Avoid common mistakes when designing your brand online

The history of the Internet is not a pretty one, at least through the eyes of the designer. Everything started in the worst possible manner, with poor resolution, small monitors, uncontrollable colours, flashing GIF's, a miserable selection of fonts available and bandwidths so slow that images took ages to load. Video and animation were totally out of the question.

This is one of the reasons it was entirely legitimate for a company not to have its own website. And if you did have one, it was mainly programmers who handled the job. Flash came along, giving designers greater control. Now fonts, animations, and other effects were available, and the results were sometimes "flashy." There was also some other things about the technology that led to Apple  and others not supporting it at all in their smartphones and tablets. So Flash ended up a dead end for the development of websites. Fortunately, the Internet industry has continued to develop and nowadays "everyone" has their own website. Some new job titles have emerged, like UI designer, UX designer, web designer, front-end developer, interaction designer, etc.

Today, dedicated agencies specialise in websites and supply "the entire package." Some web agencies are happy to design a logo for you while they're at it but actually, lack the expertise. Their main priority is navigation, the Internet and thinking that brands are just something that happen to be there or emerge along the way.

As branding experts, we believe that it's obvious that the brand must come first and the website design later. But before we go any further into this, it is important to know what we mean by a brand. A brand exists in the consumer's head. It is the perception they have of the company, product, or their service. This is established and defined through the points of contact the consumer has had with TV, radio, posters, signs, shops and offices, brochures, news and, in particular, the Internet. Our job is to influence this perception in the desired direction and create good associations and establish a positive relationship. Then it is the entirety that is important, from the way the logo looks to the way in which you answer the phone. Websites then become a more and more important channel where many of the elements of the identity are utilised, and the company's language and messages need to be communicated in the best possible manner. This "perspective" is easy to forget when you set up your own website. A number of classic pitfalls that many people, unfortunately, stumble into follow below.

Six common pitfalls to avoid when designing websites

You haven't focused on your website's audience

Now that technology and bandwidth are no longer an obstacle, the website can and should be the most useful and enthralling channel for your brand. Typography, resolution, and loading times are no longer an obstacle. You are free to communicate with your target groups in every possible manner. Nevertheless, there are many passive and boring websites. They have one because "everyone else has one." It is most important to focus on your most important target groups; existing and potential customers and design the entire website around this. Ensure they get real value from spending time on the site.

Read more about how to create website designs that stand out from the crowd.

You've prioritised the company's organisational chart

A company or organisation's internal hierarchy is of little interest to the majority of users. There are nevertheless many organisations that develop websites that reflect the company's internal structure. Each department is given its own subsite and each manager his own button. In reality, the site is designed for the managers, not for the target group. This is an introverted way of thinking. The site should be created with the focus on what you want the user to do. Get them involved and enthralled by the content, regardless of what department they are interested in.

You have jumped between agencies

Choosing an agency to design your website is a challenging task. Changing to another for each project because you want "fresh ideas" or want to bring the price down could lead to the site becoming a patchwork quilt of ideas. The problem is that all agencies want to put their twist on the assignment so that they can use the project as a reference later on and add the job to their portfolio. Being consistent throughout the site is the best way to guide the user through the content in a suitable manner. The simplest way of ensuring this is to have one agency or department responsible for designing the entire site.

You are not maintaining your website

Websites are not like a brochure that is "finished" before going into print. It should be a "living" channel that is continuously updated with new content. If you just spend your money on setting up a nice website without keeping it updated, this will soon turn out to be a waste.

The Internet also develops so quickly that the design of the site should be updated annually to avoid "lagging behind" and to cater for new user patterns.

You haven't created content for the Internet

It sounds like common sense to use content that already exists, but the rules of the game that apply are different to those applying to traditional media. The Internet is different from TV, and it is not at all the same as paper newspapers or fancy brochures. You will not be able to achieve the optimal Internet content by copying from these old media. You should develop Internet-specific content to achieve the maximum effect both in terms of SEO framing and content structuring.

You've underestimated the strategic value of your digital presence

Treating the website as a digital brochure and letting the responsibility for maintenance rest with the unskilled is a major error. Time after time, we see that far too few resources have been allocated to maintaining a good site. Often, only one person is responsible for entire websites, social media, etc. Since this is perhaps the most important marketing surface for the brand, this also requires maintenance .

The Internet should be regarded as the most important catalyst for how trade and industry will develop in the future. It provides opportunities for new ways of working and new ways of buying, selling and distributing products. If you don't pay attention to these trends, the door could close on you.