How important is the design?

37 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
  • |
Hey I am looking for your thoughts here. I have been a web designer however coming from a small town a consistent flow of customers does not exist, and those that do aren't high paying.

I do some freelance work online but its just not consistent enough.

I believe I am quite good and can design pages that look like they fit right in with many other good websites. Very current and on trend websites.

I am hoping to supplement my current income with some IM. Do you think its going to benefit me creating visually attractive websites that are unique and well thought out. Can I use this to gain trust? will it give the appearance of quality? or should I just stick to Wordpress themes like many do?

Basically is this a relevant skill in IM that I can use to my benefit? or is the extra work not worth it?

Thanks.
#design #important
  • Profile picture of the author copilu0
    Of course the design is very important for IM. If you visit a websites with a bad design you'll definitely close the window in just a few seconds. Make your websites look professional and your visitors will stay and even return.
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  • Profile picture of the author redexclub
    not only design but also Creative design! you have to come up with unique and creative ideas to make something special. dont forget.. your design will represent a product or services to there client.

    these are MUST READ for you:

    Importance of Creative Website Design | Why Creativity In Business Is Important

    Best of luck
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  • Profile picture of the author merkv
    Web design is the first appearance that a visitor sees on your website, aside from content. This will reflect how professional your website is...
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  • Profile picture of the author Jennwith2ns
    I definitely think it makes a difference. If I don't like the layout of a site, I will leave in about 2 seconds without bothering to read the content.
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    • Profile picture of the author redexclub
      Originally Posted by Jennwith2ns View Post

      I definitely think it makes a difference. If I don't like the layout of a site, I will leave in about 2 seconds without bothering to read the content.
      another important fact. now not only design and creativity. you also have to concentrate on UX.. layout, overall look and feel etc.
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      • Profile picture of the author JF Garsula
        Originally Posted by redexclub View Post

        another important fact. now not only design and creativity. you also have to concentrate on UX.. layout, overall look and feel etc.

        Well said! Design is important however most people didn't know how it helps increase conversion rates.

        It isn't really more on colors. Its more on communicating to the end user.
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        • Profile picture of the author Nauman K
          I would recommend to use Max 3 colors for website design in most of the cases the more color the more busy look of your site will be...
          Thanks
          Nauman K
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  • Profile picture of the author windelsolutions
    Design, UI, Layout all are important to attract the users. If these are good, then you also need good coding free from errors to get best results what you are seeking.
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  • Profile picture of the author InteliSoft
    To say little oddly, if your website is a woman, design or theme is her boobs, without a good design your website may operate but without attraction.
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  • Profile picture of the author curationsoft
    you should be creative with your design. because most of the internet people will judge a website by the way it looks.
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    • Profile picture of the author Celina876
      Design is very important because web design is the combination of mechanical ability and creative design. Design shows the architecture of a website design tells about the website.





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  • Profile picture of the author longblog
    As everyone else has already said, design is a very important factor. I wouldn't try to make your own cms though. Wordpress + OptimizePress have amazing functionality for controlling your funnel, securing your pages, seo, etc. I would suggest going with the above two and just customizing the look. I know it's a pain to design for wordpress, but I believe it would be worth it in the end.
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  • Profile picture of the author kylecom
    Thanks so much for the replies. I guess its a confirmation that Im on the right track. Yes, a custom CMS is a bit above me as a designer, but I do custom Wordpress designs so I will keep doing that.

    I guess I was sick of doing websites for small and medium business and watching them succeed in my downtime.

    I guess I have to find the balance between getting something up quickly and not be happy with it visually, and spending too much time on the visual design like I would if I had a client.
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    • Profile picture of the author longblog
      Originally Posted by kylecom View Post

      Thanks so much for the replies. I guess its a confirmation that Im on the right track. Yes, a custom CMS is a bit above me as a designer, but I do custom Wordpress designs so I will keep doing that.

      I guess I was sick of doing websites for small and medium business and watching them succeed in my downtime.

      I guess I have to find the balance between getting something up quickly and not be happy with it visually, and spending too much time on the visual design like I would if I had a client.
      There shouldn't be a huge rush. For one, it takes a couple weeks to get indexed and ranked unless you have existing properties to send your site some love.

      I can get a site indexed within a couple hours by using my existing properties, but if this is your first site, you may not have that option. You can always use the sites you designed for other businesses and put a link in their footer to your site (with their permission of course).

      Don't sacrifice quality for speed and don't get obsessed with the design and never create content. Content is the core of your site; the design is just the wrapping on the present.
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  • Profile picture of the author odinson
    A high quality website design captures the attention of the viewer, even though it's not all, many of the times words can do this job much better (you know, quality articles that get the reader interested), if you got good writing skills combined with that, you'd be a bomb.
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  • Profile picture of the author Al amin
    A quality design is very important when it comes to IM. Not only IM but also on every sector.

    Thanks
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    • Profile picture of the author ericblak1947
      Hey I'm going to go against the grain on this. I've created 100's of sites each with varying results. You never no what is going to work or convert someone to buy. One of the ugliest sites that I ever made has brought me in almost 8,000 dollars in revenue a month using one ad network.

      What I will tell you is this. Create your designer dream page fill it with great content, next do a amateuristic looking page that looked like it was done by some html newb. Again, fill It with great content...

      You might be surprised at the results. What people share and how a page converts is tricky sometimes.

      Either way make the person feel like they found something special and unique. And also like they were the first to discover it.
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  • Profile picture of the author shipwrecked
    Design has gotten more important since the Panda updates were rolled out.

