Thinking in terms of "New Media"
Most people have difficulty thinking in terms of "new media" when it comes to designing their website. They are stuck thinking in terms of print pages or brochureware. The Internet offers excellent opportunity to add interactivity and engaging ways to present products and services. However, it takes an experienced web designer to show how the site can achieve this effectively.
It's not just about adding bells and whistles to the site simply because it can be done. It's about communicating with the site visitor in an engaging way. Interactivity means that the visitor is involved in the site in some way, not just reading text on a screen. Some simple examples include online calculators (they can calculate anything from mortgage loans to btu's), instructional video or Flash presentations, even downloadable documents is considered an interactive engagement.
One mistake some clients make is to tell the designer how to layout their site. They would benefit better by telling him what they want to achieve on this particular page.. what's important, what's not. What message they want to convey.Then he could evaluate various ways to present the material to meet the client's goal. By forcing the designer to follow their instructions, they are not taking advantage of the experience and creativity of the designer.
The designer you choose for your project makes a big difference, well beyond creating a "pretty site" with lots of interactivity the designer needs to understand your market. It's this understanding that allows him to create a site that the visitor will find engaging and informative. Web-Kare specializes in industrial websites - it's all we do. Our designers and staff have extensive experience in industrial sales and marketing which allows us to create websites that work for the right audience. |
