Five Pieces of Advice for your Company's Custom Web Design

Your online customer may be the type of customer that's most challenging to sell to. Why? Because you're not physically there where he is for you to explain why he should buy from you. Sure, it gets rid of the awkward feeling you get when dealing with the cold market face to face but at least you'll be physically there to defend your company if your customer questions your products.

On the other hand, your online customers only have your custom web design to look at. The communication is one way - no real time feedback from your customers. Knowing this, you have to make sure your company's custom web design will answer their questions even before they ask.

Make it easy for your customers to find what they need in the fastest, most convenient way possible on your custom web design. The following advice will help you get there:

1. Inspiration: A Prerequisite

How strong do you believe in your product? You better hope you can answer this question with the most enthusiasm you can muster.

Believe in your company, have faith in your products, deliver your service with dignity and if there's room for improvement, find a way to fill that room up. If you can find a way to make these reflect on your custom web design, all the better.

Inspiration is most important when you start conceptualizing your custom web design. Your mindset alone can make a whole lot of difference when you list down the things you want to let your customers know about your company and present it on your custom web design.

You do stuff your turkey first before you put in it the oven, right? This same sequence applies in custom web design too. You have to get the gist of what you do before you can effectively tell the public about it. This makes your company's message on your custom web design all the more flavorful.

2. On Paper Before It's On Screen

Now that you have your inspiration, I'm sure you're excited to get started in making your custom web design. To do just that, you can get to work on your custom web design - with a pen and paper.

With technology so easily accessible and the tools installed in your computer so promising with custom web design excellence, it's easy to forget the basics. The reason why it's better to manually draw your design on paper before you plot it to your custom web design on screen is because your hands are not limited to computer functions. Drawing by hand, you can arrange the pictures, text, company logo, banners, buttons, and links with the highest level of freedom.

Your computer has calculated the exact number of different ways you can arrange the elements on your custom web design. Fortunately however, your human ability to draw is not limited by that number so you can have more options this way. Remember, you learned to write with a pen before you could type on your keyboard so best exercise the same principle here too.

3. Harmony in Content and Imagery

From your drawing board, you can now put your custom web design on screen. Here is where you can extend artistry further by dressing up your custom web design. Make sure that it'll be appropriate for your company and the target market that you're aiming for.

Consider the color schemes, images and content you want to embed into your custom web design and make sure that there's balance. A lot of company websites fall short in this department making the online customer confused with the multitude of colors, text and extra images on the custom web design.

One major focal point per link will do while the other elements in your custom web design can support it. The focal point can catch your customer's attention indicating that this is the first portion to look at. The supporting elements in your custom web design can guide the customer's eye giving a sense of connection from one idea to another before proceeding to the next link.

Also, remember to maximize the use of images on your custom web design. Apart from being used to decorate the webpage, images should speak out to your customer online. Where the image ends, the content begins so the text on your custom web design should be fitting. Write like you're talking to your customer face to face. Online, there are limitations where you cannot put into words your facial expressions. In this case, squeeze in descriptive words but take into account that the most effective content is one that's the shortest.

Lastly, make room for customers to breathe on your custom web design. Perhaps it's not popularly recognized, but the importance of negative space on your custom web design can speak a lot about your company. Putting spaces enables the elements in your custom web design to be properly distanced from each other giving your customers time to digest the train of information you presented. This will make your custom web design more appealing.

4. Be Hyper-Organized

Yes, you're allowed to be obsessive about proper order in the structure of your custom web design. Rest assured, no one will judge you for it. In fact, the more organized the links are, the more understandable it will be. Here are some Do's and Dont's to make your custom web design efficient:

Once you've applied the above, your worst customer who is -- born disorganized, load time impatient, easily distracted, trigger happy with links and an avid blogger about bad websites visited -- should still find his way around your custom web design without getting lost.

5. The Extra Mile is a Road Least Travelled

Only few companies are willing to extend customer service to a higher level than usual but you can be sure that those few companies are among those who are most successful. On the other hand, unsuccessful companies have custom web designs resulting from setting mediocre goals. What was not taken into account is the potential exposure that the custom web design can do for the company. Your company should not fall trapped to this by taking advantage of custom web design in bringing customer service aimed at satisfying customers completely.

One way to do it is to test your custom web design by having someone impartial browse through it. You can get fresh un-compromised feedback and use those to improve your custom web design before it's launched. You can further improve your custom web design by making it still effectively viewable regardless of the browser used, the operating system running and the monitor's size. This means that your custom web design should be flexible enough that it will not discriminate the specifics of individual customers' computers.

Take note that human eyes are not radiation proof. Staring at the computer screen can only be tolerated to a certain extent and we wouldn't want site visitors to get to the point of eye strain. Just like grocery store customers who hate standing on a long line at the express checkout counter, your online customer doesn't want to be kept waiting while pages load on your custom web design. To remedy this, make important information easily accessible and present it in the most concise manner.

Custom web design is a powerful tool. It should be used to impress your online customers enough so they'll tell their friends about it. Consequently, it could work negatively for your company since it only takes one user to spread the word in the internet that your custom web design is badly created. That's bad press that you will have very little control of. It's best to play defense with custom web design. Present your company in the best light attainable. By playing safe, dealing with online customers will be so easy, it's like a walk in the internet park.

Proweaver. Making Online Customers Happy. Custom Web Design. 25 Sep. 2009 [/custom-web-design].

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