Why web design really is a deciding factor

Apple became the biggest company in the world off the back of one simple premise, that design should be the defining factor in what they produced. Steve Jobs was determined that all Apple products would look good both inside and out. The reason the vast majority of people who buy Apple products choose to buy them is because they look better than other products in the marketplace. Apple set the design standard, not only in their products but also in the way they promote them. And this continues today with many brands around the world following the trends that the Apple designers set (for both web and product design).

“The main thing in our design is that we have to make things intuitively obvious,” – Steve Jobs

Why does design matter?

There is a reality that we all have to face. We shop with our eyes. It doesn’t really matter if we are choosing something off a menu, buying new clothes or choosing which financial adviser we are going to trust to invest our money to secure our retirement. We will make some of the most important decisions of our lives based on what the offering looks like rather than necessarily the actual substance sat behind that. We choose the best looking thing because we associate the best look with the best product. It is the same reason that statistically taller or better looking people are more popular – we put a huge amount of stock in appearance. In fact, we often make a decision about someone in the first seven seconds, according to Forbes magazine. And this applies to marketing as well as people.

This simple fact of human nature is incredible important when it comes to designing a website. Why? Because if looks are this important in the decision making process then the reality is you can be the best person in the world at what you do, but if your website doesn’t look as good as your competitors then they will be the ones getting the customer.

Doesn’t good design cost loads of money?

The short answer is no! Idio Web Services is founded on the principle of making good design and support affordable. We often get told by our customers that they were surprised how good the design they got was considering how little they pay. But that is precisely why we started Idio. Good design should not be the prerequisite of those companies that can spend vast amounts of money on a web project. And traditionally the reason why those projects cost so much money is that expensive development resource needed to be used to build custom beautiful layouts. A shortage of good developers in the world has also meant the price developers can demand in wages over the past ten years has rocketed, pushing the price tag up further on good websites. But that world has gone now and better technologies mean that websites can be built that look just as good without the need for those expensive developers.

The way we deliver websites is leveraging excellent technology that allows us to build flexible layouts with designers working directly on the page layout and design rather than having to design offline and then get a developer to interpret that vision. Using the world’s leading visual editor system, Elementor, and the powerful content management system WordPress, we can rapidly design pretty much any style of website without needing any development resource. And embracing a pay monthly model rather than charging everything up front also means that we can make our offering really affordable. The result is that you can pay less per month than you would for your mobile phone contract and have a website that looks just as good as a multi-million pound organisation.

But don’t you get what you pay for?

This is the common counter attack to what we do; “well you get what you pay for” – the implication of this is that people need to somehow find a flaw in our model to explain why it is cheaper than other suppliers. But you will pay a similar fee per month for the best mobile phone and the best tariff in the world! Because we reduce our cost overheads by not having offices and not requiring expensive resource for most of our work, we are able to reduce the cost we charge to our customers.

We passionately believe in three things:

• Good web design shouldn’t cost the earth
• Customers shouldn’t be left to fend for themselves and instead should get full and ongoing support
• Having a world class website shouldn’t be limited to companies with massive budgets

We can deliver on these three principles because of the way we work and the technologies we use. And the results speak for themselves!

The takeaway message

If you do not have a good looking website, or if your site is insecure or not GDPR compliant, then you simply are not putting the best view of your brand to your potential customers. And whether you like it or not, your ability does not speak for itself. You competitor down the road could be terrible at what they do, but if they have a good website they will attract new customers because our first impression is formed quickly and based on what something looks like rather than the substance behind it.

So don’t be left behind. Make sure that your business has a website that puts your brand firmly alongside the biggest and best in the industry – because with Idio Web Services that is possible without having to pay the Earth!