Of course, there are some who understand their target audience inside and out and ask for changes based on the knowledge of their target audience’s preferences and needs. The target audience of this article is obviously not those people.

More often than not, the provider of a product or service is NOT part of their own target audience. This means that research must be done to determine the target audience’s needs and desires. It also means that a design and its elements may not particularly appeal to the client.

This is not to say that the designs for the business should not reflect the owner. But it should, above all else, be appealing to its target audience and solve their problems.

What is a Target Audience, anyway?

Every bit of marketing that your company does must be focused toward a specific set of people, or it will be unsuccessful. Your target audience is comprised of the people who will be most likely to purchase your product or service.

When asked about the importance of a Target Audience, Angela Rohner (@rohner, owner of thebestdesigns.com) had this to say:

I have been a professional web designer since 1999, and I also run a CSS/Flash Gallery that I launched in 2001. Throughout the years of working for different firms on many different types of projects and running some of my own websites, I learned that one of the most crucial parts of an effective website is to understand your audience and to keep learning about your audience. It’s important that you keep up with the needs of your visitors and strive to make your website the best it can be. The user interface and content of your website should be tailored to best fit their needs.

If you start a business or a new website or service, it is usually started because you see a need for it. Somewhere in the world, there are people that may need or want your service or product. You need to find out who these people are and why they want to use your product or service. Are they an older or younger audience – or an even mix of the two? What part of the world are you targeting? Only a certain area or all over the world? What are they interested in? What types of industries do they work in? As time goes on, you will start to learn more about your audience – through polls on your website or feedback from your visitors – so that you can keep your website on track. You should always keep an open mind to change and listen to their feedback.

When I started TheBestDesigns.com, it was important to have smaller thumbnails of featured websites so that load times were a little faster and so that visitors could see more websites on a page at once. Since then, times have changed. Many visitors seem to like the larger thumbnails now. A couple of years ago, I added category tags so that my visitors could browse through websites based on their design style or design elements used. In recent months, I have been taking notes about some things that I am going to change and enhance during my next revamp. I also started a Twitter account for the site recently and have enjoyed interacting with my visitors. I have been listening to my visitors because I know how important they are, and I appreciate their feedback.

So how does one determine their Target Audience?

For some it may be simple: If you sell fishing lures, your target audience would be people who like to fish. However, this isn’t always the case, and for some, pinning down their target audience may be a difficult task. There is also something to be said for finding a niche. Maybe you sell fishing lures, but maybe there is something very special about these lures. For example, perhaps they only attract a certain type of fish. Then you will only want to target people who fish in a specific area that has that specific type of fish.

1. Make a list of attributes and benefits of your product or service. List those who would benefit most from it and from there make a list of attributes of those people.

• Where do they live?
• How old are they?
• What gender are they?
• What do they do for a living?
• What is their income level?
• What is their education level?
• What is their computer usage level? How much do they use the internet?
• Are they married?
• Do they have kids?

2. Do your research. Talk to people who fall within the parameters of your presumed target audience and find out what their needs are, and if your product or service fits with them or not.

3. Ask around. Talk to friends and family to find out who they think would be a good fit for your product or service. Talk to others online, on Twitter or on discussion boards. Many times there are people willing and eager to help.

I know who they are – now what?

When you have determined your target audience, get to know them. Find out how your product or service most benefits your target audience and make a note to focus on those benefits.

You also need to understand the size of your audience. A marketing plan for a small group of people is much different than that of a large group of people.

Do research to find out what is appealing to them and how to leverage your marketing and design to appeal to them.

Let’s say you want to create a community website like myspace, only it is geared toward teenage girls – allowing them a place to collect their thoughts and share with their girlfriends without the worry of having their teenage counterparts seeing what they are talking about.

Some may feel that the best color for this website would be pink. But would it? Many girls get irritated at the fact that the color pink is always instantly assumed as a girl’s color, and, especially at this age, teenagers are looking for some independence. This may not be the color that appeals to the most teenage girls. Ask around in that age range and find out what colors are liked and disliked. Something like this may change every few years. Can you make your identity something that will be able to easily evolve with it?

Now that you know who your target audience is and understand them a little better, you are one step closer to an effective marketing and design campaign. Once you have a better idea of your target audience, you will be able to understand why your designer may have designed something a certain way.

You should also include information about your target audience in Requests for Proposals to potential designers to aid them in crafting a better design and giving you a more accurate price. A good designer will do their research, but any information that you can provide makes their job easier, and also what they provide more effective for your business.

