Builder Designs | Intelligent marketing for home builders

When you are designing a new website or redesigning one, the importance of good organization is key. Using a Wireframe can be pretty abstract, but you will find that this is essential to the final cut and extremely helpful to us designers. We understand that every client is unique and it is our job to make the website do everything from getting more visitors, more sales to making it easy to maintain and while meeting all business goals at the same time. That is the purpose of the wireframing stage and any preplanning strategy, helping attain all of these needs.

Before the wireframe is drawn it is also very important to have not only a creative meeting, but an overall goal-setting meeting where questionnaires are introduced and preplanning can begin. Online software such as Jumpchart is great at planning websites. This will give us designers all the necessary information to understand you as a client, your objectives and to begin designing.

As the design process begins, it is easy to get caught up in design decisions of layout, features and content but know that this can slow down the entire web development process dramatically. The area of concentration for clients should be on the wireframe of the website. When you are coming up with great organization and hierarchy, you will find that this will increase conversion rates and lead more visitors to the most relevant areas on your website.

You’ve decided to hire a new website company and you are ready to launch a new site that will enhance your web user’s experience. How do you make sure that you get the best design and the most beneficial working relationship with your designer? Most importantly, how will it meet your business goals? Because you will  have an active role in the website design process, here are some ways that will help you interact with your designer most effectively.

SOLVE PROBLEMS. Remember that the designer should understand you, and that you’ve trusted them to make the right choices in the design such as color and layout. They are the expert, but if you think there’s something wrong, please explain why. It is all about solving problems.

ALL OPINIONS ASIDE. Everyone has a personal opinion and your boss may like something that you don’t. Design is subjective so its important that you leave your opinions aside and concentrate on what the user would be attracted to, who your target audience is and why they would want to visit.

USER IS #1: The user experience should always be upfront and center. Focus on what your users’ needs are and how they will respond. Ultimately, will their behavior lead to meeting your business objectives? Its important not to get too involved with every detail of the design. This may cause you to lose sight of those objectives. Leave this job up to the designers you hired.

TEST DRIVE: If for any reason you feel insecure about the direction of the design, test it out. By testing the design and getting feedback from a larger group of people, this will reassure you that everything is going in the right direction. There are many ways out there to test your design in different ways that aren’t expensive.

DON’T BE A COPY CAT. You may absolutely love the design of another website and want everything it has. Remember that what works for one site will not usually work for another. Getting g inspiration is okay but copying another website can lead to complications and may lead you behind the competition.

SHOW WITH CONFIDENCE. Make sure that when you present the website to others, that you can fully brief them so they understand why it turned out the way it did. You and the designer have probably spent hours discussing the exact approach that was needed so be prepared to explain those decisions well. Show the design to a small group or individuals to keep their opinions separate and easy to understand.

Check out American Legend Homes, a semi-custom builder in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, who recently got a facelift from their previous website. Better functionality and navigation with a few more features included such as “My Favorites”. We hope they have as much success and more from this site as they did with the older one!

The construction of website navigation can arguably be the most important part of any website design. It is the backbone of everything and will delegate how every part of the website will function.  The navigation should be appealing to visitors and the way it should intuitively flow, is paramount for the existence of a successful website.

First, always think of the visitor in terms of the navigation layout. The site should reflect their thoughts and interests and get them the information they’re seeking quickly. For homebuilders, a quick search component, map or sorter of communities, floorplans and inventory give that person instant access and information about where to find a home they’re interested in. Keep the target audience in mind.

Navigation space and having a clear-cut navigation system with the right amount of white space will visually enhance the look of the site indefinitely. Make sure that the focus is on content and is relevant to visitors. All of the pages should always have the same look and feel within the design template.

