Most people instinctively know that a ‘busy’ or ‘fussy’ website is no good, and that a ‘clean’ or ‘simple’ design is better.

One of the scientific reasons behind this intuition is that visually complex images take more brainpower to process than visually simple ones, which directly translates in them taking more effort.

Nature always leans towards the conservation of energy, so brains sub-consciously ‘dislike’ having to expend more effort.

When your eye and brain process an image, they analyse a variety of things, including colour, light levels, shape, size and distance. The more variables there are in each of these aspects the more brainpower will be required.

The problem with using all this brainpower to process the ‘image’ that is the landing page of your website, is that you would really prefer your users to be thinking about your products, services and unique selling points (USPs).

If their brain is distracted making sense of three different columns, each with multi-coloured adverts, several fonts in lots of colours and a plethora of pictures, they’re not going to have any energy left to think about whether they want to buy something from you or not.

If you want to learn about good web design and bad web design, then have a look at our resource bank.

Keep it simple, stupid!

Successful people have long known that the simple solution is almost always the best one, but unfortunately when it comes to practice, too many designers and clients think that having lots of varying stuff on their website will somehow meet the needs of everyone – rather than nobody.

Good designers instinctively know that simple, familiar designs will perform better, and one of the scientific theories that backs up this intuition is cognitive fluency.

So, what is cognitive fluency and why does it matter for my website?

Cognitive fluency refers to the experience of how easy or difficult it is to think about something. As a general rule, humans prefer things that are easy to think about and shy away from things that are hard to think about.

This principle influences pretty much every aspect of human behaviour - and decision making when it comes to buying goods and services online is no exception.

So, if a user reaches a website for the first time, but the navigation looks similar to the vast majority of other websites they been to, then it will feel familiar and ‘right’ and they will feel at home and know how to proceed.

On the other hand, if they arrive and the navigation is in a completely unexpected place, or requires them to figure out some kind of krypton factoresque puzzle in order to find their way around the site, they are more likely to think the site is ‘wrong’ or at the very least it leave them with a vague, sub-conscious uncomfortable feeling.

The Mere Exposure Effect

Cognitive fluency is closely linked with The Mere Exposure Effect, which basically states that the more you are exposed to something, the more you prefer it. This can easily be seen when popular brands change their imagery, and all the customers moan and groan that it’s not as good anymore, even in the product inside is identical.

If you’re smart, you can take advantage of this exposure effect with your web design, by playing on the experiences people will have had in the past and ensuring your website echoes those experiences.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you should just copy everyone else, or that all websites should always look exactly like they did in the 90s – far from it. But you need to use originality and innovation where it works, and in small enough chunks that it delights your users in comfort rather than baffling them.

Further reading:

Read more interesting and research backed up stuff about cognitive fluency here: http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/07/how-cognitive-fluency-affects-decision-making.php

We’ve always believed that simple website are better, but now there is a host of evidence to back –up the intuition. Over this and the next few posts, we’re going to explore: mental prototypes, cognitive fluency, visual processing and working memory – and how all those things affect your web design.

So, what are mental prototypes when they’re at home?

A prototype is a basic mental image your mind holds to represent a particular type of thing.

For example, most people when asked to visualise a bird will have an image of a robin in their brain. The more a bird differentiates from this ‘prototype’, the less ‘birdy’ we consider it to be – for example penguins and ostriches are not considered as birdy as sparrows.

The same goes for fruit (apples), furniture (chairs) and websites.

Using mental prototypes helps us make sense of the world in a practical, efficient manner, so we don’t have to fully analyse everything we come into contact with each time. Otherwise, we would constantly be paralysed with trying to process everything we saw.

The reason this is important for web designers to know is that as result of prototypes, your brain likes things it is comfortable with, and will subconsciously reject things that deviate from the norm.

So most people will have a vague visual image in mind when it comes to a website for a plumber or a trendy shoe store, built up from all of those they have seen previously, and they will ‘want’ such websites to match these visual images.

