New business web design must-haves

Five must-have elements your new business needs 

If you Google ‘website design’, you’d be forgiven for thinking it is all drag, drop and voila these days! And yes, while there are plenty of DIY off-the-shelf designs, in our brave new Covid world, putting your best digital presence forward has never been more crucial. And good web design can make all the difference.

ABS studies reveal that a third (33%) of Australians are preferring to shop online more now than before the pandemic[1] but its more than just shopping. We’re using digital for research, recommendations, directions, delivery and so much more to learn about every brand and business we want to engage with. Your new business must deliver the fundamental needs of a good customer experience to ensure that first engagement is fruitful.

Website design is more than word, pictures and a shopping cart – a digital strategy is essential

It is important to remember that ‘design’ is much more than the pretty front facing attributes – the functionality and technology behind-the-scenes are the engine room of your new website and the foundation of the entire customer experience. Getting all your digital touchpoints in sync can have the ability to make or break a business as some of the most successful small business showed in 2020 as they swiftly pivoted their business strategies to address pandemic challenges and changing customer needs.

The user experience (UX) is what engages the customer and keeps them at your site. It is largely driven by a mixture of your content, the commercial aspects of your product or service, and, in particular for consumer facing brands, the community that you create. So while there are many components to consider in the digital puzzle that a good website design agency can help you navigate, there are five crucial ones that must be built into your design from the very beginning.

Below is Creative Order’s five must haves for your new business web design

1. Device optimisation

Optimising the website design for all formats is essential for our on-the-go web surfing culture. This means ensuring what looks good on a laptop also works on a mobile, tablet and desktop. DIY platforms may optimise your content to fit the different sizes, but they don’t provide advice on what content works for engaging customers in different platforms.

2. Responsive design

How many times do you find it easier to do a web chat for insurance quotes or search for price comparisons or find out how to deliver a bunch of flowers in another city? The socio-trend of instant gratification is driven by our need to do everything on-the-go and multi-tasking time pressures. Your design must consider the engagement needs of the customer and be designed to best connect with them.

3. Security and privacy

The prettiest, most engaging website in the world loses all credibility if security features aren’t considered in the design. From local and international data capture and privacy regulations to preventing hacking and safeguarding transactions, to ensuring your site doesn’t spam or attract viruses, you only have one chance to get the right systems in place from day one and avoid costly issues that could have been prevented.

4. Accessibility

Making your website and its content easily navigated and understood by the widest possible audience including those users who have visual, auditory, motor or cognitive disabilities is critical. When considering your audience, the design must consider aspects including writing style and layout to hyperlink text, easy read and app coding. The user experience is not fixed – it must adapt to all your potential users.

and the final must have for your new business web design is:

5. Content management and lead generation

The content management system (CMS) you use to build and add content should be user friendly so you can do that yourself – a good website design agency will factor this in – you don’t want to be having to go back to them to code every little change. And if you’re wanting to integrate lead generation platforms, it’s a good idea to ensure that’s part of the back-end functionality of the design too. This helps you keep on top of SEO more easily too.

Creative Order are brand and website design specialists and we can guide you in every aspect of your building your brand’s website. Design is in our DNA from digital to print to brand identity ensuring you have a holistic and seamless brand creation for your new business.

Creative Order can help with new business web design – email us now

[1] ABS Household Impacts of COVID-19 Survey, a longitudinal survey which collects information from the same panel each month. The November 2020 survey was run between 13 and 23 November 2020.