Web Design Framework: Our Principles for Comprehensive Web Branding
By going through a set of marketing strategy questions, a frame for a unique (Web) brand identity starts forming up; a basis for our Web design and development work. Following are the most common variables that apply to most businesses when analyzing the direction and attributes for a unique brand identity:
MARKET PLACE & COMPETITION
• Where does the client operate?
• Who poses the relevant competition and how?
• What can be said about the competition’s Web presences and Web strategies?
MARKET NICHE/DIFFERENTIATION
• What are the client’s products/services?
• What unique aspects do these products/services carry?
• What is the client’s company story?
• How could the positive differentiaton be further highlighted and communicated?
TARGET AUDIENCES/CONSUMERS
• What is the target audience of the company?
• Who are the consumers who will visit the website?
• How will the audience recognize that they are part of the company’s target audience?
TONE OF VOICE
• What do we know about the life style, taste and preferences of the audiences?
• What kind of branding would be accepted and desired?
REASONS FOR A WEBSITE
• How important is the website for a client?
• How important is the website as an identity builder in internal and external communication in the client’s company?
• Will the website be the primary source for marketing and/or generating revenue?
Our brand focused web design and development work on one hand yields from this reached understanding of our client’s brand identity and branding goals, and on the other hand, from developing a solid Web development plan that is sensitive to both the design and the Web technology variables. The following points are discussed and taken under consideration:
Navigation Strategy
- Principles for a comprehensible navigation, vistor’s ability to grasp the website’s information structure.
- "Call-to-Action" icon design strategy for increased rates of contact.
- Highlighted information hierarchy design.
- Content structure and navigation as a part of an informational and/or visual/emotional experience i.e what constitutes "content": For instance how images and animations are used in the website can among certain audiences be viewed as a waist of bandwidth where as among others as a valid reach-out for creating an emotional connection with the consumer.
Identity Narrative
- A consistent presentation style of colors, geometrical shapes, typographic, and animations build up a client’s brand identity and marketing, make it stronger and more cohesive, or when desired, create something completely new.
- A design that forms a consistent narrative.
- Use of color as a strategy to visually create the recognizable image for the brand.
- Consistency in animation tempo and style that strengthens brand recognition.
Animation Strategy
- The role of animations/Flash presence as a strategy for creating differentation and/or identity standpoint. In case of a corporate website, animations may be used as an identity mark of belonging to a professional tribe, such as a point made with a well designed corporate Flash banner.
- Interaria’s years of background as a strong Flash design and development company helps us today to look at Flash development with a wide vision. We are able to design and integrate large sections of Flash content into a website and yet keep the site mapping navigatable and even dynamic. Today the emerging XML technology allows us to create Flash media that can be more than ever before managed and updated by our client: For instance we can create a system where the client may edit photos in a Flash slideshow or slogans in a text animation. From the Web development point of view, we exercise economical and disciplined use of Flash technologies, always looking into the solutions first that cut down the development cost rather than increase it. In each decision or request made, our goal is always to educate our clients with all used technologies to fully assess the future maintenance and update work load for any content and/or feature.
Design Philosophy
- A consumer who visits the website is also an experiencing human being whose everyday life can be made richer by bringing well designed objects into reach – whether virtual or tangible. Interaria believes that a true mutually respected connection will establish a stronger interaction relationship between the consumer and the company. We at Interaria believe that effective branding invites the consumer to join the company message.
- The corner stone for effective branding according to our philosophy is respect and consistency. A consistent elegantly tailored brand identity assures the critical consumer at every step of the way that your company understands its consumer’s unique needs and that joining your company message (consuming) will add positive value to one’s lifestyle. It is always the consumer who decides whether to accept the invitation. This notion carries through our work philosophy. We also, as a company, strive to be part of something that creates meaning.
Marketing and SEO
- Web architecture design for increased rates for contact
- Keyword dense text content and keyword rich url mapping
- Custom metatag design for search engines
- Following and analyzing results
User Hardware
- Internet Connection speed and age of computer hardware used by the target audiences
Database Driven Content Managament Solutions
- Interaria specializes in developing datadase driven content management solutions that increase the life-span and dynamic nature of the website. With a dynamic content management solution in place, our clients are not looking at a static website but are able to manage and increase the content on their site: For instance, database driven content management solutions allow our clients to independently manage and expand their project portfolios, upload newsletters to their website, and edit and manage their text and image content. The database solution can also be designed to enhance the user-experience of the website for instance by developing the website with Search Features, Customer Login Areas, and Member areas with dynamic member pages.
