In the real world, people are looking online for things to help them do what they want to do. In order to create effective web designs, we have to be understand how people use the web. Effective design is made for the real world.

As designers, we enjoy looking at beautiful design, well balanced elements and nice color schemes. And most importantly, we really look at websites, as though we’re looking at a work of art. But most people do not look at websites this way. They simply look for information – and they want to get that information quickly and easily.

Designing for the content is our focus and our challenge, because we believe that the content is the key to a website’s success. Content is what it’s all about. It’s content that makes a site work, flow and communicate well with the right tone. Our job is to maximise a web site’s effectiveness and that means understanding how users will interact with a site’s content. Our first priority is function, but function can’t live without good design.

It always helps to have a framework to start from, so that we’re not designing without a plan. A good way is to list what your site needs to communicate, and then prioritize those messages. We like to start with a basic bullet point list, and then create a basic flowchart in Mindmeister. (www.Mindmeister.com)
This is an easy way to communicate see how the flow of the content is going to work.

What do we want the visitor to be able to do? Find information, order products, send for more information, browse our catalog… The more we know about the user, and what the user needs to be able to find on your website, the easier the design process.

Great design just means that the look and feel works hand in hand with the functions of the website to ensure a great experience for the website visitor.