I get asked often, “What would make for an attractive, innovative, unique new look for our website, ideas? We want something that stands out from our competition.” Start off by turning the tables. What are the things that bother most people on websites, the things that turn viewers away and quickly for that matter? (most people stay or leave in under 7 seconds. That’s right, 7 seconds or less to attract.)

Not surprisingly, the #1 thing that turns users away?

Too much information jammed together on the home page, without enough space or design.

You must Let Your Home Page Breathe.

Problematic website home pages often take more than 7 seconds to load and we are gone by then. We don’t even like those flash loaders that seem to animate forever, those flash loaders are only effective if they load the flash quickly.

These overpacked websites exhude an overwhelming feeling and it is hard to find exactly what we are looking for. Obviously the person who designs a site like this thinks he or she is doing the viewers a favor by stuffing the site with anything the person could possibly want to find. However, it usually has the opposite effect. It just hurts our eyes and makes us want to click far away.

At Jennifer Web Design, we take as much time as needed to layout your page in the first concept phase, taking into consideration the purpose of your website and audience that will be visiting. We are not afraid to use white space to space out content, we recommend margins and padding whenever it makes sense. The design should be welcoming, interesting and your message should come across easily. We work with your logo (we will design your logo first if you don’t have one), your colors and brand your site to be part of your entire package. Your audience should feel the emotion or non emotion your page speaks and again, in under 7 seconds. We get that and we make it happen.

We also program with the latest innovations in animation using flash, jquery and javascript to create interesting movement, video and other effects that if added correctly will provide extra interest and value. If a feature will add value, we will recommend it.

So, what if you do have a lot of content? We organize it in ways that make sense. We provide designed CSS buttons, a search area, and or a menu system that is intuitive and clean. Content is split into very clean and clear areas that draw the eye where it should.

Content is key for search engines as well as for your viewers, it is important, and we will guide you on these words, but we do it in ways that give your website a breath of fresh air and keep your clients coming back for more.

So avoid clutter. Love Space. Let Your Home Page Breathe. When consulting with us we will discuss this web design recommendation and several others.

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