from a long-standing company. If they are given the idea that the product is popular and often used, they are more likely to be interested in using it. This is again something that can not be done without extensive research into consumers’ behaviours.

Impression-of-a-popular-company-effective-marketing

Keeps You Future-Oriented and Ready for Sudden Changes

An age-old saying is that those who fail to change tend to be left behind in the cold, and in today’s competitive and rapidly evolving market, that is gospel. Behavioral research also allows you to better predict the future of the market.

It can give you an idea of where the market is heading and what trends are coming up. This is important because if a company fails to get on a trend or new market direction, they can quickly go obsolete, such is the industry today.

A fine case in point is Nokia. With adequate research by your side, you can even anticipate sudden changes and act accordingly. Most importantly, the research data allows you to see the bigger picture and focus on long term results rather than short term results that can quickly make your company irrelevant and stunt the longevity of the business.

You Can Have More Detailed Marketing Campaigns

When you are armed with data on what consumers want and what they do not, you can put that in your marketing campaign and deliver something that is filled with details and information that show your customers that you understand them and perhaps most importantly, understand what they want and how they want it.

This can make a massive difference and will always stand out over a vague campaign that does not seem to know the customer’s needs. These details even have the potential to change behaviour and similar to the previous point above, helps you stand out apart from the crowd which generates more interest and attention in your product or company which is exactly what your campaign wants. The increased attention is invariably going to generate higher profits.

Greatly Enhances Your Decision Making Skills and Reduces the Level Of Risks

Knowing more about your customers and their habits will help you vastly when it comes to making important decisions. Behavioural research will give you a lot of meaningful information into your industry, your products and competition to name a few.

Having this wealth of information at your fingertips will make it easier for you to make important decisions with assurance and clarity. When you know how your consumers are likely to act towards your methods, it gives you more confidence to act out your strategies.

Talking about marketing strategies, this extra information makes it easier to brainstorm and develop better strategies that can directly target the consumer as well reduce the amount of risk that is associated with new ventures and plans.

Allows You to Pursue Better Opportunities

Furthermore, knowing what your consumers like and what they do not allows you to separate lucrative opportunities from other opportunities that are not doing as well. When operating a business, it is usual to get confused when deciding which path will deliver the best profits. Armed with information on your consumers, you can decipher this much easier than doing it without any information.

Not only is it easier, but it will also ensure that the task is more accurate. You can figure out what type of marketing campaign you should follow, which product you should market to which demographic and most importantly prioritize important tasks ahead of the others.

Anyone in the marketing field knows that the ability to multitask is of immense importance. At any given moment, a marketer could be juggling multiple tasks or multiple projects. When this happens, there is always the chance that one can miss the bigger picture or prioritize less important tasks over important ones. This problem can be avoided if one has the information that allows them to easily figure out where to focus their attention on.

Month: May 2018

7 Facts that you should know about the Web Design Industry