“Look and Feel” of a Website

This month, we finished the development of another of our clients’ website, this time a great law firm in New Zealand, Lowndeslaw.com. A lot of thought and ideation goes on behind the scenes before we can achieve something as beautiful as this website. One area of this includes – the “look and feel” design stage.

But what is the “look and feel”? And how do we as a team, successfully accomplish this phase?

Let us break it down for you:
What is the “Look and Feel” of a Website?

In layman’s terms, the “look and feel” of a website is the initial design (not development) of a website which give you, the client a visual of how the entire website will look before it is developed.

The “look” is defined by the following components of your website:

• Colour palette
• Imagery
• Layout
• Font styles and choices
• Overall styling & spacing

The “feel” is determined by these characteristics:

• The movement and dynamic components like dropdown menus, buttons, forms, portfolios, galleries, testimonials,
• Video
• Responsiveness (for media devices including Ipad + tablet)

Why is the Look and Feel phase of a Website Important?

Your website’s overall look and feel is important because it instantly draws a picture of you to your clients before they even start reading the content of the site.

Before you begin a website design, check your goals against your competitors’ websites (this is called research). A lawyers website should look trustworthy, organised, well versed and offer a list of services, advice and clear contact details. Whereas a website for a fashion designer can be more creative with bright colours, texture and use emotive images.

Your website’s personality should match the attitude of your business / company and your objectives while still fitting in with your client’s expectations of the business and industry you’re in.

Having a “look and feel” done before any development starts, allows you to make multiple changes to the website until you are happy with the entirety of the website and it components “look and feel” before the build.

When working with a web design company, take some time to clearly define your business objectives regarding the “look and feel” of your website to ensure that everyone is on the same page before web developments / build work begins.

Facebook snubs BlackBerry – what does this mean for your website?

It’s official. Facebook has announced plans to stop supporting BlackBerry OS 10 by the end of the year, meaning it will no longer support social media apps on the device. As Ars Technica reports, this follows on from a similar move by popular messaging app WhatsApp, which will also end its BlackBerry support by the end of 2016.

This blow to BlackBerry is hardly a surprise. After all, the device once known as the “CrackBerry” has been all but buried by an avalanche of iPhones and Android devices over the past 10 years.

But what does it mean for your website?

Devices change, websites respond

We’ve all had the experience of loading up a website on our smartphone and having to pinch and slide like crazy before we can read the text – perhaps looking up the opening hours of a local Thai restaurant or doctor’s office. And we’ve all hopefully experienced the joy that comes from using a well-built, “responsive” website that can adapt its layout and styling automatically, depending on the device we’re using.

Importantly, responsiveness matters for web browsers too. A responsive website will shift its presentation to meet the needs of Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc, and should also adjust to the size of your browser window.

But the fact that huge companies like Facebook are finally backing away from BlackBerry is a reminder that not all devices are created equal.

When building a new website it’s near impossible to create something that will look perfect across every device and in every browser, from the shiniest iPhone to the version of Explorer still running on that ancient family PC.

Testing matters

All this adds up to one time-consuming but important task: testing. Checking how your site looks on today’s most popular devices and browsers is a key step in the launch phase, along with testing things like contact pages, links and image load times.

That said, it’s also useful to remember that your site won’t necessarily look perfect everywhere. Don’t panic if a small number of users report that it looks a little “strange” on their particular device.

If you do know someone who still owns a BlackBerry, send us a screenshot of how your site looks to them. We’d love to see the results!