Custom Website Design – Don’t Neglect the User Experience

December 13, 2022

Custom Website Design – Don’t Neglect the User Experience

Custom website UX (User Experience) Wireframes are the foundation for building an effective custom website design

How UX / UI Wireframes can benefit your custom website design

When you start the process of building a custom website it can be easy to want to skip straight to the fun parts like selecting imagery and fonts, but doing so is like worrying about the paint on a house before creating the floorplan. Don’t cut that corner! Instead, keep reading to learn why every custom website design process should start with the creation of website wireframes, and how they can be invaluable to the life and longevity of your website.

The floorplan is the key

In the beginning of the design process, your custom website designed by Missoula Media Company is born in the form of User Experience/User Interface (UX/UI) wireframes. These are the foundations of how your website will flow and function. A great way to think about custom website wireframes is like the floorplan or blueprint of a house. It’s imperative that your floorplan is well thought out, otherwise the rest of the construction process can be a nightmare. Custom websites need that kind of love too! Otherwise, you can easily end up with a pretty website that doesn’t attract or convert customers.

Don’t get distracted

Nobody likes a chaotic website. When you first start thinking of the custom website you want to represent your business, it can be an overwhelming task. Starting with UX/UI wireframes helps you focus on how your custom website will function and how users will actually use your site without getting distracted by all the colors, fonts, and images that can send you down a never ending rabbit hole. Focusing on the form and functionality of your website first will help you ensure that your website is intuitive and easy to use.

Considering conversion rate in your custom website design

With a well thought-out wireframe for your custom website you can boost your conversion rate dramatically. With a custom designed wireframe, you can simplify the browsing experience for customers and help to avoid confusing sales funnels and convoluted layouts. A well designed user experience the primary reason why we choose to use one website over another. People are attracted to different aesthetics, but one common theme that gets people to choose you over a competitor is the functionality and ease of use of your website. A custom website wireframe is at the root of creating a quality user experience, and is essential in optimizing your website’s conversion rate.

Mobile tops the charts in 2022

• Mobile users’ share increased by 5% in 2022.
• 50% of B2B inquiries were placed on mobile in 2022
• The average adult in the US now spends five and half hours on their mobile device each day
• 60.66% of website traffic came from mobile devices in 2022

source: https://techjury.net/blog/mobile-vs-desktop-usage

With people using their mobile device as their primary to access the internet, it is vital to prioritize mobile browsing over desktop browsing. Making sure that your mobile site is just as fast and easy to use as your desktop version will help reach a wider range of users and will make it easy for them to purchase products and services from your company. At Missoula Media Company, it is our mission to ensure that your custom website wireframes will get the care and love that they deserve, as they are the key in unlocking the best version of your online business.

Design a custom website for mobile devices

Need help designing your dream custom website?

At Missoula Media Company, we bring over 13 years of professional website design and development experience to the table and treat every project as an opportunity to push the limits of what is possible in our industry. Whether you have an older site that needs to be revamped, or you are in the early stages of building a new start up, we can help you build a site that helps your business grow. Contact us to learn more:

Design a new website with a local website designer

August 28, 2022

Design a new website with a local website designer

Hiring a local website designer can take a lot of the stress away from the entire process while helping to ensure a quality finished product.

The benefits of hiring a local website designer

There are a ton of reasons why working with a local website designer can benefit your brand. For the sake of simplicity, we have boiled this all down to three major benefits:

1. Local website designers usually have a better understanding of your brand

The short and sweet truth of the matter is – a local designer usually is going to have a better understanding of your brand and target market. Let’s say for example, that you own a restaurant. Who better to help you tell your restaurant’s story than one of your potential customers? It’s a great way to work with people who understand your city and the people who might want to eat at your restaurant. And hey, you might just get some great PR out of the deal!

2. Save time and streamline communication by working with a local website design agency

When in the early stages of development, there are usually a lot of emails back and forth with designers to get your product exactly how you want it. Hiring a local website designer can help speed up that process. Our customers can come down to our local office in downtown Missoula whenever they have questions or want to review design mockups or website features in-person. This also allows for a more personal experience as you can talk to us face to face about your ideas and get a first hand look at our design process. This essentially erases those long email chains you can get from other companies and you no longer have to wait a week just to get an answer to a small question.

