Web Page Design Firm

Every so often, an utter and complete change in the way we think about web design comes along. The latest in this trend is UCD or user-centered design. While it may sound a bit silly on the surface, after all, why weren't we designing websites with users at the center before now, it really is a fundamental shift in the way we look at design. Instead of putting the business or product at the center, UCD balances both the user's interest and the business/product interest evenly. The result is a site that is rich in usability, functionality and results.

Every so often, an utter and complete change in the way we think about web design comes along. The latest in this trend is UCD or user-centered design. While it may sound a bit silly on the surface, after all, why weren't we designing websites with users at the center before now, it really is a fundamental shift in the way we look at design. Instead of putting the business or product at the center, UCD balances both the user's interest and the business/product interest evenly. The result is a site that is rich in usability, functionality and results.

It is difficult enough designing a winning website while serving one master, but UCD demands that you serve two. The key is balance. Go too far on the usability side and your company will not benefit adequately. Go too far on the business side and your site won't get the traffic it should because no one will want to use it. Perhaps the best examples of UCD on the Internet are social networking giants like Facebook. They push their brand while giving users a reason to come back again and again. Adopt this balance on your UCD site and you can expect big things for the future.

To begin, you want to keep the concepts behind UCD at the forefront while you go through the web building process. Step one is to keep the user in mind as you begin to plan out what your site is going to be. If the underlying theme is inherently user-unfriendly, no amount of icing is going to make that cake delicious, so be careful. As you begin to test out your idea and gather feedback from potential users, be sure you keep your focus. You don't want to limit your site's potential but you don't want to try to be everything to everyone. When you begin to build your site out, don't get too complicated. This is the most common design mistake. People get too ambitious and begin to clutter things up. Be sure to make your content easy-to-read- engaging and fun. You want people to consider your site a must-visit, so be sure to write like that. Finally, user testing is very important. Don't limit where you test or who you test. The more results, the better.

While planning out a comprehensive UCD experience satisfies one side of the scales, you also need to design a site that appeals to your business goals. After all, you aren't building a site just to entertain the masses. You have a goal, and your site needs to achieve it. Start by asking yourself what you hope to accomplish with your website over the long term. What are your larger business goals and how can this web portal help you achieve them? You'll need to have a good idea of who your audience is and how you can appeal to them. You can accomplish this task by finding out what information they need and how you can supply it to them. Finally, it is important to know exactly how your target audience will be accessing the site and with what technology. A device built for mobile technology works very differently than one build for traditional web browsing.

With all the talk about usability and how it is so important to building a competitive and unique website, it is important that you understand what usability actually means. Many people assume usability is simply how well someone interacts with your site, but that's only part of the story. The concept of usability can be applied to how quickly a person takes to your site and masters it, as well as how efficiently a person uses your site to accomplish goals and tasks that you set out. It can also apply to how easy people remember your site's navigation after they've been away for a while, as well as how frequently people make errors on your site. The final part of the usability puzzle is an overall evaluation, however, this step is considered highly subjective.

Now that you have the framework for developing a UCD site, let's look at methods you can employ in testing your site out. User testing of a site is a multi-step process. It isn't something you do with only one group, or even two. What many developers learn is that while their site may have been built and aimed at a specific audience, the reach of the site is much broader than they thought. Often times, developers regret not testing the site to see how they could have taken advantage of that broader audience.

The key to proper user testing is varying your audience and your style. You want to do some in-person testing and some over the web. You want to test different age groups, different socio-economic classes and different ethnic backgrounds. The Internet has become the most powerful communication tool in the world, and the most promising business frontier since the invention of the television. Proper testing can unlock your site's true potential and turn a mediocre, mildly successful site into a powerhouse capable of making your business or product a household name.