How to design a website that fulfills the client's goals

Are you a web designer? Do your client’s websites fulfill their desired goals? Make use of these 5 simple methods to make your client’s website perform as intended by the client and achieve their goals.

So, you run a web design business, do you design websites just for the sake of designing? or do you design websites that fulfill your client’s desire with it? 

 As an owner of a leading web design company in Sri Lanka, I get a lot of clients who come to us after giving their web design project to another web design company and are not satisfied as the website did not generate the clients with the expected results. 

When we ask the clients what their goals are with those websites, we were not surprised that it did not bring in the results that they desired as the website is not designed to keep the goal in mind. 

 Web design is not just designing a website that looks good, it is the art of identifying the goal of the website and designing that website so that it will guide the users to complete that goal effectively.

Therefore, how can you design a website that will fulfill the intended goal of the website and guarantee client satisfaction? Well, that’s what we are going to talk about in this article.

1. Identify the goal of the client right at the start of the project.

By asking the client what their goal is with the website you as the web designer will be able to map out the structure of the website effectively as now you know what the client is expecting from the website.

This can take several approaches such as choosing a template that matches the client’s goals all the way to structure the website correctly if you are a designer working with pre-built templates

For example, if the client’s main goal is to sell more of their services online, then you must structure the website where the visitors do not find it difficult to find the services pages by putting the services pages first or second when designing the main navigation bar. Also, you can take this to the next level with a sticky menu where the main menu follows the user when scrolling.

This is one of the most important steps when you are having the first interaction with the client to when you ask the client about what their goal is with the website it will make the client more engaged with the project and will allow you to build a better business relationship with them as well.

2. Conduct target market research.

Most designers think that target market research is only for digital marketers, this is so much further from the truth. As responsible web designers, you must always conduct target market research to find out what the people for whom the website is targeted for likes and dislikes as they are the ones who are going to visit the website most.

For example, if a website that sells skateboards for teenagers is being designed using dull colors, the website would not be effective as it targets teenagers where in terms of color physiology, they tend to be attracted to bright colors that are up in your face. On the other hand, if the website is targeting older people, dull and light colors would be a great fit as they don’t like flashy bright colors.

Example of color physiology

Therefore, conducting target market research can give designers valuable design anecdotes on how they should be designing the website.

As an added benefit, by conducting target market research, web designers are able to design websites that users enjoy using where it will decrease the bounce rate and will benefit SEO-wise as well and score some extra points from the client.

3. Conduct competitor research.

Conducting competitor research is one of the most effective ways to design a good website. All you need to do is reverse engineer their web design strategy.

The competitors of your clients have already designed a successful website with the same or similar goal, this is a great opportunity for designers to uncover what has worked for them and recreate a similar website.

This does not mean to replicate the competitor’s website, designers should take inspiration on how they have structured the website, the colors, the call to action, etc. After you soak in those inspirations it’s time to design a website similar or much better than the competitors with your client’s businesses personal touches.

The key takeaway of this strategy is to identify what the users of a similar website go through and give them a better user experience with your website design.

4. Develop a testing platform.

By developing a testing platform, you can test out your design with some real-life target audience. As a web designer, it is your responsibility to give the client a website that achieves their desired goal. This can only be done by testing out your design.

You can find a group of people of the target market and let them use the interface and get their opinions on what they like and dislike. Sort of a survey approach. This will allow you as a designer to get your design more narrowed down to the target market’s interest and make the website a success.

You must also make sure that you do not incorporate any brandings of your client’s business and make sure to host it in a subdomain of your website without hosting it in the client’s live domain as this is just a testing phase.

Example of a testing platform for the website

5. Develop a clear call to action (CTA)

Developing a clear call to action is the icing on the cake for a great web design strategy. Without a clear call to action, the entire website will fail as it does not indicate to the users of the website what steps to take next after they visit the website.

For example, if a website’s main goal is to book consultations, then there must be a clear “Book A Consultation” button on the main navigation bar along with strategic placement of the same button throughout the website.

This will help the users to identify what to do next if they are interested to book a consultation and will increase the conversion rates of the website in return.

Example of a clear call to action

Conclusion

There you go, five effective yet really simple strategies that you can follow to get in front of the web design game by designing websites that achieve goals and by guaranteeing 100% satisfaction from the client.

Have any tips of your own on how web designers can design more effective websites? Feel free to comment down below and share with the community.

About The Author

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Anjana Wickramaratne is a web design and digital marketing expert here at Inspirenix. He is always on the lookout for new trends and news in the industry to adapt to his digital marketing strategies and gives back what he learns to the community whenever he can.

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