8 Webdesign facts from that will surprise you
If you really want to understand the web design process, you have to look beyond the appearance of a website. Very few visitors think about what goes on behind the scenes of a website, because different web browsers interpret code to that site to display on screen. Extra milliseconds of loading time, browser variants, the age of the code and the content itself can completely change a user’s experience and the resulting behaviour on a WordPress website. Let’s take a look behind the scenes to learn about some of the most surprising and astonishing aspects of web design, aspects that we get questions about on a daily basis from customers at Marsmedia Webdesign Amsterdam.
1. All web browsers display websites and web design differently.
When looking at a website from your home computer using Google Chrome, it might be a completely different experience than when a friend was looking at the same website via Safari on her iPhone. Why does the same website and its web design look so different in different browsers? It all depends on how browsers translate code and display it on the screen. Some website browsers load the code in a very specific order, and some browsers will not recognise the particular code at all. So at Marsmedia Webdesign Amsterdam we are often asked why a detail looks slightly different from the web design. This is usually based on the browser. But we always test our web design in all browsers to make sure it looks good.
Browser differences can make it difficult to create a website that offers a great experience for everyone. That’s when our professional web designers help Amsterdam. They are familiar with HTML and CSS standards, known browser problems, and the ways to deal with potential obstacles. It is the job of web designers to make sure that the website looks good and works properly in many different browsers. They also carry out extensive browser compatibility tests to identify potential problems and find necessary solutions to these issues before a website goes live.
2. Good web design dictates what users focus on on the WordPress Website.
The Internet has changed the way we read and browse content forever. Successful web design with a clear and scannable layout has improved user-friendliness by 47%. If a visitor is not able to go through the website quickly and identifies important information quickly, they will probably leave for another website.
Web designers strive to create sites that send visitors directly to the most essential information, such as an online shop, blog, the history of an organisation, or other important content for both them and yourself. Webdesign can also use heatmaps and analytical tools to see which buttons and links are popular so that they can continually improve the user experience with future site updates.
3. A 3-year-old web design can be too old.
Web designers work hard to keep up with the rapid pace of technology. Because the web browsers and devices used to access websites are constantly changing, the way these websites are designed and developed also needs to change. This is both for WordPress webdesign Amsterdam to CSM systems. To remain current and relevant, digital professionals need to stay on top of the latest encryption standards, browser compatibility updates and search engine algorithms. An outdated website runs the risk of not displaying correctly in the web browser, unexpected formatting issues, or not appearing effectively in search engine results. For this reason, a site that is even three years old may be obsolete if it has not kept up with these changes.
4. At Marsmedia Webdesign Amsterdam we say: Stay away from WordPress templates!
Many people turn to WordPress website templates as an “easy way out”. At Marsmedia Webdesign Amsterdam we know that existing templates often allow someone with little coding knowledge to build a website. Unfortunately, companies can lose credibility by relying too heavily on templates, which usually include bloated code and unnecessary design elements. Trying to change a template to do something new often makes it look like a patched-up heap, like a Frankenstein website, and that’s if that template even allows those necessary changes. Many templates are notoriously inflexible in what they allow, which means that the site cannot be modified. Your company can benefit most by having a web presence that is tailor-made for you.
5. The code of the website helps to become attractive for search engines.
You may have the most visually stunning website in the world, but that doesn’t matter if you don’t have an audience to view and use it. At Marsmedia Webdesign Amsterdam, we make sure that the way the site is encoded will help an audience to find the website when they enter certain keywords in Google or another search engine. The way the website is encoded can even affect how listings look, from the title of the webpage in the search results to the small description of the site that appears under the title. We at Marsmedia Webdesign Amsterdam, make sure that search engines will be a big source of new traffic to your website and there are many extra steps that can be taken on a site to fully optimize it for search engines, but it all starts with coding best practices and making sure that the foundation of your site is conducive to a good relationship with the search engines.
6. Images and videos can have a positive or negative impact.
Multimedia content, including images and videos, can be a powerful part of a web design but when used incorrectly they can also significantly damage the performance of a website. Large photo and video files can drastically slow down the loading time of your website. If visitors have to wait too long to load a page, you run the risk that they will become impatient and leave the website. To ensure that all multimedia content used on a site retains visitors instead of sending them away, we at Marsmedia Webdesign Amsterdam ensure that photos and videos are automatically optimised for websites after they have been loaded. These optimised files ensure that your page loads quickly while still offering a lot of images or video content.
At Marsmedia Webdesign Amsterdam we also avoid outdated multimedia formats, such as Flash, which are not supported by many current platforms for mobile devices. On the contrary, we promote current standards, such as HTML5 video, so that people can access your media from the most diverse devices possible, such as computers, tablets and smartphones.
7. A good website with custom web design varies between €2,500 – €15,000
A good web design can cost between €2,500 and €15,000. If this bandwidth surprises you, consider the number of hours and collective thinking that goes into creating a WordPress website, web design, wireframes, programming, testing, optimising for search engines, making content accessible to different browsers, and improving overall performance by speeding up your website loading times. At Marsmedia Webdesign Amsterdam we make sure that a website code works the way it is intended while the site is displayed properly.
8. There is a big difference between responsive and mobile web design
Most people don’t think about the seemingly magical website conversion that happens when they switch between their smartphone and computer. These are two different approaches to changing screen sizes, either mobile design or responsive design. Mobile design is limited and is only optimised for mobile, and is used on smartphones and tablets. However, because mobile websites generally display the naked basics that the site has to offer to the visitor, they will not see the full glory of the WordPress Website Amsterdam or use it to its full potential.
At Marsmedia Webdesign Amsterdam, all of our WordPress websites are always responsive and extremely flexible, making it possible to reduce the size of websites and display the layout based on the size of the visitor’s screen. This gives visitors a consistent experience from a large screen, high-resolution monitors to the smallest smartphone touchscreens, with the right experience suitable for each of those individual devices. Responsive websites adapt to their environment while maintaining the same beautiful images, fonts and navigation options.
Contact our Webdesign Amsterdam professionals
The complexity of web design is indeed mind-blowing. Would you like to know more about our WordPress Websites? Marsmedia Webdesign Amsterdam is based (as you can guess) in Amsterdam- and we are ready to have a cup of coffee!