subject: What Is Custom Website Design? [print this page] Custom website design is something that you should heavily consider as you plan the overall look and functionality of your website. The word custom means, basically, "tailored to your needs." So before you settle on just any design, you should ask yourself, "What are the needs of the site or business or consumer that the site or business is serving?" Think outwardly. Project yourself out of the close proximity that often brings blindness toward the outside aspects of your business that are important to success. When you can think like a customer or client, you can start to build a custom web experience that effectively speaks to their needs and not your desires. If you own a business or site that operates with a revenue model in mind, this is important. So think about custom website design as something that is more than "tailored to your needs." It is "tailored to your success" instead. Here are some things that you can do to make it work with you effectively:
1. Hire an experienced website designer.
Many businesses make the mistake of farming out their website design needs to someone who is just starting out because they will work for cheap. Unfortunately, the business owner doesn't take this aspect of his brand seriously enough to be successful in the digital age - at least not as successful as he could be. An experienced designer knows the basics, but he also knows how to put new tweaks in programming language to use so that your site is able to work smarter and not harder. Take responsive web design for instance. More and more users are turning to their smart phones or tablets to procure information. If your site is flexibly designed using this method, then the user can get a pleasant experience no matter what they are using to view the web page. There are still far too many sites that don't take this seriously.
2. Reach out to your users or potential users
The features that your site offers will go a long way in determining the custom web design experience. By reaching out to your users and potential users, you can figure out directly what the people are looking for. Don't try to take a guess at it if you're just starting out. Go to websites that you would like to emulate and see how people there are using it. Which features are successful, and which aren't? Make note of them and trim the fat wherever possible.
3. Appeal through colour
It may be a subtle effect in the overall design but it is nevertheless important. The colours that you use are able to enhance the user experience by appealing to the psychological reactions that you hope to invoke in your visitors. Whether it's red for excitement or blue for tranquility, this is important to one's overall success.
