The event took place in 1991 when the world’s first website was published. The site’s interface on a NeXT computer contained a few paragraphs of text and a command line instead of links. Today, there are over a billion websites on the Internet. The first site has evolved into many interactive elements. Services that used to only be found on websites have now moved to apps. Business logic and the design of a graphical shell have become scientific disciplines in the process of creating websites and applications. It also includes the development of software that connects all elements of the site.
From the studio’s perspective, according to our partner Dworkz, which develops websites and applications, web design is the unity of the style and structure of the visible part of the digital product – the interface – and with this software. Many companies provide web design and development services. To choose the best company from a variety of options, it’s important to consider the following criteria.
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The criteria of a web studio well done work
The field of work where web design and development intersect is the visual mechanism through which the user interacts with the application. Additionally, it is the algorithm in which the application and the user interact. The designer and developer’s job is to come up with an interaction between the application and the user – that’s business logic. The criteria — it should be comfortable, intuitive, and informative for the user. The success of user interaction with a site or application is dependent on how deeply the user is involved in the process of interacting with the product.
How to evaluate user engagement
The designer and developer investigate the needs of the user and the business problem that the user is trying to solve. The goal is to understand what user difficulties the customer solution is intended to solve. Having understood this, the team examines the logic of user interaction with the application or site.
This logic can be thought of as a roadmap that leads users from their concerns to these solutions. The shorter and more direct the user’s path from their concerns to the solutions, the deeper the user’s involvement is and the better the application works. To evaluate the ease of user interaction with a product, marketing uses what is known as a sales funnel. Therefore, the higher the user conversion rate from one funnel to another, the more successful the product.
The criteria for an engaging site
The work of designers, developers, and content managers has quality criteria. If you do not know what to do, stick to these criteria.
1.On the side of a web designer
For a site or application to solve the problem for which the user is visiting the resource, it must be both creative and functional. What makes the interface creative is the concept implemented with the help of images and symbols, color schemes, fonts, and graphic content – animation or special effects, for example, parallax. The criteria of web design are:
- Balance – symmetrical and asymmetric. No element overshadows the other.
- Contrast – elements have clear lines and stand out against the background.
- Emphasis – on the company logo, call to action, or buttons.
- Movement – controls the user’s attention.
- Rhythm — is about the consistency of all elements in the same style.
- Hierarchy – the more important the information, the higher it is located on the site.
- Air – indents, gaps, background – these solve the problem of overloading the site with information.
The functional interface of the resource is made up of its structure and navigation through the structure, as well as additional elements such as surveys, subscription or order forms, widgets with social networks, interactive maps, and online chatbots with consultants.
The convenience of the site is the sum of all the work done above. When creating a resource interface, it is helpful to have a roadmap in mind that will guide the user from general to specific. Having such a roadmap will help you create a useful interface. To achieve this, you should provide the user with information that is directed from the general to the specific and from the main to the secondary. This makes the site’s interaction feel intuitive and logical to the user.
2.On the developer’s side
The developer writes the code. He does this by ensuring that each element of the interface is displayed correctly and performs the function assigned to it. Web developer tools: HTML (HyperText Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), JavaScript, and other programming languages. The criteria – the code should be easily readable by the following generations of programmers.
3.On the side search engines
The content manager plays an exceptional role in working on the creativity, functionality, and convenience of the site interface. His job is to fill the resource with unique, reliable, and relevant information. The total sum of the last three adjectives – the content on the site should be useful. This should answer everything, even unasked user questions. If the information on one site requires additions, then appropriate links should be given on this site. The tool of the content manager is CMS (content management system).
Content – textual and graphic, as well as external and internal links – should respond as accurately and fully as possible to the queries that users are searching for information in search engines. As criteria – the more accurate these matches are, the words users use to search for information, and the content on the site, the higher the rating is assigned to the site by search engines.
Summary
Using the example of our partner Dworkz, since the publication of the first site, this has been developing exponentially. This was facilitated by the development of computer technology and information culture. Web designers and developers are rushing to import their best experiences into websites and applications. There is no magic wand to make a perfect product, but there are criteria that web and app development studios can follow to make a site or app closer to the client’s tasks and user needs.
