With the majority of people accessing the internet on hand-held devices as well as PCs, we strongly believe that today’s websites should cater for and work well on whatever device and screen size your visitors choose to use – rather than being a good experience on some devices and frustrating on others. Indeed, back in April 2015 Google announced that, for searches conducted on mobile phones, it will reward websites that are ‘mobile friendly’ and disadvantage those that are not.
So, our recommendation to you is that your new website should have a responsive web design, with users of mobile phones taken firmly into account. And of course, by choosing a responsive web design, your new website shows you care about your visitors, and therefore positions you above your competitors who have not taken this step.
Design considerations
Using the information gained in the previous phase regarding your business and your clientele, we are now in a position to commence the design work for the new website. Our starting point is to prepare a mock-up graphical style for your new website. This allows us to explore with you – before proceeding to full website development – our proposed colours, header and body fonts, button styles, icon design etc. We can also test it on a sample users, if you wish.
Website navigation
Simple and clear website navigation is another important part of web design – whatever device your audience is using. We draw on the personas that we prepared when understanding your business to make sure your navigation system is thought through and operates from the perspective and motivations of your audience. Also, that it designed to achieve the outcomes that you, as a business, require.
We ensure your navigation system/menu serves all types of users, irrespective of their device and method of operation. For example, we design navigation to serve both touch and non-touch screen users, and those using a hybrid of touch as well as mouse.
Page layouts
In parallel with content creation and keyword research, we will work with you to create the page layouts for your new website – the arrangement of the pages, not the text itself. We start with the smallest sized screens as these require particular care in the presentation and prioritisation of content. Having determined page layouts on small screens we proceed to creating layouts on screens of increasing size.
Prototype
One we have defined the overall style of your website, plus written some content and settled the page layouts, we are in a position to create a prototype of your new website – which is normally a working version of two or three key pages. This enables you to test the prototype with a series of anonymous users. From this we can gather detailed feedback, and gain a deeper understanding of how your target audience(s) are likely to respond to the new web pages.
In conjunction with yourselves we will examine the feedback from the prototype and make any adjustments to the design that are deemed necessary.
Accessibility
All organisations have a duty to ensure their services are accessible, and AttractMore can help you understand the legal responsibilities of your website. However, we go one step further. Because for us website accessibility does not just mean considering people with disabilities. It means considering those with colour blindness, people with issues of poor contrast, or those with an ailment of some kind – maybe a temporary wrist injury, or an age-related issue such as arthritis or declining eyesight.
We can show you the essential requirements to make your website accessible, and we can steer you towards best practice. This is a complex and changing area, with frequent improvements being made in browser technology. However, we believe we have made some important steps in understanding and implementing accessible websites in recent years – although we are always looking to improve our service in this area.
