At MOO, our website design and development team knows that your website is the front door to your brand and is the centrepiece of your digital marketing strategy. It is likely the first exposure to your brand for potential customers, and as such, it needs to clearly reflect your brand’s identity.
A website that aligns with your brand can build credibility, increase engagement, and create a positive experience for users. As a leading website design company in Melbourne, there’s a number of steps we work through with you to ensure a design that accurately represents your brand. Following are some of the key elements we incorporate into our process.
The link between Branding and Website Design
1) Brand identity informs everything
The first step when it comes to branding and web design? Understanding your website’s brand identity. This refers to way your brand uses design to represent itself and communicate its personality, mission statement, and general “vibe”. Brand identity uses cohesive visual elements and design such as:
- Logos
- Colours
- Typography
- Imagery and graphics
Additionally, it also includes your brand voice, tone and personality and of course your target audience.
Once we understand these elements of your brand identity, we use them as a basis for every design decision, ensuring consistency across your site.
Looking for a brand refresh? Talk to our graphic design agency in Melbourne about our brand design services.
2) The importance of User Experience (UX) in branding and website design
Good website design is not just about how it looks; it’s also about the functionality. You can have the most visually appealing website in the world, but if the structure is not easy for potential customers to understand and if it’s difficult to navigate or slow to load, visitors will leave.
Clear and concise navigation is paramount in all our websites. A good user experience improves your website’s ability to serve its main purpose, be that to sell products, generate leads, or direct users to key information.
Less understood (but equally as important) however, good design also reinforces your brand as one that cares about its customers.
3) Responsive website design ensures consistent branding across devices
What device are you using to read this article? Based on statistics from August 2024, there’s a 62.99% chance it’s on a mobile device – that’s approximately how much global internet traffic originates from mobile devices. Long gone are the days where internet usage was synonymous with desktop computers.
With such a diverse range of devices your users may be accessing your website from, good website design needs to account for the appearance and function of your website on all devices, from desktops to tablets to smartphones. This ensures functionality across devices – moreover, it also ensures that your website’s branding and website design are consistent across devices no matter what device, browser, or screen size visitors use.
Understanding your target audience and their browsing preferences is factored into our web design company’s process. Using responsive design, we design and develop websites that adapt to different screen sizes, ensuring a seamless experience across all platforms reinforcing that your brand is serious about engaging with your target audiences.
4) Speed optimisation is key
Site speed impacts on both user experience and SEO rankings. Over the years we’ve seen a lot of websites built on ‘out of the box’ templates which have masses of features, most of which are never used. Websites built on these types of templates have enormous quantities of unutilised code which slows your website down significantly. Slow websites frustrate visitors, leading them to leave your site without engaging.
This is relationship is backed up with data – according to research conducted by Google, bounces (users leaving a webpage without interacting with it) jump by 32% when loading times increase from 1 second to 3 seconds.
While good design is crucial for your brand’s website, certain design elements can slow a website down significantly. At MOO, our website developers create clean and ‘light’ code performing only the features and functions required. We combine development and design, using a range of techniques to reduce website load times, while still communicating your visual identity, reinforcing your brand and making it easy to engage with.
5) Call-to-Actions (CTAs) are critical
CTAs to help guide users toward taking specific actions, such as signing up for a newsletter, making an enquiry or purchasing a product. As such, they’re a crucial element in both branding and web design.
We use clear language that aligns with your brand’s voice and we ensure that CTAs are easy to spot and click, on desktop, tablets and mobile.
6) Content needs to reflect your brand’s voice
Do you want your brand to be perceived as professional, fun, casual, technical, educational or something else? The copy on your website is just as important as the design elements. Your website’s text should clearly communicate:
- Who you are
- What you offer
- Why visitors should care
- All while maintaining a tone that aligns with your brand’s personality
MOO’s website design and development process doesn’t just stop with at the visual design. It also includes the writing and/or review of copy to ensure it accurately represents your brand identity.
7) Content hierarchy, and the role it plays in branding and website design
When it comes to branding and website design, the way content is organized on the page is also crucial. In many cases, it can be just as important as the visuals themselves.
Visitors should be able to quickly find, understand and act on the key messages you want to convey. Good content hierarchy uses headings, subheadings, and bullet points to achieve this, making the information easy to scan. It also considers layout and organisation to reduce visual clutter and help guide users to key information.
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The above are a snapshot of the numerous elements we take in to consideration when building or refreshing websites. There are many more elements that need to be considered in branding and website design that will reflect positively on your brand identity. Consideration can be given to incorporating branding into every interaction with your website, customisation and personalisation, consistency of messaging, use of brand elements, testimonials and your value proposition.
In summary, designing a website that reflects your brand’s identity is key to building trust and creating a strong, positive connection with your audience(s). By aligning your visuals, content, and user experience with your brand’s values and personality, you can create a website that resonates with your customers. Consistency, authenticity, and a user-first approach are key to creating a successful brand-reflective website.
If your ready to start your next website project, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us here.