The Three Pillars of a Good Website Design

Although a lot of factors go into a websites design, there are three pillars. Without any one of them, your website will not be effective:

Technology

Technology is the foundation of your website. Every website runs on a particular type of computer (Windows, Unix, etc.) and uses specific markup, and maybe programming languages. It may be built using straight HTML and CSS. It may be built with a content management system such as Joomla or WordPress. It may require programming and it may require integrating with your ERP or CRM system. All of these technologies are central to the website and affect how it is designed and what can be built cost-effectively.

Business

You aren’t building a website for the heck of it. You have a business (or a non-profit) with specific goals, usually related to the bottom-line. You’re redesigning your website to achieve those goals and meet certain requirements. In addition, your business has a limited set of resources to put to building and maintaining the website. It may have processes that the website needs to support or accommodate. Your business may be changing and the website needs to be designed so that it can change with the business.

Audience

Your website is built with one or more specific customers in mind. They might be potential customers of your products and services, external to your company. They might be internal customers, such as a when you build an internal website used by your customer support staff. Whoever these people are, the website has to serve their needs. When a site doesn’t serve its customers’ needs, they abandon it if they can, and use it only grudgingly, if they can’t. You don’t want either scenario.

If you and your website designer do the job right, your site will be built with a solid understanding of all of these elements. Throw in some creativity and good project management, and you will have a highly effective site that meets your business needs and your audience’s goals.