The design is the first thing a visitor registers: the layout, the colors, the images, and the way the content is organized. We are based in Pittsburgh, and the filming and the coaching happen on site with you. Design also keeps changing, because audiences do. Some changes are welcomed. Some are not. The constant is that the work does not stand still.
When a site is ready for a redesign, start with what the client actually needs. The features should fit the business and the taste of the people who have to live with the site. Stay open to a new idea. That is how you get a layout that presents the brand more clearly. The audience still outranks the trend. Before you adopt a technique, answer a few questions.
- Will the new design support the brand?
- Will it help the business talk with its audience, instead of talking at them?
- Will it carry the message in a way that fits the people reading it?
- Will it organize the content more clearly than the current site?
- Will it make the site easier to use?
- Will it help the site stand apart, or only make it look like every other redesign this year?
The design is the first impression. A trend only belongs on the site if the audience can appreciate it too. Four of them came up often enough to take one at a time.
Long scrolling pages
Most sites split information across many pages. A long-scroll site puts it on one page and lets navigation jump between sections. That format fits a simple message, the kind that can be followed from top to bottom. Visual cues can point people from one section to the next. If the business needs a more complicated map, a single long page will fight you.
Mobile first, and responsive after that
A mobile-first design plans for the phone before it plans for the desktop. If analytics show that more of your visits arrive from phones than from computers, design for the phone. Then make the same site render properly on a desktop, a tablet, and a smartphone. Google Analytics will tell you where the visits come from. Use that, not a guess, to decide which screen leads.
Large visual headers
A large header is a way to avoid burying people in choices. Keep the area above the fold simple, and let the design ask for one next step. The content in that first screen should give someone a reason to act and a reason to stay. Simplicity is what makes the point land.
Parallax, used carefully
Parallax was a popular effect: the background moves at a different rate than the foreground, without Flash and without a video doing the work. It can look like too much. It earns its place when it guides someone through the content. If it only shows that the site can move, leave it out.
Design for the job, and for the audience
The site has to serve a purpose, not only the preference of the person who commissioned it. The design should carry the message, support the goals, and help a visitor get what they came for. Trends are a menu. The audience is the brief.
If the next version of the site should be designed for the people who use it, our website design and development team can build it with you.
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Where to go from here
We are a Pittsburgh production studio, and we come to you. If you want to keep going, start with the work, a call, or the free brand audit.