We are pleased to announce that the website we built for musician Mina Chang (minachang.com) has been nominated for Site of the Year at CSS Creme. The site was built entirely in WordPress and was a last-second project, so that makes us extra happy that it’s getting the great responses from the design community.

Oh, and, of course, be sure to support us and cast your vote!

1. Hire a professional web site designer who knows what they are doing and has proven themselves in the field.
2. Make sure the web developer you choose uses web standards compliant code.
3. Listen to suggestions made by your web designer and, when possible, implement them.
4. Trust your web designer.
5. If your site is not popular right away, invest more time and money in advertisement, not redesign.
6. Don’t give up on offline advertising.
7. Become informed.

For details about each one, visit the IQMZ blog!

So what can you do? Here are some suggestions to help your money go a little further and really get results.

1. Put together a realistic budget and be open about it.

While some people are afraid to put their budget out there in the open, you’re actually doing yourself a favor when you do. If you present your budget to them first, and it is under what they normally charge, they can decide if they still may be able to finagle some things and work within your budget. Of course, I stress that you need to still have a reasonable budget, and don’t be surprised if you may need to drop some of your planned bells and whistles.

2. Always communicate clearly.

Be specific about things that you like or don’t like and don’t be afraid to point them out in other designs or in our own. If you have your own vision for the project, be very descriptive. Don’t use subjective words. If you need to, sketch things out – we don’t care if you can’t draw. In many cases, it can help to communicate easier if you are explaining a drawing.

3. You hired the designer for their expertise…

So let them do what you hired them for. This comes in two parts: Actually taking a step back and accepting that they are the expert and recognizing their expertise – when they recommend something to you, for instance – and also not “checking in” on your project every hour of the day. Designers need time to work. Any creative needs uninterrupted time to do what they are best at. We ask that our clients schedule phone calls in advance, and we do not usually take phone calls that are not scheduled, particularly when in the middle of a project. This choice is made with our clients’ best interests in mind.

4. Let the designer come up with the solutions.

This is relative to number 3, because you hired a designer to create solutions for your problems. If there is something in the design that doesn’t necessarily work for your target audience, instead of suggesting a solution, tell them the problem. Chances are, they will come up with a solution that is better than you could have dreamed. Whereas, if you suggest something, that is what you will get – which may not be the solution that yields the best results.

5. Come to the table organized.

Create a plan for your company and stick to it. If you don’t have your own plan, be prepared to work with a business advisor or, if your designer offers consulting as well, be prepared to pay for them to get you organized. Any good designer will ask you to fill out an in-depth design questionnaire before they begin your project (unless you provide the needed information another way). If you’re not ready for this step, you’re not ready for the design phase. In order for a design to truly be effective for your company, you need to know many things, including what you want to achieve, your goals and objectives.

I can look out my window and find inspiration in the rain, the trees, the grass. I can go to the mall and watch people; looking at their clothes, their movements, the way they present themselves. I can watch a movie, play a game, surf the web, go for a bike ride. Normal everyday activities should be able to bring inspiration – and they do.

What inspires you?

While there are many more things than this that can be an indication of a bad designer, I’ve tried to stick with things that are easy to recognize by clients, and not so much things that could be considered subjective. Dealing with design and what is good and bad can be very personal, and also relative to specific projects. So we’ll just be discussing objective skills and practices.

1. No Questionnaire or Q&A Process

I’ve spoken about how important this is briefly in other articles, but it really is one of the most important parts of the design process. There are vital questions that a designer must ask before they can begin to create anything that would be remotely successful. Even questions as simple as finding out your target audience and actions you want your visitors to take upon reaching your site. They should also be concerned with your brand and retaining the image you’ve already established. Check out our questionnaire walkthrough for an example of the questions that we ask.

If the designer you are considering does not have a questions and answers period, they are apparently not concerned with giving you relevant and successful results.

2. Awards Before Solutions

A good web designer’s sole purpose is to deliver solutions to their clients: Solving a problem like more sales, better business, or more phone calls. However, many designer’s sites advertise the awards they have won for their designs instead of talking about the solutions they provide to their clients.

While awards and being published are great prestige and a great way to tell if someone is good at making pretty things, pretty doesn’t always mean effective, and unfortunately, in a lot of cases it’s quite the opposite. A lot of designers whose main concern is to design something to win an award do not take the client’s or project’s needs into consideration.

At Camp Creative Group, we do each project completely for our clients and their specific needs. If, after the project is finished, we think it will be award-worthy or should be published, then we submit it. In fact, many of the projects we have submitted have been chosen to be published solely because they were excellent examples of designing for a target audience.

