Blog
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
The power of great design
We maintain the website for a local fish restaurant in Winnersh near Wokingham called 'A Fish Called Walter' Our job is to optimise the site in order to maximise the number of visitors they get and ultimately the number of bookings.
The site was producing good results; however we felt that it was looking a little dated, so we decided to give it a makeover. The content of the site was fine, so we decided to simply give it a refreshed design.
Redesigning the look of the site, or re-skinning as we call it, without changing the content was a very interesting exercise for us because unlike most of our web design projects, where we completely change the site including content and layout, we would be able to precisely measure the effect of changing just the sites aesthetic appearance. In other words we could measure the improvement in the sites performance just by making it look more attractive.
Before and after shots can be seen below:
It's no exaggeration to say that we were absolutely astonished by the results. The website was re-launched at the end of August and the impact of the new design had on the bookings taken can be seen below:
Before the re-launch, the average number of bookings taken was around 55 per month, however since the new design the site has averaged over 100 bookings per month, almost doubling the monthly average!
By changing the appearance of the site and making it look more attractive, we have doubled the bookings from the same number of visitors, in effect doubling the effectiveness of the website.
The takeaway from this exercise is crystal clear; the way a site looks plays a hugely important part in its success. People perceived that the restaurant was a more desirable place to eat because the website made it look that way. It seems obvious, but you only have to go through a selection of websites for small and medium sized businesses that you know to see that few companies are making the effort to keep their site looking fresher and attractive than their competition.
Of course every business is different, and a restaurant is probably a good example of a business where the 'look and feel' and 'Style' of the site is particularly important to a potential customer, however there is no doubt that every business needs to be aware of the hugely important part the appearance of your website plays in how your business is perceived.