Some designers and business people think it’s a good idea to be innovative and ‘stand out from the crowd’. This is certainly true in principle, but not if it’s just for the sake of being different. Because if your website is too different from what people expect, then they will find it strange and unsettling. This is unlikely to result in sales and enquiries for you…

So if your website has users hunting around for the navigation or looks like something out of the future, they won’t be sitting there admiring your innovation and cutting edge styling, they will be wondering why the website is so ‘wrong’.

So, by all means, be original and make an impact, but make sure you know what the prototypes for your area are, and that you’re using them to your advantage.

For more analysis, we recommend this excellent article, which was the inspiration for this series of posts: http://conversionxl.com/why-simple-websites-are-scientifically-better

If you found this article helpful and want to learn about good web design and bad web design, then have a look at our resource bank.

We were delighted when Changing Pathways was recommended to us by a good friend, to set up a website for his mediation business.

Colin of Changing Pathways had a DIY website that was no longer meeting his needs, and he wanted something that would perform a bit better, and ensure he and his associates gave a strong impression online and got in front of the right clients.

Colin offers a range of mediation services, including one-on-one, group, conflict coaching and mediation training. From chatting over coffee, we concluded that many companies and individuals don’t find it easy to quantify the costs of conflict and therefore don’t realise the full negative impact that disagreements and distress are having.

Therefore, we decided to create a ‘cost of conflict calculator’, a simple online tool that HR managers and other related professionals could use to enter in the details of the conflict and get an estimated cost. This could be used simply to raise awareness of how such conflicts should not be ignored, and could also be used by managers to justify the budget required to mediate the conflict successfully.

As well as the totally unique ‘cost of conflict calculator’ the web design needed to be calm, professional and give a sense of authority and knowledge without being overbearing. We helped design the logo and company literature and used a simple colour scheme with splashes of colour and bespoke illustrations to visually demonstrate the text content on the site itself.

We also included a resource bank, which Colin can regularly add to in order to build trust and reputation though the website.

Visit the site...

You just flick a switch and it’s live, right?

Not quite.

This article explains a little about what happens when we spring into action when a client gives us the go ahead to launch a website…

Keyword whatnots

In all likelihood, we will have done keyword research right at the beginning of the website build, in order to make sure all the page names and content already include the key terms. However, we will now go over to the Google keyword tool and feed in some data, to get a good idea of what search terms are hitting the big time and which are languishing. We also look at competitor data to see if there are any hidden gems that no one knows about that we can use to get some quick wins.

Armed with this information, we will then go through the site with a fine-toothed comb, sprinkling the keywords in all the right places, including: unique titles, meta descriptions, keyword metatags, internal links and footer links. All this encourages Google to rank your site highly for exactly the right searches.

Watermarked images replaced with finals

If there are any stock photos in the site, then we’ll go ahead and make the final purchases, and replace the fuzzy watermarked ones with shiny, sharp versions.

Links checked

We use an automated link checker to double check all the links in the site and ensure none of them are broken – a no-no for any site, old or new.

Cross browser check

We carry out a final cross browser check to make sure nothing squiffy happens to the design if users decide to view it in a browser that we haven’t been using during the development process. As standard we support Firefox, Internet Explorer 7 and up, Chrome and Safari.

Submit the new site to the search engines

Not strictly necessary, as the search engines do their own crawls and will find all new sites anyway, but we like to do this in any case. If it gets the site climbing a few days earlier, then that can’t be bad.

Test emails and forms

The vast majority of our websites will come equipped with a contact form, so we make sure we test that that’s working hunkey dorey, as well as any email addresses we’ve set up.

Site registered and verified with Google

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, if you want your website to have any success, you have to keep Google happy. To that end, we register all websites with Google webmaster tools and Google analytics and verify ownership so they can let us know if they think anything’s amiss.

Google site map created and verified

Another small step in the googleification of the site, we create a Google standard sitemap, which lists all the pages in the site, and verify that sitemap with Google.

Non-content pages blocked from indexing

We use a robots.txt form to let Google know that we don’t really want it to index the legal disclaimer pages of the site – otherwise, due to the density of their content, they can bounce up to the top and don’t really look right all the way up there.

