“Websites shouldn’t scream, they should serve” – Why this award-winning web designer says

When considering a brand’s website design, dynamic and exciting visuals tend to grab attention. But often a simple, sophisticated aesthetic that conveys a clear, purposeful message yields the best results.

Striking the balance can be a dilemma for businesses, especially when the goal is to combine clear and compelling branding with a user-friendly experience.

This more sophisticated approach to design is also mobile friendly. With 62% of websites now being accessed from handheld devices, the best practice for brands is to realize less is more and ensure your site’s message is clear, responsive, and performs well. is to Good for search engine optimization (SEO).

One web expert who does just this for his clients is Glasgow-based Craig Hausman, creative director and founder of Hausman Graphics. This month, Hausman received a Wix Partner Award for outstanding functionality. We caught up with him to hear what design work helped him earn accolades.

clarity of communication

Hausman describes his approach as follows: Communicating your business, ideas, products, etc. is the most important part of his web design. So how do you achieve it? For example, through clean lines and sparse pages. “

Having completed his first website with Wix as part of a college assignment, Hausman built his own design business around these principles. He currently builds exclusively using Wix for clients around the world, including a recent project for Tokyo-based walking tour operator Tokyo Localized.

Hausman’s work on Tokyo Localized was recently awarded a Wix Partner Award for outstanding functionality. This underscores his enthusiasm for projects that allow him to update his existing website and show clients the fruits of his work through ‘old’ vs. ‘new’ publication. he said: It’s really rewarding. “

Tokyo Localized’s original site was very basic and only ranked on page 6 of Google’s Walking Tours of Tokyo. Hausman’s main challenge was to decongest the site. He explains: So I said, ‘We really need to simplify this. We need to make this all a walking tour. It was all about how to present information in a very clean and accessible way.”

Hausman created a visually striking site with digestible content surrounded by white space and a strong brand identity brought to life with a newly designed logo. He highlighted the most important details about his business, introduced themed interactive images, original videos, and used code to create a database of tour booking pages, all providing a seamless experience for his users. .

The end result is a testament to Hausmann’s design philosophy and his company’s tagline, “Clean, Simple, Sophisticated.” This approach helped Tokyo Localized to rank him #1 on Google for “Tokyo Walking Tour” and has also been adopted by major brands in web design. For example, another brand Hausman advised, his Expedia, will revamp his 70 his website and mobile his app in 2021. The main focus, according to the online travel agency, was to provide a “clear and simple layout” that highlights the product’s features for users.

principle of simplicity

Based on his own vision and portfolio of work, including Flockhart Architects and Mersi Solutions, Hausman has some clear ideas about how brands and their designers can embrace the principle of simplicity. I’m here. Everything is very subtle. The color scheme is very muted. Because pictures generally speak and you want to avoid confrontation. “

Hausman also notes that “appropriate and simple typographic hierarchies” are important in complementing the website’s aesthetics. He adds: I just want to convey the heart of the business. “

Designers are approached by clients who are generally well-educated and aware of issues such as mobile responsiveness, the importance of load speed, and the desire to replace stock images with vector graphics. authorized to take. This increased sophistication on the part of brands has been attributed to the widespread availability of rich content online, and Hausman said he and other agencies hope this trend will continue in the near future. doing.

Positive progress on the client side can be reciprocated by agencies getting to know their clients and their needs in more detail. That’s what I’ve always tried to keep in mind in my work. “

Want to learn more and join the Wix Partner Program as an agency, freelancer or designer? Then click here.