As a designer with plenty of websites under my belt, the most important consideration in web design is establishing clear business objectives of the website and choosing a relevant design team.
“Do you know why 85% of all (technology) projects fail to meet all of their critical measures of success?”
The answer is poor or no planning. A website is an integral part of your overall business plan, too often firms fail to determine a clear objective of a website, leading to many revisions and driving development costs up. To put things in perspective: “A recent study performed by KPMG Information Technology, a Toronto-based professional services company, showed that of the (technology) projects that failed, 87% went more than 50% over budget, 45% failed to produce the expected benefits, and 86-92% went over schedule.” (Hamil)
In addition, many times firms fail to hire a design team with relevant skills and experience; who will know to consider integral components of a site such as Accessibility, Compatibility, Navigability, Readability and Usability. (Haque 2010) As important is a design team who will utilize the right tools and platforms to integrate these components on a website. In example, to structure a site “You can use straight HTML, PHP, CSS or other coding options, or you can use a script, such as Wordpress or Joomla. Each of these options presents its own pros and cons, and they can all affect search engine rankings.” (visualscope.com) An experienced design team will be able to decipher the difference and recommend the best option.
Also, designers can very easily get lost within the aesthetic aspect of a site- and if the firm is not very well versed on good site design; it is very easy to fall into the trap of a pretty but not functional site. (www.visualscope.com)
Trust me, I learned the hard way.
References:
Hamil, D. “Your Mission, Should You Choose To Accept It: Project Management Excellence” Retrieved from http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/features/mesa1/
Haque, O. (2010) “ 5 Biggest Challenges You Need To Face In Website Creation” Retrieved from http://www.stayonsearch.com/5-biggest-challenges-you-need-to-face-in-website-creation
www.visualscope.com “Web Design is Much more than Designing a Pretty Website” Retrieved from Web Design is Much more than Designing a Pretty Website