There are several practices that we go on following without feeling the need to validate them with facts. Such practices, can be absolutely catastrophic to our efforts when it comes to web designing.
So here Monks bust some major myths and set you on the path of web designing enlightenment:
1. The homepage is the most important page
People possess a perception that the homepage is the most important page in a site as it’s their first impression. This perception is only partly true as it might be the first page people view on your site, but all your website pages are equally important and they need to follow a consistent and easy to navigate design. If you design an outstanding homepage and do not follow it up with good inside pages, people are not going to be impressed with your website or your brand. People will not always land on your homepage first, they might just land on some other page of your website while they are browsing the internet. For instance if you have placed an ad for one of your products on an affiliate website, the visitor who clicks on the ad will land directly on the page that has the product’s description, they might just browse through your products, delivery policy and other details and never go on your homepage. So rather than making the homepage the center of your focus, concentrate your efforts towards making each page user-friendly and well designed.
2. Generating sales is a website’s only goal
Your website is not just a tool to promote sales, so do not treat it like one. Populating your site with an infinite number of CTAs that beg users to make a purchase is only going to deteriorate number of site visitors and banish site revisits. We agree that sales are important but so is creating a positive brand image, one that is not pushy but pleasant. A website is a very important touch point for communicating your brand’s values and is also an important image building tool. So do not use it solely for sales purpose when it can be used for sharing information, industry best practices, customer sneak peak and more.
3. A website doesn’t need to be revamped
Technology evolves really fast and things on the web become obsolete too soon. When you made your website a few years ago, the coding language that you used then might have become a passé now. New technologies like HTML5, CSS3, Responsive and Scalable, Parallax, CMS and others have recently cropped up and they offer better navigation, resolution and other benefits; and in the future as well technologies that outperform the current ones are going to be introduced. So in keeping with the ever evolving times you must revamp your site completely keeping abreast with the industry; and updating content and other elements on a regular basis of course goes without saying. Doing so will help keep the freshness of your site intact, thereby allowing users to enjoy the experience of surfing through it even more.
4. Websites look the same across all browsers and devices
Various browsers and devices read the website’s coding differently. Thus, you can not assume ‘one size fits all’. You need to test your website to make sure that it is cross browser compatible as well as cross device compatible. In case it looks awkward on a particular browser or device you need to make the necessary changes to assure that your users gain a flawless browsing experience across all platforms. With the number of mobile and tablet internet users growing drastically, you cannot afford to have a website that functions sloppily on any of these devices. Every touch point that you create for your target audience needs to provide them with an enriching user experience.
5. Scores of animations and widgets make for an impressive website
This is one major myth that plagues website owners and designers alike. They assume that having a lot of animations and a heap load of widgets will make their site look swanky, which is far from it. A site needs to be user-friendly and organized in a manner that it calls for the user’s attention in the right places. Having animations everywhere deviates attention from important things and having too many widgets creates confusion. Unnecessary animations and widgets both should be avoided to make the site look balanced. The user must be able to derive the information he/she is looking for from the site, the site is not meant to entertain users but to facilitate them.
After being aware of these myths we hope that you do not follow any web designing practices blindly. Every practice that we follow should be backed with facts and for gaining such factual data we need to test various elements to uncover the truth about them. There is no other easier way to do it, as what might work for someone else might not work for you.
If you know of any other web designing myths, please keep us posted in the comment section below.
Webby Monks
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