Depending on the site, there may be more steps we carry out – but there you have the standard elements of our website launch procedure!

Click here to read full article about website launch procedure and why a website is better than an advert in a newspaper

We were proud to create the new website for Grow Well Gardens, a fantastic landscape gardener in Leeds.

Grow Well Gardens is run by Rob, a charming fellow who really knows his Rhododendrons from his Azaleas.

Rob had a basic Flash website that wasn’t doing anything useful – not getting any leads and not really impressing clients who went there directly.

We did a brand new web design, bringing the visuals up to date, including lots of trust-building logos that represent the company’s qualifications, experience and associations, links to social media and comprehensive details of the various services offered.

You can check out the website here: www.growwellgardens.co.uk

We realised that pictures really say it all when it comes to gardening, so the site includes a range of high quality interactive slideshows which allow visitors to browse through a wide variety of before and after pictures. This builds trust and proves the quality of work, and also offers inspiration to new customers.

The website also features ‘A Year in a Garden’ page which offers visitors advice and tips on the most important things to do in their gardens at each of the different seasons. Offering free information like this serves several useful purposes – it builds trusts with visitors, who can see that the company really does have expertise, and it helps from an SEO point of view. That’s because Google loves content, and is more inclined to highly rank a website that offers good quality relevant content than one which just lists services and prices.

We’re pleased to report that the website shot to the top of the Google rankings for a range of relevant searches, and at the time for writing for on the front page for the searches:

•  Gardeners leeds
•  Landscape gardeners leeds
• Garden services leeds

Rob employs a team of enthusiastic gardeners and invests in high quality equipment, which means the efficiency and quality of the work is second to none. They handle everything from garden clearances to regular garden maintenance to fencing, turfing, patios and driveways and basically everything garden related.

If you need a gardener in Leeds and the surrounding area, they come highly recommended!

And of course if you’d like us to work similar magic on your website, then visit our main web design website.

Here is what Rob said about working with us:

As a business owner I recognise the importance of providing a friendly and professional service to clients and therefore I have high expectations of any business professionals that I choose to trust and work with.

Grow Well Gardens website was well overdue a complete re design, after speaking with a few different web designers I choose to use Sentiva.

The whole process was made clear from the start and was explained in a way so that even I could understand. Communication was great throughout so that I felt part of the process from beginning to end.

Kat and her team came up with a fantastic design which met and exceeded my expectations which is just what I need to push Grow Well Gardens forward.

The whole experience with Sentiva was a pleasure from the beginning to end and I would have no hesitation in recommending them to my friends, family and work colleagues.

Robert Vickers, Grow Well Gardens

Crikey! That was a bit of a long break – what can we say, it’s been all go here, from joining local networking groups, expanding our software development output, promoting our beloved Novel Factory, crawling all over all the social media you can shake a stick at – not to mention streetwide power cuts, internet outages and bank holidays – all things which are somewhat disruptive to work – some more enjoyable than others.

But we’re back now, and this blog will now be updated on a regular basis, with a range of webby things, including tips on best practice web design, new trends, search engine optimisation hints and tips and maybe even a few funnies thrown in for good measure.

Watch this space!

If you’re just looking for fab web designers in Leeds, then you should visit our main website here.

Choice of colour is very important in web design and will strongly effect how your website comes across, including everything from how professional it looks to the kind of personality the visitors project onto your company.

Please note that this is a shorter version of the full article on colour in web design, which you can read here.

Human beings are designed to have strong emotional responses to colour, this helps us identify things that are safe and dangerous, as well as a range of other more subtle aspects. The problem is that different colours have different representations and associations in different countries, for example white means pure in the West, but death in China. See a list of common colours and associations here.
If you use too many colours, then the website will come across as busy and tiring to look at, so it's a good idea to stick to a small range of colours that match your brand and the impression you want to give.

Contrast is an important factor. If contrast is too strong than it will give a garish impression, however, if contrast is not strong enough then it will make it difficult to read and will affect accessibility.