3. Everything in Their Portfolio Looks the Same

I don’t really feel like I’ve ever seen an exception to this rule (however, I am open to suggestions). As a client, you should look for a designer who is diverse in their design. This will mean that they will be better able to design something specific and relevant to your project.

Even if you are looking for a designer for something specific… Say you’re a construction company and you want to work with someone who works only with other construction companies. While the benefits to working with someone who understands your company inside and out are great, be wary if all the designs in their portfolio look the same. You don’t want your site to look like other companies in your genre – you want your site to stand out and be effective. Chances are, if they haven’t swayed yet, they won’t with your project.

4. Uses Templates

Sometimes it’s difficult to tell if someone uses templates, so this one is a little bit difficult to notice for the untrained eye (although it could be a good reason for #3 above). However, if the design just doesn’t look quite right for the content, or if colors look a little awkward, there is probably a good chance they have used a template design. I’ve even seen “designers” who use a template for their own website.

Some companies will be open about the fact that they use a template, they may even let you pick one out. Some, underhandedly, may not tell you at all and just use one instead of designing a site.

To have a truly successful site for your business, you will want to hire someone to design something to meet your company’s needs. Templates will never be able to solve problems because they were designed to solve someone else’s problems. Besides that, do you really want a website that hundreds and thousands of other unsuccessful companies have?

5. Bad Markup

Right click on the site you are on and select “View Source.” If there are lots of table “<td></td><tr></tr>” and font “<font>” tags, their coding is most likely outdated.

There are several reasons to use better markup. One being accessibility, another is that it greatly benefits SEO (however, it does not necessarily mean you will need that alone).

One of the best reasons is that when you separate your content from your design, it makes it so much easier to make changes to the design in the future. Which means that when you want to redesign later (the average website design lasts about 3 years) it will be most cost effective.

6. Your Browser’s Back Button Doesn’t Work While On Their Site

This means they’ve either disabled your back button, opened a new window, or built their website entirely in Flash (without taking necessary actions to make it work correctly). All of these things are done without consideration for usability. The back button exists for a purpose. Users need to be able to use it. If they have no consideration for users of their own website, they most likely won’t have any consideration for your website’s users.

7. You Can’t Figure Out Their Navigation

Or, it takes you a while to figure out their navigation. Navigation should be obvious. Period. There is no point to having it at all if it’s not. Users will leave your site if they can’t figure out how to get to the information that they need. There is no excuse for a designer’s website to be any different. They are trying to sell their service to you, which means you’re their target audience. If they can’t design something for their own target audience, how can you expect them to design something for yours?

8. No Biography, No Picture

The web can be a very impersonal place, but it is becoming very personal. With social media dominating, people want interactions. They want to know more about the company they will be working with and the key team members in that company. They want to see a smiling, friendly face. Most people want to decide who to work with based on the biography and picture they provide. When doing business on the web this is extremely important because normally there is not going to be any other way to invoke trust.

If someone doesn’t provide a biography or picture, I often wonder “what are they hiding.” I also wonder this when someone provides outdated “elementary school pictures” without providing at the very least a rollover change to a current picture. Instantly, I feel like I am unsure if I can trust them.

9. Banner Ads For Other Companies

While this isn’t always the case, most of the times I have stumbled upon a “web design” company’s website that has banner ads throughout it for other companies (or, worse yet, google ads), they have been hacks. Whether it is for something relevant, such as hosting, or something irrelevant. The main purpose of their site should be to sell their services. Ads on their site just show they are trying to get every little penny they can get – which shows a great deal of concern about making money and not delivering solutions.

Of course, if they have a specific hosting company that they recommend, it doesn’t mean they can’t have their affiliate banner where appropriate. However, most of the time this isn’t the case and the banners will be for several companies, and scattered throughout. The worst culprits are the ones that put put a huge horizontal banner ad right beside their own logo.

10. Splash Page

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The only place where a splash page is appropriate is on a website where you need to confirm your user’s age before they enter, or when they need to select a language. Even having an introductory video or animation is okay, but put it on the home page of your site with supporting content. If your designer doesn’t follow this rule, they are using completely outdated practices and it should be a big flag that they might not be able to give you the best advice and deliver results that will work for you.

Related Articles

• Signs of A Good Designer
• Six Mistakes to Avoid on Your Website
• Four More Mistakes to Avoid on Your Website

The IQMZ.com identity needed to be something intriguing, something different, something that would really set his company apart from other Social Media enthusiasts.

We took our trusty gridded sketchbook and set to work. Sketching idea after idea, searching for the perfect shape, the perfect line.

We came up with quite a few ideas that we were very happy with, and brought them into the computer. Of course, once in the computer, sometimes they don’t work exactly as planned. We ended up with three very solid logo concepts, though, and presented them to Owen and his partner.

