A Guide to website design and development in Singapore

In today’s modern business environment, most customers expect to find a company’s website and social media presence. One of the most common reasons to have a website is that it can help generate leads. A website is highly recommended, and many Singapore companies can easily be found to help with web designing and web development when searching online. In this article, we will share more about web designing and web development.

What is Web Design and Development?

Web designing and web development are both different. Web Designing refers to creating a website’s overall feel and aesthetics. Primarily, it focuses on a site’s visual appearance, such as the layout, colour, font, and graphics.

Web development, on the other hand, is the technical aspect of building a website and its core structure. This method revolves around a site’s functionality and design, intending to enhance its performance and provide visitors with an exceptional user experience (UX).

In summary, you can distinguish between web designers and website developers in Singapore based on their separate job scopes. Web design is all about visuals, while web development focuses on performance and technicalities. Both are equally important for developing a high-quality website.

Many things have changed since the first early web designers and website developers. Most widely used web design templates and techniques back then are obsolete today. When considering working with a professional web design and development company, always review the full range of services they can offer. A good web design company will help to handle the complications involved in building a good web page that is user-friendly and has the latest trend to generate high traffic. There are also options of platforms that offer free website design templates.

What Is Web Design?

Web designing is about creating a website based on its visual appearance and overall feel. Besides visual elements such as colour, font, and graphics, web design also involves a plethora of other factors, mainly:

• Content
• Usability
• Web visibility
• Navigation
• Interaction

These fundamental elements are vital in search engine optimisation (SEO). Designing an aesthetically pleasing and easy-to-navigate website can increase your search engine rankings, maximise online presence, and generate more leads.

A high-quality website is part of an effective digital marketing strategy that can offer a good user experience for potential customers when interacting on the website. According to Gartner’s report, 88% of survey customers’ purchase was due to the high-quality information. A high-quality, updated website with good visuals and content helps build trust and increase conversion rates from potential customers. Most professional web design companies would know where to place features that can stand out and gain attention in return for increasing online traffic without compromising the overall website’s design.

Different Types Of Web Design

1. Fixed Web Design

Fixed web design lets designers create a site that does not change regarding the different sizes of a screen. This layout design uses a fixed width in pixels which means that regardless of the user’s device and screen size, the layout of a selected website will remain the same, and all elements will stay the same in proportion and shape.

For desktop users, fixed website design usually poses no technical issues. However, mobile users with different screen sizes could find the fixed layout design displaced differently since the website elements stay the same across other devices and screen sizes. As a result, if not done right, visitors could have a frustrating time navigating through the website due to the contents that are out of proportion.

2. Responsive Web Design

Responsive web design allows websites to run perfectly on different devices and screen sizes. The entire website should adjust to this web design, including various elements. Each website element should shrink or stretch, depending on the screen size.

With responsive web design, a website should run optimally on any device. It is an excellent way to ensure visitors will have a good user experience exploring the website, no matter what type of device they are using.

The Relationship Between User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) Design in Website

UI and UX are essential parts of web design as they can provide meaningful and relevant experiences and connections to users and, in return, engage them in a long-term relationship with a product or service.

Let us share the difference between UI and UX.

User interface (UI) design refers to a website’s control, appearance and layout. To have a website visually appealing, pay attention to critical visual elements such as colours, themes, icons, and buttons.

User Experience (UX) designing is the process of a customer’s online experience and how easy the site is to navigate with responsive controls. For an e-commerce website, it refers to a customer’s purchase online journey, and it can positively impact the business if done right.

UI design creates excellent visuals and interactive controls, while UX design is about understanding the customer journey and requires planning and research. Both often work together as crucial elements of a web design project. UI and UX play significant roles in a marketing strategy that can help create brand awareness, generate leads and increase business revenue in the long run.

What Is Web Development?

Unlike web designing, web development focuses on performance and functionality.  Instead of aesthetics, web development aims to ensure that a website runs well. A good development website will have a fast loading speed and be well-secured against cyberattacks like malware.

Types Of Web Development Services

Content Management System (CMS)

A Content Management System (CMS) is software for managing, creating, and editing content. The CMS is an application that allows marketers to develop a website with limited technical knowledge.

Nonetheless, CMS services can be very complex for beginners and take time. That is why most companies outsource CMS services to website development companies in Singapore.

With CMS services, you can do the following:

• Update your current systems
• Improve website speed
• Customise your website
• Simplify your web design
• Enhance your cybersecurity
• Store content
• Assign roles to users

In short, CMS has user-friendly features that let marketers manage a website conveniently. The best part is that it does not require you to be proficient in coding or web development.

If managing a CMS website is too technical and time-consuming, one alternative is to engage a website development company that can help you while focusing on other marketing work such as video marketing or off-page SEO. With the expertise of a website developer in Singapore in CMS management, they can help with publishing content, managing workflow, and handling on-page optimisation tasks.

Website Maintenance

After developing a website, marketers must maintain it and ensure it is running smoothly. Technical issues could arise anytime, so a good practice of monitoring the website’s overall performance and health is essential.

Fortunately, marketers can outsource website maintenance services and keep them up to date. To ensure that the website development company in Singapore can help to test the whole website regularly, such as browser compatibility and forms, checking for software updates and backing up the website. Use tools such as Goggle analytics to review the website’s performance.

In conclusion, a good web developer and designer are required for a website to look good, have a good user experience and be SEO optimised. A good website team will take time to understand the business, research competitors, and get the job done.