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Identify’s Design Nightmares

Identify’s Design Nightmares post images

Written By : Liam Webster

Posted 20/08/2020

We love every single one of our clients. But sometimes, you do make requests that we’ve heard a few times before. Requests that we sadly have to say no to.

Part of the problem is ourselves. If you’re not a developer or designer, chances are that you don’t know much about the web design process. We’re going to try and de-mystify the work of our coding crew through some of our Frequently Heard Questions. Here’s a rundown of our most common Web Design Nightmares, and the reasons behind why we sometimes have to say no. Spoiler: it’s not because we’re grumpy gits.

Make The Logo Bigger

Let’s start with our number one request. ‘Can we make the logo bigger so that people know they’re on our site?’ OK – we’ll let you off with this one. Big logos were a tradition on billboards in the olden days, and the thinking of ‘bigger is more effective’ is just like that annoying wasp at the beach. No matter how many times you try and swat it away, the little s**t will always come back to sting you.

Men have heard for years that size doesn’t matter. And it’s true. If you obsess over the size of your logo, your site won’t perform as effectively as it can and should (that’s what she said). Brand awareness in the modern day relies on more than a huge logo. It’s also about the customer experience and the service you provide. Combine this with an easy-to-use site, with clear CTAs and our bold styling, and your business will become more memorable than a site that just has a huge icon slapped onto the top of each page.

You can read more about why your logo doesn’t need to be bigger in this post from our Senior Designer, Sam.

I’ll Just Pass This Round The Office For Feedback

STOP. RIGHT. THERE. Step away from the computer. You know the phrase ‘too many cooks’, right? Listen to it. You don’t need to show Dave the receptionist an initial site design (sorry, Dave). If you let everyone have an opinion, you’ll end up with a muddled site that doesn’t make sense. Trust us. This happens a lot.

We recommend that you keep the design between the people directly involved. You can’t please everyone, so don’t try to. Create something that aligns with your business goals, is functional, and has a design that you and the team involved are happy with.

Can The Buttons Be Closer Together?

Our hands are tied on this one, we’re afraid. Spacing rules supreme – it’s one of the most important parts of any site design. Think of the Spiderman remakes: cram too many into a crowded space and you’ve got a big mess of mediocre content on your hands.

Enter Google, centre stage. If you shove too many ‘clickable elements’ (aka buttons) together on a site, Google counts this as an error and can penalise you. This is down to how user-friendly it perceives your site to be. Think of it from a customer’s point of view. Imagine if you visited a website on your mobile, and the site had lots of small buttons in a tiny space. You’re desperately trying to click on the button in the middle, but it’s turning out to be tougher than getting the One Ring to Mordor. You’d leave the site in a rage, right?

We know that it can be a tough decision to choose what goes where on the page. But don’t forget that everything needs room to breathe. Spacing creates a better user experience, gets you brownie points from Google, and creates a more aesthetically-pleasing design. Learn to love it.

I’ll Just Change That Bit Myself

No offence, but it’s probably gonna end up as a Linda Barker, broken teapot situation. Don’t get us wrong – we want you to let us know if there’s something you don’t like with your design, and it’s OK if your site goes through a bit of a makeover during the design process. It’s your site, and we want you to be happy with it.

However, please put your trust in our skills. We design sites every day, and we know what works and what doesn’t. A lot of behind-the-scenes coding work goes into the process, and one tiny change could bring the whole site crashing down, just like that floating shelf from Changing Rooms. You might think you’re doing us a favour, but it’s easier for us to make edits to the site ourselves. It’s what you pay us for, so please, leave the changes to us.

I Like The Apple Site

Everyone likes Apple’s site. It’s minimal and sleek, and perfectly matches the products that they sell. However, if you’re wanting to set up a site to sell tickets for Watching Paint Dry parties, the Apple site ain’t gonna be a good fit.

It’s a given that you want your site to look modern. What would be more valuable for us is if you analysed your competitor’s sites. Weigh up the pros and cons, and think about how your site could do something similar but much better. This will help us to produce something that works for your industry, but is still the best thing since sliced bread.

Brb, off to book those tickets…

And, breathe. It felt good to get that off our chests. Hopefully that’s given you more of an understanding of our intentions and how we work. Please don’t take this to mean that we don’t want you to have your input – client collaboration is essential, plus, we LOVE it!

If you’re interested in refreshing your existing site, or creating a brand new one, please get in touch.

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