    Because user signals depend a lot on the way a site looks like. Nicer sites tend to attract visitors back and they also keep them browsing for a longer time...
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  • Profile picture of the author bigredmachine
    A website design is considered very important for a website. It is necessary for any website promotion. With a little creativity and thoughts a design should be created that can be useful for the company.
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  • Profile picture of the author williamrichard
    Design is very important for website. It will give more visitors and promote your website.
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  • Profile picture of the author Silver007A
    This may help and is interesting 4 “Ugly” Sites that Make Millions (and What We Can Learn from Them)

    Although making a site look nice is important, it is how the site leads a visitor around and to your "call to actions" that is important. Without visitors interacting with a site you have nothing.

    One of the Dragons on Dragons Den in the UK said one of her sites gets 500,000 visitors a month with little real ROI conversions!

    I think you need to wonder why you cant convert business for your website design company. I ran a company for a few years in Glasgow and most of my business was done online from a free Gumtree ad.

    If you can't make money doing wesbite desing online and convert business you probably won't in IM either.
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  • Profile picture of the author singhabhishek251
    Website design is is the most critical thing for any online business as this is the first platform, where customer interacts with the business and if he does not like, then there is a chance to loose the customer.
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    • Profile picture of the author seonovustech1
      Just having a website isn't enough. Unless your website is nothing more than an online billboard, you probably want people to take actions there. Whether its product sales, lead generation or even blog comments, your website is successful insofar as it achieves that objective. Good design gives any website a stronger chance of success. Bad design makes it infinitely harder for a website to do its job - even if every other aspect of your company is flawless.
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  • Profile picture of the author johnsander1
    Design is one of the most important thing in every field of business, either it is house building, devices manufacturing or website creation. In online business your website design plays vital role therefore it should be unique, easy navigate-able and user friendly.
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  • Profile picture of the author lucila
    The design also determines the interest of the customers. If the website is easy to navigate, it will definitely be able to keep potential customers interested. If it confuses them, potential customers are most likely to go back to the search engine sites and find a different website that has a better design to get information from.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisMBevo
    Website Design serves as online face of your business. It will help you attract more visitors if you have a good webdesign.
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    • Profile picture of the author DanCoder
      Visual hierarchy comes under the 'Design' aspect and when it comes to IM, visual hierarchy is very important. This is what directs the users attention to the right places and puts the emphasis on the most important parts. Without it, everything would just be one big paragraph. So yeah, design is important in my opinion.
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    • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
      Originally Posted by ChrisMBevo View Post

      It will help you attract more visitors if you have a good webdesign.
      That's such a BS... Think about it: before they decide about going to your website, they didn't see it, so they do NOT know whether it's a good design or not. How will your "good design" attract me to your site if I don't even know it exists?

      Note. There was one single post in this thread that was based on facts and measurement and which was relevant for a marketing forum. The rest... just (un)educated guesses.
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      • Profile picture of the author DanCoder
        Originally Posted by Istvan Horvath View Post

        Note. There was one single post in this thread that was based on facts and measurement and which was relevant for a marketing forum. The rest... just (un)educated guesses.
        Ouch. Better get this under cold water. :p
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  • Profile picture of the author Boomland Jenkins
    Your design and user experience are the most important part of the site.

    Content is important, but if your website is hard to figure out or looks terrible, people may totally skip over your content and leave your site.
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    • Profile picture of the author TJ Moore
      Design is one of the most important pieces to the puzzle. However, it is important not to overdo it. It all depends on what you are trying to achieve.

      If you are trying to presell a product or service then you want to be more personable. If you are presenting a website as your company then you want your design to be more professional looking.

      Design is what you put into the website to produce a specific outcome. A humorous site design may lose sales because you are not being serious enough. Where a site that tries to show people how good you are will lose sales because you are not focusing on the product enough.

      Color is important too. Hot and warm colors like red, orange, and yellow are used to grab the viewer's attention. Using the right design you can place these colors in just the right places to draw viewers to where you want then.

      There's allot more to it than these few things but design is definitely important.
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  • Profile picture of the author tonyla
    Web Design is relative.
    The way IM sites are designed are different from coorporate sites.
    ex/

    business sites various liquidity, Im Don't
    Business never use read Heads Im Do,
    Busness sites use float and clear. Im sites use tables
    IM site mean many things and each of those hace there quirks.
    Business sites left justify content im sites center everything.

    I pesonally this you need to follow the herd.
    Im sites used fixed widths business site are liquid.


    How about artisitic sites ... again totally different rules.
    You cannot learn web design from books as they are slanted towards business.
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    • Profile picture of the author tonyla
      I stand by my comment IM has its own set of design principles. Learn them.

      Usuablility studies favour you width to be 600-1000

      corporate like liquid.

      IM sites break all the rules when it comes to web design taught in academie or books about web design.

      Learn IM design. RED headers . Fixed width etc..
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    • Profile picture of the author tonyla
      I would worry about using the tools first then design. This is opposite the corporate model
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  • Profile picture of the author tonyla
    My Comments are based om 13yrs teaching college and 5 yrs marketing. I had to re adjust my thinking when it came to I/M design.
    Actually I would focus on seo and content then design. Most people modify squeeze pages so he design is there. Same with salespages. You write a blog well your writing withing a framework.
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  • Profile picture of the author andrewmatt
    looking website in term of web designer then design matters a lot if you are looking a website in term of SEO then design does not matter, content is the king.
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  • Profile picture of the author subisa852
    The design of the website is important because it is the first thing that the online user notice when they're visiting a page aside from content.
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