- Video
'Website design' is the last thing you need to think about
This is going to annoy every graphic designer I know. But design should be the last thing you think about.
▶Play the video: 'Website design' is the last thing you need to think aboutThis is going to annoy every graphic designer I know, but it’s true. Everybody obsesses over making the website look pretty while competitors with ugly websites steal their customers.
I’ve seen businesses spend £20,000 on a gorgeous website that converted zero clients. I’ve seen ugly websites that look like they were built in 2005 make millions.
Look at Amazon or eBay. Design matters least in their world. What matters is whether somebody who lands on the site buys something. That’s all they care about.
So sort everything else first. Fix your messaging with the pub talk rule. Stop bragging with the nobody cares rule. Use real photos, not stock photos. Make everything easy to scan so people don’t have to read it all.
Then come back and make it look nice. Design should be last. There’s more on why the plain option often wins in why boring websites win more work.
Want us to look at your website?
Send us your website and we'll reply with the first things we'd change. A real person reads it, not a bot.
Read the full transcript
Now, this is going to piss off every graphic designer I know, but it is true. Everybody obsesses over making the website look pretty while their competitors with ugly websites steal all of their customers. I've seen businesses spend 20,000 pounds on a gorgeous website that then led to converting zero clients. And I've seen ugly websites that look like they were built in 2005 that make millions. Think about Amazon's website or eBay's website.
Design in their world matters the least. At least make pretty. What matters is somebody landing on the Amazon website or is somebody that lands on the eBay website purchasing. That's all that they care about. So, what you need to do is sort everything else first.
Fix your messaging, your words with the pub talk rule. Stop bragging with the nobody cares rule. Use real photos and not stock photos and make everything on your website nice and easy to scan so they don't need to read everything. Then, you can come back to making it look pretty. Design should be last.