3. Support local businesses by hiring a local website designer

Another upside to hiring a local website designer with a proven track record is that you get to help support local businesses while ensuring that you receive a quality finished product! When our clients hire MMCO for a project, they help to create jobs right here in Missoula AND set themselves up for a positive and productive website design project. It’s a win-win. A strong sense of community is deeply embedded in our company culture, as is our persistent commitment to quality. As members of the Missoula Downtown Association, we strive to see our work leave a positive impact on our community, and love working with companies that share similar values.

Our Design Process

At Missoula Media Company, we adhere to a design process that produces quality results. We start with UI/UX (User Interface/User Experience) design, which involves building the foundation for your website and how users will use your site. Think of this as the foundation for building a house, without the proper care and consideration, your house will need more work just to keep it up.

Once you are happy with the UI/UX design, we then move onto designing your website. This part of the process involves selecting fonts, colors, imagery, and the overall aesthetics of the site. We collaborate with our customers throughout the design phase to make sure that every font and color choice is representative of their brand.

When an approved final design is selected, we then take that design into the website development phase and build out your interactive website.

Ready to start working with a local website designer?

Now that you’ve read about our website design process, are you ready to hire a local website designer? We will be with you every step of the way when designing and building your website. Contact us now to get a quote, we are sure you wont regret it.

Thanks for shopping locally!

4 Reasons Why You Need A Custom Website Design

April 13, 2022

4 Reasons Why You Need A Custom Website Design

Contrary to what Joe Rogan has to say, our experience shows us that Wix and Squarespace fall short in four key areas:

Why bother with a custom website design?

We get it, Squarespace and Wix are cheap, easy solutions that are totally suitable for spinning up small websites. Podcast hosts like Joe Rogan are constantly telling you that you don’t need a custom website (which they are getting paid handsomely to say, I might add). But is that convenience and cost savings really worth it? For most companies, the answer is a resounding “no.” Here’s why:

1. Creating a custom website design is a branding exercise

Meeting with Missoula Media Company over the course of the website design process is a chance to discuss your brand, goals, and vision with professionals who have helped over 100 startups get off the ground. We have also helped countless established brands take their online marketing presence to the next level. We can offer guidance and insight that extends far beyond what you get from your average website designer, and that collaborative process ultimately helps us collaborate with you to produce a website that performs.

Simply put, you are not getting that branding exercise when you start building your website on Wix or Squarespace.

2. Consider how an improved conversion rate will impact revenue

On one of our recent website design projects, we designed and developed a custom Shopify site that improved our client’s conversion rate by over 6X. For projects of that nature, prices often start in the $7500 range for a custom eCommerce website built on a custom design. Seems like a lot?

Well, consider the fact that an eCommerce site doing $208.33 in revenue per month will increase monthly revenue to $1,250 if they increase their conversion rate by 6X. At that rate, they will pay for the cost of a $7,500 website in 6 MONTHS. So does $7,500 still seem like a lot?

3. Improved user experiences

Picking a random theme out from Wix or Squarespace just because it looks good isn’t necessarily going to result in a great user experience. Think about it – how many times have you arrived at a website that looks good but is confusing as hell and frustrating to use? We are willing to bet that a large percentage of those websites were built with little thought or attention to the user experience.

All of our custom website design projects start with a custom UI/UX design, which allows us to organize how users will navigate your site, how we will funnel them to key areas, and to make sure that your new website is built on a solid blueprint. The meetings where we present and collaborate on UX/UI wireframes cover key topics like buyer personas and conversion goals, and we then translate these collaborative efforts into a website that is built in an easy to navigate and engaging manner.

4. Opportunity cost is real

Many of the business owners who opt to build on Squarespace and Wix are likely building their first website instead of performing the other important tasks they need to be doing to run their business. The time (resources) they invest in building their website is getting taken from somewhere, and that is considered a form of opportunity cost. Most business owners are better off using their time to train employees, set up their shop, manage their B2B relationships, order new product, and most importantly, delegate tasks to the best people for the job.

Just because you CAN build your own house, does that mean that most people should? Why would building a website – a critical component of any successful business – be any different?