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2020 clearly demonstrated that the world could go online more or less in a blink of an eye. We learned that we could use the internet and websites almost for everything, from taking care of our financial transactions to grocery delivery and more.
Still, this doesn’t mean that every business with a website will reach its business goals just by being online. Users strive for optimal online experiences, and web design is at the focal point of said experiences.
Web design has come a long way, and user expectations also. Nowadays, websites simply cannot afford to look like newspaper classifieds but rather, digital works of art that enable the users to quickly find what they are looking for.
For software development companies, outstanding web design doesn’t only mean having a visually appealing website. It also translates into better SEO optimization, better visibility online, improved organic traffic, decreased bounce rates, more leads, and ultimately better sales figures.
That being said, here are a few fundamental principles that you need to keep in mind when you are developing your website.
Mobile-Friendly
In 2022, having a responsive website is a must for any kind of online success. Keeping in mind that even in 2020, mobile devices (without tablets) generated more than half of website traffic on a global scale, software developers simply cannot afford to use outdated design elements.
People use their phones primarily to browse the internet, and in the case of such tech-savvy industries as software development, not having a responsive layout can actually do even more harm than in other, more traditional niches.
In essence, mobile-friendliness means using a responsive design that enables any website to adapt to different devices (screen sizes) without compromising the initial user experience and general usability. This means that everything, from UI elements to images and text, should be resized to fit the viewport optimally.
On the other hand, users literally expect your business to have a mobile-friendly layout. In essence, 85% of surveyed adults said that a company mobile-view website should actually be just as good as the desktop version (if not better). If a company fails to deliver on this end, it risks losing traffic, revenue, and even credibility.
Optimize for Speed
Statistics suggest that those pages that load within the five-second barrier have an average bounce rate of 38%, and a 100-millisecond delay has the potential to decrease possible rates by 7%.
These numbers should clearly signify just how important speed is in modern web design, regardless of the device users are viewing the website.
We are living in the age of instant gratification, with users expecting every site to load after the initial click. This is especially true for software development companies, which essentially work in the field of computing, often offering tools to make online tasks more accessible and more streamlined.
Luckily, creating a feaster-loading site isn’t an overly complex task and could be achieved through the following:
- Minimizing every image on the site, regardless of its size
- Choosing a solid hosting environment
- Using dedicated servers
- Keep files smaller by compressing them
- Minimizing the number of HTTP requests in Chrome’s Developer Tools
Most of these steps can be accomplished relatively easily. Still, there are more ways you can create a site that responds even faster. Some of them tie more into development, while others remain design-related. As such, it’s always important to find the golden mean between every aspect to create a platform that’s fast, easy to use, and technologically innovative.
Navigation
Navigation should always be straightforward and effortless on your website. Especially when you are selling products (in your case, different pieces of software and service options), you might need to incorporate several filters, comparison options, and more.
You need to create an intuitive and easy-to-understand interface that navigates smoothly. When you are marketing different products, the last thing you want is to overwhelm and confuse your potential customers with a complicated design solution.
When assessing navigation-related questions, you should also consider the amount of space you have. Your layout might benefit from having straightforward navigation. Still, when accessing through mobile, you might want a different approach (like using the hamburger menu) to save on-screen space and avoid clutter.
Optimize for Search Engines
Good web design for software development firms isn’t only about good visuals and easy navigation. There’s a myriad of invisible elements that can improve a site’s rankings. Things like heading tags, meta tags, and HTML coding tricks that address the back-end code can go a long way in helping to improve your visibility, drive more clicks, and ultimately, sell more of your products.
Still, you should know that there’s a lot more to SEO services than these on-site technical tweaks. Search engine optimization is a constant effort that requires continuous work but the fruits you can reap from it make it all worthwhile.
Clean Typography
If you want a modern design, then you must have bold, clean, and safe typography.