Colour can also be used very effectively in calls to action. You can make buttons leap out from the page and draw the eye, encouraging clicking and further desired behaviour from your visitor.

You can read loads more articles about good and bad web design in our web design and SEO resource bank.

Or, if you're looking for web design in and around Leeds, find out more about our web design services.

So, you've got your nice, brand new, shiny website - it's launched and you're waiting on the edge of your seat for it to appear in Google's results... and there it is! Time for celebration!

But hang on, something looks a little... different. For a minute you can't put your finger on it, and then you realise, all the other results are displaying their URL (aka domain name or web address) with 'www' at the beginning, and yours isn't. It makes yours look kind of - stunted.

So, what's going on?

Well, if you've been configuring your website in IIS on the server, then you'll know that you set up a www and a root domain. If you didn't, then go ahead and do that now, and if you didn't configure your IIS, then you'll need to check with whoever did.

This is good practice, because if you don't define it both with and without www, then is anybody tries to go to your website without the 'www', then they will get a flat fail, which is a jolly bad show.

The problem is that when you set both of them up, for some reason best known to themselves, Google treats them as two completely separate URLs.

Luckily, Google offers you the option to sort this out by merging the two and deciding which one you'd prefer to display. You do this by setting your preferred domain. Simply go into Webmaster Tools, Configuration - set preferred domain. It gives you three options:

• Don't set a preferred domain
• Display URLs as www.mydomain.com
• Display URLs as mydomain.com

 

Unfortunately, as is often the case, things are not always so straightforward. When you try to choose one (display URLs as www.mydomain.com, if you're sensible) Google gives you an error that says:

'Part of the process of setting a preferred domain is to verify that you own http:/mydomain.com/. Please verify http://mydomain.com/.'

Great - but how do you verify that you own it?

Luckily, it's not that hard (once you know what you're doing - natch).

Simply go back into your Webmaster Tools overview and 'Add a site' with the domain without 'www' (or with, if you initially added without).

It will take you to the verification page. If you're left the original verification details in place, then all you need to do is click 'Verify' and hey presto, it will be verified. If you've removed the code, you'll need to go in and add it again.

Once this is done, you can go back to the configuration settings, select your option, and finally, Google will be happy, and will start displaying your URL correctly.

Comments and improvements on this post are welcome!

This really is like asking how long is a piece of string - it hugely depends on what sort of web design  you're looking for. But I'll try to give a few guidelines, explaining the process, to help give a rough idea.

Technically, you could make a website in a few hours, if it was a simple html page (or possibly two or three), you didn't care too much how it looked and weren't worried about fancy graphics. However, it would take at least 24 hours to sort out the domain name and configuration, so unless this is already set up, a day or two is your absolute minimum.

However, this process only works if there is one person responsible for building and approving the site.

Once you bring a client into the picture, everything changes, because you have to go through a feedback and approval process. Assuming the website is built directly as above, that the client gives feedback immediately and doesn't want too many changes, you're looking at about a week minimum, or up to four weeks of back and forth if the initial design is too far from the vision and the communication process is inefficient.

However, for more complicated design, fiddling around with the code in order to make interface changes is inefficient, and means you end up with ugly code at the end that's been hacked about. It's better to get the design signed off before the coding is started. This means that a client approves a concept first, again, this could take as little as a week if the design is spot on and the client is prompot in feedback. Or it could take weeks, or even months, if either party is a bad communicator or dawdles with updates. Once that's done the coding should be much swifter and the only thing left to do is adding in the content - which can be quick if it's all ready and in good shape, or delay things greatly if it's not.

We've found a comfortable time frame for website design for a fairly standard small business website without any fancy back end, from initiation to launch is about six to eight weeks, and breaks down like this:

Concept web design and approval - two weeks
Development build - one week
Content insertion and fine tuning - two to three weeks (assuming it's ready and in good shape)
Final sign off and launch - one week.

Obviously if extra services are needed, such as database development or logo design, that's going to take longer.

Find out more about our Leeds web design services.