They decided on our favorite:

Brooke Hanson

Laura Jansen – Single Girls

Marc Webb

Regina Spektor – Fidelity

Adria Petty

Regina Spektor – Laughing With

Regina Spektor – Us

Michael Coleman

The Matches – Salty Eyes

Jeff Stein

Tom Petty – Don’t Come Around Here No More

It’s Not Over Yet!

Not only will we have other segments to this series such as Stop Motion Animation, and also Animated music videos, but we have also decided to split each one into 2  (or more!) parts so that they aren’t too long and a little easier to digest. If you don’t see an inspirational video on here that you really like, feel free to suggest it for a future post!

Q1. How do you want visitors to describe your business? List as many descriptive words as you can think of.

This question is focused on your customer’s view of your business, how you wish to be perceived. The more descriptive words that you can list here, the better. Since many descriptive words can be slightly subjective in nature, listing more will help the designer to get a better feel for what exactly you mean.

Q2. Describe your target audience. How old are they and what do they do for a living?

You’ll want to provide any information that you know about your target audience. This even includes how adept they are at using a computer. It may include very specific things such as the type of pets they own. This is all relative to your business, but it is a very important question and will have great impact on your design.

Q3. Who is your main competition and what do you do better and/or different than them? Feel free to comment on the design of your competitor’s campaigns.

List your key competitors and their websites. If you do something different or better than them, let us know so that we can focus on that difference. This will be something that really sets you apart from your competition. Think about why customers should choose you over your competitor(s). If relevant, you may comment on their design and things that you feel work or don’t work for it.

Q4. (A) How would you like someone to react when they first see the design? (B) What is the most important thing you want people to do when they see your design?

Part A of this question is all about their feelings when they see your design. You may want to create something surprising, or alarming, or on the other hand you may want something calming.

Part B deals with action. Do you want the person viewing your design to call you? Email? Visit your website? Fill out a contact form? Purchase an item? This should be whatever you think is the most important thing a user should do as soon as they see your design so that we can create a successful call to action.

Q5. What do you think is the most important aspect of your project? What should people notice first?

This is more of what the design should actually focus on. Is there a specific product you are trying to push? Is there a discount you want to offer? Perhaps you are offering a free download on your website, or maybe you want to focus on your blog.

Q6. Do you have official branding guidelines that must be adhered to?

If you have a brand developed and can provide us with guidelines to follow so that your website adheres to what is already established, please provide that information here. Some companies actually have a pamphlet describing brand guidelines that they can provide to designers to ensure that their brand’s integrity remains intact. Clients may provide this in addition to the questionnaire.

Q7. List a few designs that you like and what you like about them. If applicable, list features that you do not like about them as well.

We suggest that those filling out the questionnaire go to a few design galleries to see nice designs and list the ones that they like here. This gives us an idea of design styles and personal tastes of our client, which helps us to create a design that will be something they can live with as well. I find it especially useful to know things that clients don’t like about a specific design so that I can shy away from those practices. It also helps if you can provide reasons as to why you think a certain design style might be applicable to your project.

Q8. Personal Taste: What is your favorite automobile? Favorite musician (or music genre)? How would you describe your personal style and how would you like that reflected in this design?

While appealing to the target audience and getting them to react appropriately is the number one goal of any design, I still think it is very important for every business to incorporate the personal style of its principals into its design. This gives a unique and personal touch, and also enables the design to be loved and last longer internally.

After all, if you aren’t happy with your company’s design, you won’t be able to get behind your product or service 100%, and that will cause failure just as much as failing to communicate to your audience will.

1. Legibility

According to studies done by Jakob Nielson, the number 1 problem people have with websites is legibility. This is caused primarily by two culprits: small fonts and low contrast.

Small fonts might look good when you see that design… but their advantages end there. Don’t get me wrong, there are times when a small font is okay; for “blurbs” of a longer article (after which follows a “read more…”), for example. The problem is when small fonts are used for content in general. When your font is small and there is a lot of text, your web visitors will not read it. They will go to your website, glance over the content, and move on to the next page. Or, they’ll leave the site altogether – GASP!

As for contrast, you must make sure that the contrast between your text and the background is not making it difficult to read. Try checking out graybit.com to see how your website looks in all gray. This will give you a good idea of how difficult it may be to read in different situations (monitors, lighting, etc.) and for people who are color blind.

Rule of Thumb:

Use larger fonts to draw people in and get them interested in what you are talking about. Use small fonts for things that may not be as important. Keep it larger than 11px for body content. For contrast, utilize online tools to make sure the contrast is high enough between your text and background.