Appropriately sized text, adequate spaces to help read (scanning the site), web-standard fonts, and appropriate typography colors are only a few key things you should keep an eye on.
Most companies prefer using particular typography or fonts as an essential part of their identity. If you are one of them, just ensure that you remain consistent with them on all of your pages and other resources that you provide online.
Use of White Space
As a software development company, you will most likely opt for a modern design, more specifically, a minimalist approach.
The usage of white space not only ties nicely into the minimalist design but also helps your viewers from feeling overwhelmed and cluttered.
The right balance of content and white space will enable your visitors to capture all the essential info related to your software solutions, and it will also make the entire page more organized, cleaner, and readable.
Optimize Your Product Pages
Your products and solutions are the bread and butter of your online presence. Most probably, you also offer different service packages, functionality, and configuration options along with your core products. While all of this is needed, it can simply overwhelm your visitors, especially if they aren’t that tech-savvy.
This is why it’s imperative to optimize your product pages in a way that familiarizes people with your solutions fast, without the need for a massive copy to help your prospects get a better understanding of your solutions.
Using pictures, video guides, and “how-to” tutorials can go a long way in conveying the message, fast.
Also, you can dismantle your product page content into smaller pieces, each section clearly defined, and following a logical path, with each part highlighting a specific challenge your product can address or an important aspect of the solution.
Make sure that the copy is to-the-point and focuses only on the main challenges that your prospects may have.
Lastly, having a smart CTA strategy is also pivotal for success. Have a clear call-to-action that can help your prospects become customers. Opt for simple and clear CTAs at the end of your product pages like “Schedule a Free Assessment” or “Request a Demo” so they know what would await them next.
Put Time and Effort into Your Tech Resource and Blog Pages
Technology buyers can either be overly tech-savvy or no fairly little about the works behind your solutions. No matter how familiar they are with the topic, you should have a comprehensive resource center to educate and inform your prospects regularly.
Whether we’re talking about white papers, case studies, additional tutorials, documentation, or blog articles discussing the challenges that your solutions aim to solve, these resources can be valuable for every site visitor no matter how savvy they are.
Furthermore, having SEO-optimized blog posts and other copy online can help you a great deal with improving your search result rankings, potentially helping you drive even more traffic toward your site.
Your Buyers Come First
Tech and software companies tend to fall into the trap of focusing way too much on their business and/or software instead of their customers during the design phase.
In the end, it’s all about the customer, regardless of your industry, product, or service. You should focus on highlighting the benefits of the software and make sure to address every pain point your customers might have. As a matter of fact, all of these should come first and should be incorporated into both the core of the copy and the overall design.
Simply put, they need to become interested in your solutions. When that happens, you can rest assured that they will read more about software features and functionality, but first, they need to know that you have a solution to their problems.
Device Compatibility and Cross-Browser Experiences
Last but not least, you never know where the visitors interested in your solutions come from. Because of this, every design element that you code into your pages should function as intended on every device and through every browser.
To make sure that your pages load and display correctly everywhere and every time, you need to perform thorough iterative testing on real devices and browsers. Verify every design change and function on every possible device-browser-OS combo to make sure that they all work fine.
This can be a challenging and often frustrating task, but it’s a necessary one if you want to maximize the conversion power of your website. Also, if you deliver solutions to a more tech-savvy crowd (like digital marketers), they might even disregard your website altogether after their initial visit when they find out that some features are simply not working on your website via mobile or a different browser.
This won’t only hurt your sales but, in the long run, can cause massive damage to your credibility and reputation as a business.
Summary
Excellent and modern design practices are essential for every business site, regardless of industry. These basic principles are only the starting point.
Nowadays, being aesthetically pleasing and highly functional is a must to stay afloat in the digital world. Embracing the latest trends and elements is especially crucial for software developers, who are often considered the pioneers of digital technologies.
And let’s face it: they are. As such, they should also strive to implement the latest standards in the field of web design as well.
Conclusion
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