Just as looks are important, as the backbone of your website, the navigation should be a well constructed system. Remember that the more content, pages and links, the greater need for an effective and quick navigation is. There should be a smooth flow throughout the site. Dropdowns and breadcrumbs are useful in these instances. As a builder, you may have a homebuyer or homeowner section that needs to be well organized and designed to easily navigate in a way that isn’t confusing. The more organized, the longer the visitor will stay and will most likely return.

Lastly, remember that the fewer the clicks the better. Don’t use unnecessary links or too many that it becomes a cluster. Also, do a test and make sure that your site looks good on every browser a visitor would use, even on your mobile phone.

By now we all know that the the web has spread to mobile devices like wildfire. More people are accessing the internet from their phones than ever before and that means that if you own or are designing a website, you need to address your mobile website user experience. When considering a strategy for launching a mobile website there are some important things to think about.

What is your need for a mobile site? Are you designing a new website or redesigning an existing site that needs a mobile version? Or are you adding in a mobile version to an existing site that will not change? Beginning a mobile site project will usually stem from one of these cirmcumstances.

What are your objectives? As a business owner, you usually have a set of objectives that you need to accomplish on the web. Because the mobile site is a scaled down version of your desktop site, these need to be clear and precise. They will be the main focus of the mobile version and simplified to make it easy for users to navigate and find what they are looking for.

What are your analytics telling you? If you have a current website, hopefully you’ve been tracking your website traffic with Google Analytics. This will be extremely helpful when planning out your mobile site by studying how your users behave and how they access your site.

Is your design optimized? Because of the vast variety of different web browsers and supported technologies, you need to be sure and optimize your site for this reason. Use new and upcoming web technology such as CSS3 and HTML5 to design your site so it is scalable.

Once you have thought about these important items, you will be able to focus more on the design and layout of the mobile site. Remember to think simplicity. Using single columns and having a vertical hierarchy to organize it will make the site the most user friendly when presenting information.

Web Design teams really have their work cut out for them these days. To the smaller firms, web design itself is only the big picture. Its all the smaller nuts and bolts that have to turn and work underneath in order to have a successful product that meets the clients’ needs.

Designers have to pay attention to a lot of things and much of it falls outside the design sphere. Not only are designers designing, they are also part-time project managers, navigational architects, proofers, usability experts and even copy-writers. They need to know what browsers people use and why and be able to test different browsers out on the design and written code. The designer is the go-to person for anything on the web that is feasible.

When taking on a new project, its all the little things that really matter when designing a new website. Thinking through the details critically and analytically and coming up with the best solutions are the key to being a truly great website designer and developer. Understanding the motivation of the client and maintaining communication throughout the process is what it takes to really stand apart.

Being as successful as the design itself, starts with being able to see all the angles of a project, seeing everything is in the right place, and also caring about the collective whole to make the final project seamless.

We all knew from a very young age that color is an important part of our lives. We associate colors in many ways that invokes emotion and interest. Remember choosing the perfect Crayola that would go with the construction paper? Choosing the right color combinations gave us a sense of self although being so young, we didn’t understand that many other people perceive color differently. We appreciate color but contrast is really what really grabs us and gives us a sense of balance. This rule applies to all design and is significantly important in web design.

8 percent of men and .5 percent of women are colorblind or have some color deficiency. That adds up to be about 28 million people world-wide. How many of those people do you think are online? As web designers, using contrast is just as important, if not more, as choosing a good color palette.

Contrast is the perceived difference in colors that are in close proximity to each other. It makes web content functional and accessible to every viewer. User friendliness and accessibility is a top priority of many in creating websites; in turn, many designers make color decisions based on contrast.

Testing design layouts in grayscale will significantly help designers use the right contrast and color. There are many tools on the web that help convert websites to grayscale such as graybit.com. There are some questions to ask when evaluating a website to make sure that the right contrast is being used. Can you read the text? Are the architectural elements prominent? What is different or doesn’t work when you see the design in grayscale?

