“Form follows function – that has been misunderstood.  Form and function should be one, joined in spiritual union.” Frank Lloyd Wright, 1908

Frank Lloyd Wright, a well-known and well-respected American architect, couldn’t have possibly known back in the early twentieth century when he spoke those words that we’d still be following this concept in the early twenty-first century, much less applying it to web design.

It turns out, though, that what was true then is still true today.  A website needs to be very functional and it must look good.  Unless it looks good, visitors won’t stay around long enough to see how functional it is; and no matter how good a site looks, if visitors can’t move around easily, they will quickly abandon your site.

Achieving this balance is more difficult than you would think.  If you’ve spent any time surfing the web you have most certainly seen websites that have great looking flash intros and graphics but you were unable to find the information for which you were looking.  But then again, studies have been done that track web reader’s eye movement and they prove our eyes are attracted to images so you cannot ignore the fact that design matters.

So what is the answer? LocalDirective, our strategic partner, who specializes in delivering websites with outstanding usability within exceptional design, offers some direction.

First of all, get motivated for this effort by knowing that a good combination of design and functionality can have a remarkable impact on the success of your website.  According to some studies, this can amount to a several hundred percent improvement in results.

This means it is important to avoid the temptation to immediately begin developing and instead to first focus on the goal of your website. In other words, you need to keep the “end in mind” and then develop your website to accomplish those objectives. Once you are clear about the objectives, you should make sure to specifically address the following components:

1. Pleasing Design. Be sure to work with a web designer that is familiar with the best practices related to web eye-tracking studies.  Eye-tracking studies reveal what users are truly interested in by tracing the movement of their eyes.  Knowing this will tell the designer how to structure the site and incorporate design to best take advantage of the limited amount of time that users spend on your site.
2. Intuitive Navigation. It is critical that you provide the website visitor direction and guide them where you want them to go.  There is a way to create navigation that is more likely to take the reader step-by-step through your site.  By guiding them through your website they are more likely to take the action you identified at the beginning of your website development/redesign process.  Also, be aware that there is a body of knowledge for best practice in usability that should not be ignored.
3. Compelling Content. Your website content must provide good information to the reader. Web readers have notoriously short attention spans.  Therefore, your content must be very relevant and of the highest quality. It should be written in an engaging and conversational tone that focuses on the visitor’s needs.  In addition, you must remember that your content must not only work for human readers, but the search engines as well. Your content must be keyword rich so that the people who need the information that you provide can find it.
4. Clear Call-To-Action. Every website should have an objective that it wants the visitor to complete. It can be anything from signing up for your newsletter to purchasing your product.  The call-to-action must be clearly articulated and easy to do.  Ideally, your call-to-action is measurable because then you can determine the effectiveness of your website.

Finding that ideal combination of form and function takes time and expertise. By concentrating on the primary purpose of your website and methodically developing pages that build on those goals, you just might find that your perfect balance reveals itself!

If you are ready for a website or website revitalization, definitely consider using a company such as our strategic partner, LocalDirective, who has developed expertise in the three important disciplines of Design, Programming and Content Development, that together yield high-conversion websites that your visitors will love!