Smiling lady working on web design in her office.

It's no longer enough to just have a website, it also needs to be well designed, engaging for the user and represent the business in the best possible way. Evoking emotion and creating action. It's a leadership responsibility.

Here you'll find tips for creating web design that stands out from the crowd, but first we'll go through the basics.

Basic elements of website design

When creating a website, there are some basic things that must always be in place. We won't go into details, but point out some elements that you should always make sure are in place.

Responsive design: As a rule, at least half of the traffic to your website comes via mobile, so a website should adapt to the device it is displayed on. And it must look good on all screen sizes. This ensures that the user has an optimal experience regardless of whether they visit the website from a mobile phone, tablet or PC.
Navigation structure: The website should have a clear and easy-to-understand navigation, so that users can easily find what they are looking for whether they land on the front page or deep down in the structure.
Ease of use: It's everything from fast load times to clear, easy-to-understand messages. The rule of thumb is that the harder something is to use, the less it is used. Quite simple, really, but also one of the hardest things to get 100% right.
Consistent design style: A consistent style and color palette creates confidence. Good web design also creates branding, so avoid using design elements that confuse. You'll easily get rejected.
Search engine friendliness: Google and other search engines must be able to find, understand and index your web pages. Otherwise, Google can't show your website to its users. There are some technologies you need to be careful with (Javascript, Flash, iframe++)

How to get a website design with a little something extra

To really stand out from the crowd and create a website that captures the attention of users, you need to take it a few steps further. And you should really take those steps before you start thinking about website design.

Brand strategy is the foundation of good web design

Brand strategy is the starting point. This is where you work out the gold and anchor the marketing work with the company's strategy. It is in this strategy work that you create a culture and a shared understanding of what you are trying to achieve. A good, culture-creating strategy process gives the entire organization direction and makes all subsequent communication work much easier. Including web design and website development.

You can read more about brand strategy here, but let's highlight a couple of points that are particularly important to give your website design that little bit extra:

Insight work: To create something that creates emotion and action with customers and users, you need to understand what drives them and what problems they want to solve. It's in that work that we find what can differentiate your brand from the competition.
Goal setting: "What gets measured, gets done". It's a little easier to get there when you know where you're going and how to find out if you've got there. Good goal-setting at brand level will also ensure that you create a website that contributes in the right direction.

But strategy needs to be brought down to earth to make it easy to incorporate into everyday working life. This is where brand identity comes in. Brand identity is about the use of colors, typography, tone of voice and graphic design, among other things. Concrete outlets. This is how we want it to look.

Often this involves putting in place what we call a design system. This is a template that makes it easy for everyone in the company to create marketing material - and website design - that is consistent and recognizable. It's about making people trust you as a sender and minimizing time-consuming discussions about shape and colour.

Concept, user experience and creativity

"Don't Make Me Think. "Keep it Simple". A fundamental principle of web design is to make it as easy as possible for people to do what they came to the website to do. Of course, simplicity can create good feelings, but if you want to create lifetime value and build a brand, your website must also be memorable. Create emotions!

So how can we keep it as simple as possible and be creative at the same time?

The insights from your brand strategy and subsequent work will help give your creativity direction, but you need good communication concepts. This is where you figure out what problems the website should solve and how to solve them, and this is where the really exciting websites find their magic.

Many people skip this phase because they're eager to get started on implementing their brand strategy. Don't make that mistake. Set aside time for great minds to sit together and work out exciting concepts. Remember: the best ideas are often not created in a creative head, but between creative (and other) heads.

Here are some examples of creative techniques you can use to come up with great ideas and concepts:

Brainstorming: Gather a group of slightly different professionals and ask them to empty themselves of all ideas and thoughts on a topic. No ideas are rejected or criticized, and the goal is to get as many ideas as possible in a short time. Afterwards, the ideas can be sorted and further developed.
Design thinking: This is a methodology we professionals like to use and is based on insight and empathy for customer/user needs. The process involves understanding the user's needs, defining the problem well, generating ideas, prototyping, testing and iterating.
Mind mapping: A technique used to organize and structure thoughts and ideas. You start with a main theme and create a mind map that connects different ideas and concepts around the theme. Often helps unstructured creative minds connect their ideas to the overall strategy.
Moodboard: This is a visual creative process that helps define a style or feel for a design project. It can be a collage of images, colors and typography that provides inspiration and a shared vision for the team. Moodboards are often used in the development of a brand identity, but can also be useful in later processes.
SCAMPER: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to other uses, Eliminate, Reverse. Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to other uses, Eliminate, Reverse. Often the innovative ideas don't come out of nowhere, but by looking at existing ideas and challenging them. SCAMPER is a creative technique that helps you look at a challenge from different angles.

Read how artificial intelligence (AI) can transform the design industry.

Inspiration for good design

Good customers often give good work (Snikskryt), so we think you should take a look at our work. But there are many other people doing big and small things that you can be inspired by. Here are some resources we like to use to get inspired:

Awwwards (https://www.awwwards.com/) Awwwards honors and recognizes creative websites with awwwesome design. Here you can find many inspiring websites from different categories and genres.

Behance (https://www.behance.net/) This is a platform for creative professionals in design, illustration, photography and more. Here you can discover many inspiring projects and portfolios of great design.
Designspiration (https://www.designspiration.com/) Pretty self-explanatory: Inspiring design projects and ideas from various sources and genres.
Site inspire(https://www.siteinspire.com/) Site inspire showcases the finest in website and interactive design. They really highlight a variety of ways to use visuals in web design.

Ask us about web design

If you need help creating great, engaging websites, we're more than willing to help, as long as you're also willing to take the task seriously and give your customers and organization something to be proud of.

Our strength lies in simplifying, highlighting and respecting what is unique.

Send us an email at hello@mission.no or call us on 24 10 35 00