Graphic Design and Usability Design:

by flickr.com/juanp

Some sites can do well without an emphasis on visuals, but few will flourish without a focus on usability. An attractive site can do wonders for conveying a brand, but be aware of the cost that can be reduced by keeping your site design basic. Informational sites can have a very basic design and still be exceeding successful (witness Craigslist.org). If all you want is to display information on your website with the occasional picture here and there, your site may not need to be fancy or beautiful. The emphasis for these types of portal sites should be on providing the information visitors are seeking (usability design), and doing it better than other sites.

On the other hand, if your competitors have polished, highly functional websites, a budget template-looking site may actually deter customers and prospects from sticking around or contacting you. But more hours fixing your illustrations and photos equal more cost, which means design can be a big part of your project. The more particular you are about the look and feel of your website, the more rounds of revisions you will likely have to pay the designers. If you’ll be selling a product or service, know that people (visitors) looking at your site may be doing so when they are in decision-making mode. They will be making assumptions about your company based on the presentation of your website.

If you have an existing brand and company identity, you want to extend that brand to the experience you’ve designed into the customer’s living room, and win their trust. It costs to produce a compelling digital expression of your brand, but where that brand is a primary concern, the extra cost of quality design may make perfect sense. Be sure to get estimates from your designer up front, and for larger projects, put a 15-30% contingency in your back pocket for safe budgeting. 

In general I do not recommend flash-based (animated) sites unless you’re selling an experience (i.e.: hotels, entertainment, or educational demonstrations). There is little reason to make people wait for animation to load if they’re probably coming to your site to look at whatever is behind that slow-loading cartoon (keep in mind a significant percentage of internet users still don’t have broadband). Flash costs more to design, is harder to update for non-technical site administrators, and often makes sites more difficult to navigate. It looks great, but just doesn’t make sense for most small business websites.

Next: Business Website Cost (Part 8): Miscellaneous Services

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