Web Design : Telling Apart GOOD vs. BAD Website Design…
Being able to distinguish good vs. bad website design is not always easy & you may have to explore many different web design companies to make sure you know what to look for…
You’ve got a great product or service to offer & you have finally decided to have a website to promote it! Now comes the easy part… or is it?? When I made the decision to have my own artist website, I searched the internet for the best deal for setting up my own & I was really excited because it looked easy, fun, & FREE! Here’s what I found out I would really be getting…
1st I would need to chose a Domain Name, (for example… www.artistkarin.com ). Most of the FREE sites I checked, included a domain name, & I found out that the website hosting company is actually who own it. So this means they have the control over how it’s managed… or NOT! (Sometimes the domain name is NOT even free… only the website).
Apparently, some website development & web hosting companies don’t even manage these websites themselves. They sell website space to other ‘pseudo’ web-hosting companies, so; if I was to have a problem, such as my website being ‘down’ or parts of my website not functioning properly, I would NOT be getting direct support from the company where I made my website. Some of the sites I found even have a ‘Live Support’ feature, but often times I’ve experienced that they’re not available to help me when I need it.
Choosing a Theme was the next step…
This was done by picking a ‘template’, which I thought was going to be the fun part…
however, being an artist; I found that the selection was limited. The designs that they offered did not give me many options. I was looking for a design that was similar to the visually interesting ones I’ve seen online for either art, artists or art galleries; and none of the ones offered to me fit my ‘vision’ of what I wanted my site to look like.
I decided to try making my artist website anyway… after all it was FREE, and the only way I would know how well one actually functioned, was to try it out. So I chose a theme, and started the process of inputting descriptions, images & pricing information; about my paintings & techniques, and a description in an ‘About Us’ (or ‘Bio”) page about myself & the history of the type of product or service I offered. I was also asked to select my preferences for my ‘Shopping Cart’, in order for them to process the items buyers will be purchasing from my site.
So I did everything required to get my website up and running…
now all I needed to do was just sit back and watch the orders come in… right?
Well, it wasn’t quite that easy…I waited and nothing happened. I waited some more… & weeks went by with no orders. I spoke with someone @ their ‘Live Support’, to ask them if there were any technical reasons why I was not getting results; and was told “It can sometimes take awhile” and to, “Check back with them soon”. After this continued for a month, I decided to check into some other options.
I looked at some Website Development |Website Design company websites and found out that they have articles & forums that address the exact concerns that I had about my website. One of the things I found, was that the ‘free’ sites don’t offer their members optimal search engine results; (termed..or “keyword” Search Engine Optimization… or “SEO”). In other words, the way that website is arranged affects where it will end up in the search results for a certain search term, (i.e. how close to the beginning of the search results of a particular browser like Google or Yahoo). In this case, I realized that skimping on quality by choosing to use mediocre website development could really cost me more than just my time… I now know that it can mean the difference between a decent product’s success or failure. For instance, if my product or service is never viewed by internet customers, because it shows up on page 35 in the search results. (After page 2… you might as well have your page being viewed on Mars). I was finding that if I was to use an experienced, reputable, website-development & website design company; that I would really know if my paintings were going to be a viable product, online; since my site would be in the same arena as competitors offering paintings of similar quality.
Another thing I found, was that being able to navigate a particular website can be made a lot better, by improving the functionality. I was told that there are factors that affect the speed in which pages load, something I think most visitors to a website would find especially useful & desirable; since they are probably used to, as I am… visiting sites that are fast & well-designed.
Moving from one category to another, clicking on different items & being able to view them quickly… as well as giving the items the ability to be viewed easily, by being able to access them in separate windows; are also important elements to help visitors avoid continually having to hit the ‘back button’ in order to view the next item. What I have come to realize from my research into how websites function, is that these are the types of features I should have; to keep the visitors to my site satisfied & wanting to return.
Previously, I did not think much about how important ‘Shopping Carts‘ are to a successful website; until I remembered having several less-than enjoyable experiences while trying to purchase something from one that didn’t operate correctly. Most times if I couldn’t make it happen in a couple of tries, I would just give up & go to a different website to buy the item I wanted. I now realize that all shopping carts are NOT created equal. I found that having a fully-functional shopping cart is not that hard to obtain..you just need to know where to look for one; (such as the ones I discovered that are offered at a custom website development site). I now know that for a shipping cart to work correctly, you need to have all your products ‘cataloged’ in a way that reflects accurate functions for calculating prices, availability, coupons & gift cards, shipping costs & options, a way to track shipped orders…to name a few. The features of the shopping carts I found in some of the web-development company articles… contained more features that I didn’t realize existed; and as I found out…were crucial elements for customers to be able to complete accurate, timely orders.
The outcome…
I did finally launch a website, where I currently display & my paintings are for sale in an online gallery. I also accept web-design projects that offer different levels of features, which give the option of starting off with having the basic elements; as well as the choice of upgrading to more sophisticated & elaborate designs & templates. The more complex & intricate features require my consulting with a web-developer, since they contain more complex characteristics such as ‘flash’, implementation of ‘databases’, setting up shopping carts, & as I mentioned earlier, ‘SEO’ (Search Engine Optimization).
The other advantage I found by using an experienced, established web-developer; is that they were able to guide me towards choosing the right design tools & features available for my type of internet business.