Creating Thoughtful Website Themes

Whether you want to launch your very own web blog for personal reasons, or you are interested in expanding your online presence for a business you own or manage, you can set the foundations for your success by creating a website with a theme that shows careful thought towards your visitors as well as for those who will maintain it.

What Makes A Web Theme Thoughtful?

Thoughtful website themes include those that are easily accessible regardless of the user's internet speed and the browser they are using to visit a website. It is also effective in navigation and allowing users to find their way around a sites content, or view products within just a few seconds of viewing the site.

Creating a site that visitors will like to use relies on many different aspects and even the best designers do not always get the mix right. Generally, though a theme needs to concentrate on the following:

• Avoid using clashing colors when designing a website theme.  A site which is garish and heavy on the eyes will quickly have visitors hitting the close button before they have even begun to see what there is on offer.  Less is more so try to keep the color scheme simple whilst ensuring it showcases what the site is all about.

• Be sure that the font and its size is legible for all computers and internet browsers to ensure visitors are capable of viewing and reading all content on site.

• Keep the graphics and images to a minimum to help with getting the fastest loading time when trying to access a page. When you optimize a site, visitors will stay longer and they are also more likely to return in the future. You should also consider the "white space" left for those reading the site, so it does not become too difficult to read due to how busy the page looks upon loading it.

• Give careful thought to navigation.  Generally a visitor should not have to click more than three times to get to the page/information they want.  Plan the site structure out first to ensure pages or categories can be easily and quickly found.

• Likewise think about layout.  Where will the navigation bar go? As this is the first thing most visitors will look for it needs to be prominent – at the top or down the left handside are most common.  Where will written content be placed within a page? What is the optimum layout for a home page and what about landing pages, particularly for products?

• Another aspect to consider is branding through logo designs and an associated color scheme that is repeated throughout the entire theme. This will help build brand recognition and the logo and colors can be repeated on other marketing tools, such as social media pages which can also be set up to mirror a particular website theme.

• Think about SEO too.  Many consider SEO as an after thought once a site goes live, but actually SEO should be considered at the design stage too.  Things like ads, banners and links all have a bearing on the success of a site, not just in the eyes of visitors but in the eyes of the search engines too. Likewise the placement of content and images. SEO practises change on a regular basis so staying abreast of current best practice will ensure no nasty surprises once a site goes live.

• On a final note, be careful about using plugins and other on-site applications.  Whilst these natty bits of code can be useful and offer some interesting features and tools, they can also be highly detrimental. Plugins can slow page speeds or cause sites to never load at all.  In other instances plugins installed to help with administrative tasks can fail or conflict causing costly issues which can take time to rectify.  Some plugins can also see a site slapped with penalties from the search engines because of hidden bits of code left by the originator and which will ultimately affect a site’s rankings.

How to Make the Most Out of a Website Theme

Making the most out of a website theme is possible by reviewing the website before you launch it, ensuring the most important information or products are within sight upon loading the site itself. Getting others to test a website and its navigation system before it goes live will ensure all the website's pages and links are working. This is also a good opportunity to gauge opinion on usability, features and aesthetics, as well as thoughts on anything else that should be included in the final design.

Whether you go down the DIY route, hire a professional designer or even consult with other design experts such as logo design companies, a thoughtful website layout and theme should be able to attract more visitors and keep current visitors on a site for longer periods of time. This will help with gaining brand recognition and credibility online in addition to helping increase the number of loyal fans and customers a brand or business has.

Bio:
This article was written by Georgina Clatworthy who has written extensively about business marketing, branding and communications techniques.  She is currently a contributing writer for the design team at Logo Mojo who offer expert advice on branding and promotion for businesses of all sizes.