Website Design: What it entails

Everyone says Website Design but what does it mean?

Website design plays a pivotal role in shaping online experiences and increasing conversions via lead Generation. From the layout and aesthetics to functionality and user experience, web design encompasses various elements crucial for a successful online presence. In this blog post, we’ll delve into what web design truly entails, touching upon hosting, tools, costs, and the essential knowledge required in this field.

What is Website Design?

Web design refers to the process of creating and arranging elements on a webpage to deliver a seamless and visually appealing user experience. It involves understanding user behavior, incorporating brand identity, optimizing for different devices, and ensuring functionality across various browsers. However, all of this work is void if no one sees your website. The key to professional website design is congruency via the elements listed below:

• Typography: Consistent typography throughout your website ensures readability and reinforces your brand’s identity, from elegant serif fonts for a sophisticated vibe to clean sans-serif fonts for a modern look.
• Brand Colors: Harmonizing with your brand’s color palette, website elements adorned in your brand’s colors evoke familiarity and trust, strengthening brand recognition and coherence across all platforms.
• Element Spacing: Thoughtful spacing between elements creates a sense of balance and clarity, allowing visitors to navigate your website effortlessly while maintaining a visually pleasing layout.
• Element Size: Uniformity in element size ensures visual harmony and guides users’ attention effectively, whether it’s prominent call-to-action buttons guiding them through the conversion funnel or consistent thumbnail sizes for product listings.
• Border Radius: Applying consistent border radius values to elements imparts a cohesive and polished aesthetic, whether it’s gently rounded corners for a friendly appeal or sharp edges for a more modern and edgy look.
• Art Style: Adopting a consistent art style, whether it’s minimalist illustrations, vibrant photographs, or abstract graphics, adds personality to your brand and reinforces its identity across various website elements, enhancing overall coherence and memorability.

Hosting: Speed, Rank, and Engagement

Hosting plays a crucial role in the performance of a website. Speed is not only essential for user engagement and retention but also impacts search engine rankings. Faster-loading websites tend to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) and have better user engagement metrics. However, achieving optimal speed often comes at a higher cost, particularly with dedicated hosting solutions over shared hosting. The most appealing website wouldn’t convert leads if the web pages take too long to load. Typically there are two ways to host your website:

• Shared Hosting: Shared hosting, while more affordable, typically sacrifices speed and performance as multiple websites share the same server resources, resulting in slower loading times during peak traffic periods.
• Dedicated Hosting: Dedicated hosting offers unparalleled speed and performance by providing exclusive access to server resources, making it ideal for websites with high traffic volumes or complex applications, albeit at a higher cost compared to shared hosting plans.

Website Design tools

Website design requires a myriad of tools to streamline the workflow and create stunning websites. Platforms like WordPress provide a flexible and user-friendly content management system (CMS), while page builders like Elementor empower designers to craft visually appealing layouts without extensive coding knowledge. Additionally, SEO tools help optimize websites for search engines, improving visibility and driving organic traffic. However, these tools often come with a monthly expense that designers must consider. 

1. WordPress:
   • Powers a significant portion of the internet, offering a robust and versatile platform for website creation.
   • Its open-source nature allows for a vast community of developers to contribute plugins and themes, making it a highly customizable and scalable solution.
   • Free web design software companies struggle to compete with the extensive features and support offered by WordPress due to its large community and continuous development.

1. WEB DESIGN TOOLS (e.g., Elementor):
   • Tools like Elementor streamline the web design process, offering drag-and-drop functionality and pre-built templates for rapid development.
   • While they provide convenience and flexibility, such tools often come with a monthly subscription fee, adding to the overall cost of website creation and maintenance.

1. SEO TOOLS (e.g., Ahrefs):
   • SEO tools like Ahrefs offer comprehensive insights and analytics to optimize website performance and increase visibility in search engine results.
   • Despite their effectiveness, these tools often come with a significant price tag, with Ahrefs being one of the most expensive SEO overheads for businesses.

1. GRAPHIC DESIGN SOFTWARE (e.g., Adobe Illustrator):
   • Graphic design software such as Adobe Illustrator plays a crucial role in creating visually stunning web experiences by allowing designers to craft custom graphics, logos, and other visual elements.
   • While essential for brand identity and aesthetics, these software packages require an initial investment but contribute significantly to the overall quality and professionalism of a website.

Website Design Expertise

Crafting a website involves meticulous attention to detail, with each page requiring thorough optimization for mobile responsiveness, setting standardized fonts, and integrating brand colors consistently. Depending on the complexity of the design, it can take anywhere from one to two days per page to ensure it meets the desired standards and functions seamlessly across devices.

Furthermore, web designers must possess a solid understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript programming languages to implement functionality and interactivity effectively. These languages form the backbone of web development and are essential for bringing designs to life on the web.

1. HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) Defines the structure and content of web pages.
   • HTML provides the foundation for organizing content on web pages, including headings, paragraphs, lists, and other structural elements.
   • It uses tags to markup content, indicating its purpose and relationship within the document, which browsers interpret to render the page correctly.

1. CSS ( Cascading Style Sheet) Controls the presentation and styling of web pages.
   • CSS allows designers to apply styles such as colors, fonts, layout, and spacing to HTML elements, enhancing visual appeal and user experience.
   • It enables consistency across a website by defining styles once and applying them to multiple elements, facilitating easier maintenance and updates.

1. Javascript Adds interactivity and dynamic behavior to web pages.
   • JavaScript enables the creation of interactive features like sliders, form validation, and pop-up messages, enhancing user engagement and functionality.
   • It allows for the manipulation of HTML and CSS elements in real-time, enabling dynamic updates and modifications based on user actions or other events.

Website Design Conclusion

In conclusion, web design encompasses a multifaceted approach that combines creativity, technical expertise, and strategic thinking. From hosting considerations to the use of tools and the investment of time and knowledge, every aspect plays a crucial role in delivering exceptional online experiences. By understanding the intricacies of web design and leveraging the right resources, designers can create impactful websites that resonate with their audience and drive success in the digital landscape.

There are many web designers at various levels of experience which is why websites can be purchased at various price points, therefore you get what you pay for in this field because few people would put more than a week’s worth of work into a website at a low cost of under R2 500 or for free. It is impractical for a full-time web designer or web developer to be working for free as there are numerous overheads associated with developing a website and the time spent on designing one.