When you’re out shopping around for a new website, one of the first meetings you will have is going to be based around the question: how do you want your website to look? This is where I see a lot of clients fall short of knowledge. Websites are your online presence, and the look of it will be very important. Do you want to come off business professional, socially driven, season driven, or even come off better to younger generation than an older generation. But why should you know how to come up with the look of your website, the companies are the experts, right?
While the company should be the expert, it really helps companies out if clients know how they want their websites laid out. In this new series: Inspiration for Your New Website, I will show you the different parts of a website and a few examples of how these can be done.
The Header
The header of a website can be seen on the top of a page. Headers can contain as little as a navigation bar, or as expansive as a full page get-your-attention picture. They can contain your logo, a navigation area, slogan, search bar, picture, slider, or even videos (but don’t have them on auto play!). Headers are usually the first thing users will see, so having a clean, easy to use header is key to having a nice layout.
Genieps.com
Level of work: Easy
Showcases:
- Logo
- Email Icon to quick contact them via email
- Navigation bar
How this helps their business:
Genieps uses a small header to show more information elsewhere without the user having to scroll down the page. Their header lets you know who they are, how to contact them, and gives you a way to navigate throughout their website. Not every site needs to overwhelm their users with all of their information in the header. In this case, this is all they need.
Chortek.com
Level of Work: Advanced
Showcases:
- Logo
- Navigation Bar (2)
- Image Slider
How this helps their business:
Chortek offers a clean look. They give the user enough information to get their attention, show their professionalism, and directs the user to where they want to be in a convenient manner.
AdvancedPlatingTech.com
Level of Work: Expert
Showcases:
- Logo
- Phone Number
- Often Requested Information (Brochure, Line Card, Contact, Request a Quote)
- Slogan
- Search Bar
- Navigation area
- Image Slider
How this helps their business:
Advanced Plating Tech offers a lot of information, and this approach allows the users to visiting their page to quickly find what they are looking for. The colors stick to what they do: work with metal. You get a feeling of this is a metal plating company which builds trust with a user.
Start thinking:
Headers can be used in tons of different ways, a few questions you can look at to start thinking about how you can help your users could be:
- How much information does your website have?
- If you have a lot of information, offering quick access ways to find them would help out your users.
- If you do not have as much information, a small header will help out as to not overwhelm your users.
- Would a lot of users try and contact you?
- When including your contact information in the header, users are not as reluctant to call because they didn’t have to spend 5 minutes trying to find your contact information.
- Your contact information can always go on a “Contact Us” page or in the footer if it’s not as important to have users call in.
- Do you expect users to visit your location?
- An address in the header will allow users to locate you faster, instead of not finding your information and ultimately not visiting.
- If users don’t visit your location, you can just include the address in a different page or in the footer.
I hope everyone can look for inspiration so they have an idea of how they want to sell themselves, or their business. We may be the experts, but we’re here to help make your dreams a reality!
Learn a little bit more into the realm of website headers!