In 2020, almost any company that strives for growth is required to successfully present itself on the Internet. Web design facilitates interaction with users in the online space. Although high-impact UI/UX design certainly adds points to any web business, marketing efforts like branding remain an important part of promotion. To cover both areas, modern development companies take the best branding concepts and implement them in web design. A good example is Purrweb. Still, which practice has a more significant impact on customers?
This article aims to compare branding and web design in their current state. We will outline what benefits both activities bring, and try to understand where to invest in 2020.
Table of Contents
Branding
Branding is a much older mechanism than web design. This concept is extremely broad, and many interpret it in their own way. In order to get clear with this term, you need to remember what a brand is and what is not.?
A brand is anything that defines your product and makes it unique, be it a term, logo, symbol, etc. Thus, branding is a process of creating your product?s identity. This can include both purely visual factors like the colors of your logo or web platform, as well as conceptual ones ? the positioning of your business in the market, your relations with the customers, the mission of your company, etc. The relationship with users, in this sense, becomes crucial. What users think, say, and feel about your brand is an important part of your branding strategy.?
The appropriate branding strategy not only helps to convert visitors into leads, but also promotes your brand among users and creates a positive image of the company. However, the topmost branding challenge is to make your brand stand out from competitors. Modern users have a wide range of options, no matter the segment. They constantly compare products and make their choice in favor of the brand that is presented in the most engaging way. According to statistics, 59% of consumers make their choice in favor of the brand they know and trust. Without building this trust-based relationship between your brand and consumers, your company will get lost in the crowd, no matter the quality of your product.
Web design
Web design is a more narrowly focused concept that should be part of the branding strategy of any enterprise. In general, web design is about your website?s or product?s visual appeal. However, web design is also responsible for the interaction with the user in the web space. In this regard, there are two main areas of web design ? UI design and UX design. The former is responsible for the layout of your product, while the latter ensures user satisfaction from the interaction with your product in the web space.
As of July 2020, 4.57 billion people identified themselves as active Internet users (about 59% of the world’s population). Thus, web presence is a necessity for your company. In this regard, high-quality UI and UX design helps to make a positive first impression with the audience and build trust. Convenient site navigation and strategic placement of CTA buttons increase conversion, turning a user into a buyer. Ultimately, it is important to remember that your competitors are investing in their web design too. And if you ignore it, or put too little effort into it, you have no chance of winning the battle for user attention.
Where to make efforts in 2020?
The answer to this question is obvious: efforts must be made in both directions. This is evident even because web design itself is a part of your company’s branding strategy. Ultimately, whatever design decisions your company makes will have an effect on your brand.
Of course, such concerns arise not from the fact that people do not know what is more important, but from the fact that, often, the budget of enterprises, especially small ones, is limited. This triggers the need to highlight priority areas. (zolpidem) Hence, the opinion that branding is important only for large enterprises like Coca Cola, and not so important for small startups, is wrong.
Any company should have an attractive web design, and also make sure that the site loads quickly, the content is located in the right place, and the user doesn?t face problems on their way through the site. This is the primary task of web designers, no doubts. However, it is a good idea to also keep branding in mind and use web design to evoke strong brand associations when customers interact with the site. Follow the example of giants like Apple or Coca Cola. The color palettes of their websites match their brand colors. Each page has an unobtrusive image of the logo reminding of which company is behind the site that the user is now navigating. Their products are well placed on the website so that users can see what they are selling and what value the user can get by becoming their client.
Conclusion
The uniqueness of your product is what helps you stand out from the competitors and get more leads. This is part of the branding strategy. Web design, in turn, is a functional approach that helps to achieve this uniqueness.?
Thus, branding declares the need for a website to have a unique look, similar to a brand, and web design does it functionally. When you invest in web design, you improve your product?s branding, and therefore, we think it is not correct to consider these concepts separately.