2. Splash Pages

Raise your hands – who here clicks that “Skip Intro” button as soon as they see it? Web users don’t care about a fancy show (unless that is specifically what your website is) – they want the information they came for and they want it NOW. People are so accustomed to attaining what they need quickly, patience does not exist anymore, particularly online. A Splash Page isn’t foreplay anymore – it’s a moment killer.

In fact, when you have a Splash Page, you are actually aiding in decreasing the amount of visitors who will make it to the content on your website, as some people will only get frustrated and leave. This is especially so in cases where a “Skip” button is not offered, difficult to find, or part of a Flash movie (some of your users may not have Flash and will therefore never make it to your actual site).

Splash Pages reduce credibility, hinder search engine optimization, and increase user frustration.

Rule of Thumb:

The only time a splash page is acceptable anymore is when you need to have a language/country selection page or an age confirmation page (normally seen on pornographic sites and alcohol or cigarette related sites). Otherwise, don’t bother.

“I try to tell clients that Web design should reflect the real world, and you don’t see real-world equivalents of a splash page. Think about Wal-Mart. Are you forced to wait at the front door and watch a thirty-second movie before you’re allowed to enter? No. Then why would you make your visitors wait to get inside your Web site?” (Flanders 2002)

3. Not Enough White Space

Unfortunately, not enough web developers pay attention to the importance of white space. White space is not just white, it merely is the amount of space between objects. White space is an extremely valuable tool that can be used to draw the eye, keep the user’s vision focused, and even helps to make things more visually appealing. Line height is underestimated most often, as most developers will leave the line height at a default setting.

Rule of Thumb:

Leave enough spacing between lines and elements, and utilize white space to draw the user’s eye to important elements. Don’t be afraid of white space. If your site is designed properly, there can never be enough! And as a bonus – white space improves legibility.

If white space seems to be a continuous problem, using a grid template as a guideline can help. The 960 Grid System is a great starting point.

The 12 column grid is divided into portions that are 60 pixels wide. The 16 column grid consists of 40 pixel increments. Each column has 10 pixels of margin on the left and right, which create 20 pixel wide gutters between columns.

4. Content

Too many people write their own content for their websites. While you may know your business better than anyone else, and while that should be the case, it doesn’t mean that you can write about your business so that people outside of it can understand or write most advantageously for the web.

Rule of Thumb:

Write content for your website and send it to a professional copywriter with extensive experience writing for the web to rewrite it. Don’t be afraid if they make it a lot shorter. Some key things to keep in mind with web copy is that it should be short and sweet (again, it’s that short web patience that comes into play). Say what you need to say as quickly as you can say it. Writing for the web is an art unlike any other; keeping things short while still sounding professional and being informing. A talented professional will be able to present your words in a way that will make you look better and sound more credible.

5. Movement

Some still have that crazy idea in their head that movement is the only thing that will catch people’s attention and keep them on a site. Think about it, though. You don’t want to distract them from the content they are coming there to get. Most people online today are not impressed by movement. In fact, studies have shown that most web users have grown so accustomed to seeing movement that they now ignore it completely. Why? Because there are so many ads that move. So when they see movement, they subconsciously register it as an ad.

Rule of Thumb:

Use movement cautiously in designs. Make it very subtle and gentle. Instead of keeping people’s attention with movement, choose better pictures and design your (professionally written) content more interestingly.

6. Flash

For a while, using Flash on websites was all the rage. The problem is that Flash was never intended to be used to build websites. It was meant as a supplement to content. It now is being used mostly as intended, and any creditable professional will recommend against Flash in most instances.

Rule of Thumb:

Use Flash for media intensive sites: Audio, Video, Interactive Maps and Games, but only for individual elements. Unless you own a Media or Design Firm, don’t use Flash for the barebones of your website (and even then there are usually better alternatives). One of the most important things in creating a web site is accessibility. What is the point of having a site if there is the chance that your audience will not be able to get to your content? Flash also takes away from SEO, and having a site that is created with XHTML and CSS (with separation of content and design) is much more advantageous.

Occasionally use Flash for elements on your site, but don’t forget that you can use Javascript and other programming languages to accomplish many of the same things, and Javascript can degrade very nicely (which allows your site to be viewed on browsers that may have Javascript disabled).

Resources

• 5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Web Site’s Legibility
• Sink the Splash Page
• Flash: 99% Bad
• 960 Grid System

Related Articles

• Signs of A Good Designer
• 10 Reasons to be Skeptical of Your Web Designer
• Four More Mistakes to Avoid on Your Website