The Difference Between Good Website Design and Bad is Not What You Think

March 29, 2022
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It’s not 1998 anymore. Even in our little state of Rhode Island, today’s businesses need a website that does more than just look nice. It must to be usable, functional, and appealing. It should have a clear goal in mind, meet the audience’s expectations, and providing the proper information – to potential customers and to the search engines. But many designers do not get it quite right. Surprisingly, even some of the most high-profile designers out there are not able to fulfill these basic principles. If you are searching for a quality website designer in RI, as you review portfolios, understanding the difference between good and bad design will help ensure you choose a firm that will deliver results. Here is a quick overview of what constitutes good and bad web design so you know what to look out for:

Good Website Design

The key purpose of any website is to provide information, and that means a good one should provide it in an efficient and easy-to-find manner. Visitors should have everything they need at their fingertips without needing to hunt around. Effective, simple navigation is vital, and a key part of the website design process should be determining what users expect and delivering it in a clean, organized way.

A good website needs to be engaging with just the right balance of visual appeal and operational efficiency, and it should always be a reflection of your brand and message. The design must take into account your industry, your company’s identity, and the styling of your offline locations (if applicable). This ensures everything works together for a consistent experience. When customers are given everything they expect, friction is removed and the sales process goes so much smoother.

Bad Website Design

Bad websites tend to prioritize style over substance with high-flying animations and other fanfare. While you might like these vivacious visuals, your users will experience slow loading speeds and find it difficult to access information. Designers that create websites like these have not thought about navigation and are not thinking about the end user either. Most of your users are not using high-speed, top-of-the-line desktop PCs, and designs like this won’t work well on older machines or smartphones. Which means, you lose business.

It’s surprising how many sites fall prey to bad web design, and we’ve all been there—trawling through page after page of information yet still finding our questions unanswered, and with so much competition out there, even just here in Rhode Island, you need to make sure you don’t fall into that trap. Poor web design can be inconvenient and infuriating at best but at worst it can be downright damaging with visitors deciding to look elsewhere. Make sure you know the difference between good and bad design and you’ll be able to offer the experience users want. When you give users what they want, you delight them and make a great impression for your business.


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