The Importance of Branding through Web Design

Website design is crucial to successful communication of a brand, it gives consumers an insight into the quality, tone of voice, and trustworthiness of a brand. In such a visual age branding is imperative for businesses to gain the attention and trust of customers. I have my favourites when it comes to web design, but I also have a few brands who could take some pointers from them.

Brands that communicate themselves well through their web design:

Zara

• Great fashion photography and film,

• Shows editorial shoots/styling – very conceptual design behind each collection

• Contemporary design and animation/interactive

• Clean, uses white space with confidence

Wootten

• Visually depicts the brand narrative - consistent ‘Wooten’ feel

• High resolution photography – shows attention to detail and appreciation of quality

• Not too busy

• Easy interface to use

Herschel

• Interactive interface – makes experience smooth and more interesting

• Tells the story of the brand clearly through film and photography

• Easy navigation through the website

• Quite busy but done in a way that takes composition and balance into consideration

Each website is different in product and point of view however they all have much in common. The quality of these websites are very high which means consumers will be quick to trust their products and them as a brand. Other brands however, don't take their web design as seriously. Granted they have a different point of view to the aforementioned brands but I think in order to communicate your brand in a good light, a quality website is key. Some examples are:

Pretty Little Thing, Boo Hoo & Missguided

• Too busy, making experience confusing/overwhelming

• Tacky, too much use of colour and pattern

• Conventional photography

• Use of font is too literal

• No history

• Doesn’t have a point of view/opinion – it moulds to whatever consumers want therefore does not have a serious brand narrative

These 3 websites are targeting themselves at a certain consumer; the young sexy party-girl. This consumer in itself is quite tacky but I think that they could market themselves with much more sophistication because (and this may come as a surprise) but young people looking at these website do not want to see crappy photography and over saturated colour palettes. Young people have an eye of design and appreciate aesthetic which these websites obviously do not. The cheap design reflects badly on the products, and therefore could be losing a lot of money for these brands.