11 Jul Who creates the look and feel of a website?

I have been working with a client lately, who resolutely does not want a logo for her website. Nor any real ‘identity’, or particular style. It does make things a bit difficult, I have to say! Because I am nearly at the stage where I want to provide some design concepts for her to consider. However, it feels like a huge stab in the dark, and a potential waste of time and resources to try and create designs without extracting from my client’s mind what she means by ‘warm, welcoming and friendly.’ It has got me thinking about who creates the look and feel of a website. And what kind of processes can be used to do that?

1. Understanding the Website Design Process

Before delving into who creates the look and feel of a website, it’s essential to grasp the overall website design process. It typically involves several stages, each contributing to the final result.

Planning and Research

The initial phase revolves around understanding the client’s goals, target audience, and desired outcomes. Extensive research helps designers gain insights into industry trends, competitors, and user expectations.

I feel like this first stage is where I am at the moment. It can be tricky to try and ‘get into the client’s head’ in order to ascertain what look and feel, they feel would authentically represent their business. Some of the tools I have used so far in this process are:

Smashing Logo – to develop branding and logo ideas

Pinterest – to develop a vision board of textures, concepts, colours and moods that I have gleaned that might resonate with my client.

Google – to find website examples of the industry my client is in.

I have also done some research into my client’s competitors and have found that the landscape within her region and industry is pretty poor.

She doesn’t want her website to be ‘the best’ or ‘different’ due to the industry that she is in, but I am left with the need to make a design warm, welcoming and friendly, with very little other visual information, other than the term ‘romantic’ (but not romantic as in love, romantic as in an old stone house with roses climbing up the walls). I am hoping a Pinterest vision board might help here.

Also, she recently told me that she thinks her style is more like Winnie the Pooh and less like Star Wars, which is a tricky kind of distinction, to begin with! Except that, I can see how Winnie the Pooh is both warm, friendly and welcoming! (Sometimes in non-visual ways).

Wireframing and Prototyping

Wireframing involves creating a visual representation of the website’s structure, layout, and content hierarchy. Prototyping takes it a step further, allowing for interactive and clickable representations of the site’s functionality.

It can be a good tool to take the ‘aesthetics’ out of the equation and just work on the structure and function of a website, which can be a helpful way of ensuring that function doesn’t get lost in the imperatives of ‘form’.

Visual Design

Visual design encompasses various elements like colour schemes, typography, imagery, and branding. This stage brings the wireframes to life, creating a visually appealing and cohesive look for the website. It also involves developing a style guide for the identity of the website.

The role of the web designer – who creates the look and feel of a website?

It is usually the web designer who creates the look and feel of a website. However, it can be such a tricky discussion to have with a client, who has fixed ideas about how they want the look and feel of the website to be. I have done work for countless organisations that I would not put into my portfolio because they basically wanted to art direct the project and in most cases, the result can be pretty terrible, visually – but they are happy with it! They just wanted me to ‘produce’ it.

I probably should learn to be more assertive about clients taking over the design process. And try to work more collaboratively, rather than just let them dictate the visual terms. I guess I haven’t been altogether confident about my skills in graphic and visual design up to now. But they have improved a lot over time, and next semester I am planning to take a subject in visual design at university, so that will likely help even more!

I guess I have wanted clients to be happy with their website that they use every day. But that is only part of the point, isn’t it? The biggest real performance indicator where a website is concerned, is whether clients and customers engage with it, and convert on the website. It doesn’t really matter if the website suits the client’s aesthetic sensibilities. It should be designed to convert customers. And that is where UX comes in as well. And makes me realise that there needs to be evidence-based REASONS for the elements of the visual style of a website. The visual look and feel of the website are just part of the entire experience.

Client input into the visual style

Of course, client input is absolutely critical. Especially because clients are the people behind the brands and the people who customers do business with. So the visual identity needs to be authentic to their personalities and style. It also has to be tied to their business objectives, so that it ‘achieves the right goals’, where a business is concerned.

In conclusion, I would say that while it is tricky, years of experience and study do allow for an improvement in the skills of visual design. And evidence-based reasons for design decisions will allow clients to understand the science behind the visual design concepts presented. Of course, that is why getting a client to choose from a range of design concepts can help to get a project off on the right foot and make the design decisions concrete from the beginning. So that the whole website looks coherent and visually pleasing. And doesn’t get derailed by changing visual imperatives.

What are three to five words that describe your business? Tell me in the comments!