Web designers need to make a commitment to working with contrast first, making it a priority when choosing that perfect color combination. There are many good color tools out there that help with choosing a palette like Color Scheme Designer. If a design works wonderfully in grayscale it will look just as solid in color, as long as the combination matches the same level of contrast. A good website to check your color contrast is Checkmycolors.com. This workflow can be very effective, allowing the designer to concentrate on the design and hierarchy of the page elements instead of getting too occupied in making color choices.

A few years ago you decided to invest and build a website for your business to keep up with the competition and get more business deals. Its true, having a website gives you credibility. These days, if you have a business and its not online, that seems a bit strange, right?

So, a here you are 5 years later, and can’t help but notice other websites that are way more sophisticated. In fact, they trump your little website that seems to barely do what its supposed to. Just like any other piece of property or item you own, a website will eventually get old, be out-of-date, or need repairing. The question is, how do you know when or how to upgrade? There may be questions that you need to answer yourself.

DESIGN. Does the homepage catch your attention? Is it readable, easy to understand?  Does this really brand me as a company? Does it say what I want it to say?

ORGANIZATION. This is just as important if not more than the design itself, so spend some time on it. Chances are that there is information scattered throughout your entire website. Is your company/product easy to understand? Is it easy to navigate? Are there links on every page that will get you back home or to other important pages?

SPEED. People are overly impatient when searching online. How long does it take for your pages to load? Too much multimedia and Flash can really bog down a site, especially when many people go online on their mobile phones.

If these things are not completely working for you, they certainly aren’t for prospective customers. Text that is hard to read or confusing, links that aren’t working or so much as a misspelled word could completely turn off visitor and they will go elsewhere, leaving your site in the dust. Where is your site ranked by Google? If its not even on the first page,  don’t forget to add SEO, Search Engine Optimization. SEO is extremely important and will make a difference for website visibility and impact your ROI exponentially. So, ask these important questions and it really might be worth the time and money to update your site, after all it is your business.

Reasons why is it beneficial, if not essential, for home builders to add a blog, and how to use it effectively.

Most homebuilders realize that having a website is a necessity, not just a luxury anymore. Creating an effective website doesn’t have to be complicated with flashy animation either, it can be very simple. By including powerful marketing tool by adding a blog, builders will further help market themselves. Having a blog is an easy, cost effective way to engage customers by providing content that is timely and informative. Because consumers do more and more research and shopping online these days, blogs are a great way to get noticed. There are some simple steps that builders can use to develop and use a successful blog.

Choose the Right Platform. Many people use Blogger, which is owned by Google but it might not be the best platform for a builder. Google could place AdSense on your blog site if it gets too much traffic (which could be your competition). Use WordPress instead. It isn’t too hard to figure out, has great help support and many free template styles to choose from and use.

Post Often. When you first get the blog set up, posting 3-4 times a week will have the search engines the loving the fresh new content. This will help drive traffic to your site, and build an audience. Make sure that you have an obvious place for people to sign up. There’s really no limit to the amount of postings, the most important is making sure the content is good.

Write Interesting Content. Writing can be difficult, especially if you’re not journalistically inclined. Your posts don’t have to be masterpieces. They should flow, be personal and tell about something interesting and fun that relates to you and your company. Engage people by building on a story that people will want to follow. Even have other employee’s comment on your posts. Remember, people want to see who’s behind the business. Part of marketing is being memorable.

Use Correct Links & Widgets. Use RSS feeds  and other widgets to update your website and other social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Also remember to use appropriate links that are relevant to your business (new home and real estate websites) that will improve your ranking.

One great thing about a blog is it can be used for many years, in marketing campaigns and for many other uses. An example of good blog content that is diverse and works can be found on sites like New Homes Directory or Consort Homes.  You may have to invest a little time and passion into keeping up a blog, but it could be one of your paths to a successful online business.

Check out Rieger Homes new website!

For over 50 years Rieger Homes has been the builder of choice in New York’s beautiful Mid-Hudson Valley.