The Importance of Web Design and Development in Business

 

More than just a beautiful space on the internet, your website should function more than what meets the eye. It should be so functional that users can easily navigate through it, find what they need, and complete desired actions efficiently. 

A visitor usually stays on a website for around a minute. With that knowledge in mind, you only have sixty seconds to attract them with your site’s design and functionality. Thus, it will most likely influence your customers to browse your products or services. This is where web design and development come to the rescue.  

Web design and development have played a great role for businesses worldwide over the years. With over 2 billion digital buyers this year, brands must elevate their online presence more than ever. Moreover, the need to invest in web design and development is vital to aid in scaling the products and services online. 

Here are a few shocking numbers on how a website can affect a customer’s journey: 

• 60% stated that website usability is important for them in an online shop (Statista) 
• 50 milliseconds is the time that visitors need to leave a positive first impression on the website (Taylor & Francis Online) 
• 50% of web traffic comes from mobile devices (Research.com) 
• 42% of people will leave a site due to poor functionality (Hubspot) 

 

What Is Web Design? 

In simple terms, web design is the overall look of your website. Moreover, it is designed for full functionality, with each element playing an important role. These aesthetic factors include the layout, UI (User Interface), content, information accessibility, and others. Therefore, an effective web design sets the audience’s impressions of a brand.  

Unsplash 

Here are the top five elements of web design: 

• High-Quality, Readable Content - relevant and easily understandable content by the readers 
• Typography - the art of writing appealing text with various font styles 
• Call-to-action (CTA) - specified prompt toward the next step 
• Visual Design - aesthetics of a website 
• Branding - the process of creating the identity of the business 

While it does offer the front end of your brand, web design is also the interface functionality and user-friendliness of your website. In website making, it is important to have it pleasing to the eyes and a positive user experience, for instance, making it mobile-friendly.  

Here are some mind-blowing web design statistics to keep you up to date: 

• The majority of online shoppers (60%) consider web usability as the most important design characteristic for their shopping experience (Statista) 
• 38% of visitors who visit a website for the first time examine its page design or navigational links (Top Design Firms) 
• 59% of global consumers prefer something beautifully designed rather than a simplistic and plain design (Adobe) 
• 75% of online users evaluate a company’s credibility based on its web design (Standford) 

What Is Web Development?  

While web design falls under web development, the main contribution of web development to your website is how it builds the website and the applications integrated into your online home. Think of it this way: if web design is your front end, web development is your back end. Moreover, it involves a more technical take on your website, from coding, building, and maintaining the site. 

Unsplash 

 

Explore the basic five stages of website development: 

• Planning - making a detailed website plan and site map 
• Designing - containing visual elements like photos and videos 
• Building - developing from the homepage to sub-pages 
• Testing - trying out all links and buttons, and QA of all content 
• Launching - uploading to a server for the website to go live 

Web development in particular is in charge of the behind-the-scenes of the website, making sure that everything is working smoothly. Furthermore, this provides a good user experience while helping the site visitors easily navigate. The same with web design, web development also helps attract more customers to the site, thus increasing web traffic. 

Below are some interesting numbers on web development in businesses worldwide: 

• The acceptable loading time for an e-commerce website is two seconds (Google) 
• Global mobile users have reached 5.48 billion (Digital) 
• 71% of businesses have a website (Top Design Firms) 
• 53% of mobile users leave a site when it takes longer than three seconds to load (Google) 

The Importance of Web Design and Development in Business  

By bringing together both technical and creative aspects to your website, you would be able to create an eye-catching and operational website. Effective web design ensures that the user experience is given top priority, which makes sure that the website is simple to use, visually appealing, and has the required functionality. The emphasis of development is the technical components of creating and maintaining a website, such as coding, security, and performance.  

 

Aside from this, there are other benefits of web design and development: 

1. Give a good first impression. Visitors can assess your website within seconds. If the design is outdated or inviting, and if it takes too long to navigate or load, then it’ll make customers leave in an instant. Thus, your website needs to be updated with user-friendly content and elements. 
2. Reach a larger audience. An engaging site that caters to visitors of all ages can tap into a larger pool of audience especially when mixed with engaging content and information about the brand itself.  
3. Generate more income. Keeping up with the latest trends, technologies, and developments can help make your products more visible to your audience.  
4. Brand authenticity. Considering web design and development as the building blocks for brand authenticity establishes a foundation for businesses looking to build trust and credibility. Earning your customers’ trust, grasping their attention, and providing support through your site can reflect on how good your brand is, thus persuading them to buy your product. 

 

In conclusion, web development and design are essential elements of any effective business plan. Furthermore, a professionally designed and developed website can improve a company’s online visibility, foster credibility and confidence among its target market, and promote expansion and financial success. 

Together, web design and development establish a solid basis for a company’s online presence and give it a platform for consumer engagement, product, and service promotion, and business goal achievement. Businesses wishing to prosper online must invest in high-quality web design and development in the current digital era if they want to stay competitive. 

 

Talk to us through rc.connect@nagarro.com about your website needs. 

Outsourcing , Web-design , Web-development