Even the best website designers make design mistakes. And when they do, their clients can usually spot them at a glance. The designers aren’t being sloppy or careless. It’s more a matter of the difficulty they face in adapting their expertise to industry standards. These standards can differ significantly depending upon a client’s industry sector.
You can avoid some of these design mistakes by taking a deep dive into consumer psychology. Or, by having flawless UX knowledge, and by always putting yourself in the end users’ shoes.
Sound easy? Not even close.
Fortunately, there’s a better and far easier way. Use pre-built websites. BeTheme has more than 340 of them. They cover more than 30 different industries. Also, they’re adapted to those industries’ standards.
Just What are These Design Mistakes?
Design Mistake #1 – Forgetting Why You’re Doing What You’re Doing
It can be all too easy to become enamored with the beautiful design you’re creating! You can forget why you’re creating the website in the first place. Clients really hate this mistake. This is since the website you give them could actually ruin their business. A stunning website is great, but the #1 priority is to satisfy its ultimate goal.
Whether that goal is to build brand awareness or sell a product, you need to remember it. If a client wants to highlight the differences between a firm and its competitors, take a note. Any time you get distracted and wander away from the goal you’re doing your client a disservice.
There are many advantages of using a pre-built website. One of them is it allows you to focus more on the creative aspect of the design. The pre-built website has already incorporated the appropriate industry standards. It follows the anticipated user journey – as these 2 BeTheme examples illustrate.
BeApp3 follows an approved user journey for an app presentation. It is focusing on features and pricing plans.
BeHome is designed to show what differentiates a business from its competitors. It also displays what makes their handmade products so very special.
Design Mistake #2 – Underrating Content Hierarchy
You’ve spent enough time surfing the web to know that all content is not created equal. As a designer, you understand the consequences of poorly structured content.
To put it another way – important information tends to be hidden or lost. It’s either buried deep down in the home page or hidden somewhere within a megamenu. it might be simply in a location where it is out of context with its surroundings.
You need to identify the perfect content hierarchy for each and every project. Then, you’re well on your way to becoming a certified UX design master. It only takes a few dozens of hours to accomplish that. Plus a few hours on each of your projects – more time than you really want to spend.
Why not let pre-built websites do all this for you?
BeDigital is a good example. Visual content is a must in this industry. Thus, this template places huge, impressive visual content above the fold. It also places the simple yet bold menu at the bottom.
BeIndustry makes a clever use of background visuals. At the same time, it keeps the focus on the main message up front and in the center. This way, the mix of shapes and textures is eye-catching. And, user attention is clearly directed to the call-to-action.
Design Mistake #3 – Knowing More than is Good for You
There’s certainly nothing wrong with having expertise in all aspects of web design. But trying too hard to follow industries’ best practices can be a common mistake. There are many consequences of doing so. One of them is the creation of a boring website that’s nearly a carbon copy of other boring websites.
The trick is to make sure users will appreciate the feel of your menu and navigation structure. At the same time, you need to create an element of surprise and delight that doesn’t interfere with the flow.
Here again, a pre-built website can save the day. It can enable you to get creative with a familiar navigation structure.
BeFantasy faithfully replicates the familiar feel of a video game. Simultaneously, it surprises users with animations and mixtures of textures and colors.
Another example is BeChurch2. Here, the vintage imagery and cursive typography reinforce the church’s wonderful history. The modern logo and menu ensures its place in the 21st century.
Design Mistake #4 – Confusing Being Too Disruptive with Creativity
Sometimes we let our creative juices flow and take charge. We let go of controlling that flow, and focusing on a clean, simple design. When this happens, the clients are often partly to blame. They want something innovative, spectacular, or mind-bending. We are only too happy to oblige.
When that happens, we risk making it hard for users to attain their own goals whatever they may be. A happy median can usually be reached by working from a simple, familiar structure. It is easy to build an innovative design into it.
BeEco has such a simple, clean, and fresh structure. Yet, it’s hard to believe how attractive and engaging the design is. All the information needed to get users along their chosen path is right at their fingertips.
BeYoga2 is another simple design that makes excellent use of metallic elements. It gives the website a trendy look.
Design Mistake #5 – Not Meeting a Client’s Specific Requirements and Expectations
The problem here is your not wanting to build what is by your standards an “ugly” website. Your client may have tastes that border on the absolutely brutal, but he or she is the boss. Most likely, that client simply wants to emulate what the industry’s expectations are. They may not necessarily be what you think they should be.
If it’s the industry standard though, it’s your job to swallow your pride and go with it. You can collect your payment, and move on to better assignments.
BeCopywriter is a good example of brutalism in action with its bold colors and huge font size. It features a crazy-simple structure. Yet if the message reaches the right audience, they’re bound appreciate it even if you might not.
Wrapping Up
Here’s a summary of 5 mistakes you want to avoid, and examples of how using pre-built websites make it easy to avoid them.
- Don’t stray from the website’s goal
- Don’t locate important content where it’s difficult for the user to find
- Don’t create a design that adheres too strictly to every little rule and regulation. (Unless “boring” is your cup of tea and that of your client’s)
- Don’t build a website that’s overly disruptive
- Don’t ignore specific industry expectations, even if you don’t like them
- Use pre-built websites to build attractive designs for your client’s specific business or niche
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