This is something my dad would always say when giving me advice. It basically means anything I don't find useful is a "bone" to throw away. Anything I CAN use is "meat."
The meatiest tip I can give you when it comes to getting a new site design is this:
1.) Do your best in determining what YOU want.
If you don't know what you want, I'll never be able to give it to you. You wouldn't know it when you saw it. The old line, "I'll know it when I see it," makes me cringe because it just doesn't happen.
To keep the meat analogy going, a waiter can't bring you a steak unless you specify the kind you want. Some may argue, "You're the designer. That's your job," which is an excellent point which brings me to describing the two types of good clients:
A.) The client that knows exactly what they want and trusts me to deliver it.
B.) The client that has a pretty good idea of what they want but trusts me to give them the best.
The key thing I look for is "trust." I extend this same philosophy to other service professionals. When I go to my tailor, he knows I don't like patterns and my favorite colors are blue and black. When I hire a professional to prepare my flower beds, I inform them my wife doesn't like day lilies and that we like an overall color scheme to the arrangement. I trust both men to do their best, and they ALWAYS rise to the occasion. And I always come back again.
Notice in each instance I gave them input, but I also gave them trust. I had a client tell me recently, "I believe you get the best out of creative types when you just let them do their job." I really appreciated the trust he put in me.
When determining what you want, research other websites (competitor and non-competitor) and write down notes on what they're doing right and what you can do better. Be inspired without stealing. Remember that if you aspire to be just like everyone else, you'll never be better than them.
2.) Consider your customer's tastes...
What about your site design will interest your customers? What will charm or excite them? We have seen first-hand that when customers enjoy being on a site, conversion rates go up. It's never, ever about making a site look "pretty." It's about graphics that produce results!
3.) ...but you can't please everyone.
If you think every customer is going to like your site design, think again. For every ten that love it, you'll find one that doesn't. The hardest part, however, is in the creation of the site design. You may like something that your neighbor, best friend, or (in some cases) even your spouse dislikes. Ultimately, you have to make the final call as the #1 decision-maker. Design-by-committee can often lead to madness, more often for the client who feels pressured to please multiple parties at the expense of their own taste. It's never fun when we've done a design everyone agrees on, then Uncle Earl has his say and we have to start over.
Once we're done with your site, we move on to the next one. You have to live with it every day. Make sure it's one that YOU really like and are proud of.
Which leads us to daring you to...
4.) DREAM BIG!
Daydream a bit about what your ideal site would look like. What kind of graphics would it have? What functionality would be on it? You may think your dream site is like your dream house or car -- simply out of reach for now. Consider your budget, but set a goal. You may only be able to accomplish half of what you have in mind, but your enthusiasm may result in the other half coming sooner.
I say this as a fellow entrepreneur who started with a budget of $250 three years ago. If I didn't believe in what I was doing and my ability to get there, I wouldn't be anywhere.
These are just a few tips to help you start thinking about your site design. And, we're more than happy to set up a free consultation just to talk about ideas. We want to hear your goals for the site and offer some suggestions on how to get there.
Hopefully some of you found some "meat" here to aid in your decision-making. If not, you know what to do!
-Eric Yonge
