The basics of web design and a checklist of factors which need to be addressed
​
This page considers:
  • key considerations for website design
  • technology and software
  • design, layout and navigation
  • text and images
  • checklists for design, selling art etc
  • websites to look at (in development)
There has never been a better time for artists to build their on websites using webware which is very easy to use - and involved absolutely no coding.

However you still need to understand some of the basics of website design.

At the end of this page, I will be developing links to further reading. Unless otherwise indicated the links are to posts on my blog where I've written extensively on this topic.
Picture
Results of a 2012 Poll to identify the factors which made people leave a website fast

Key considerations for website design

There are many excellent websites, blogs and books which provide an excellent introduction to contemporary website design. (I shall be developing a list of recommended books at the end of this page)

Here's a top-level list of the headlines of the things you need to think about:
​
Technology and Software / Mobile friendliness
Websites MUST be:
  • be accessible from mobile devices
  • compatible with all screen sizes
  • work on mobile devices
  • work with different browsers
Websites SHOULD:
  • integrate with social media
  • be accessible for people who don't know any html or any other sorts of code

Design
  • Design needs to be simple and consistent on every page (use a CSS based template)

Page Layout
  • it's important how much content is above the fold and whether it communicates a reason to scroll down
Navigation
  • websites should be really easy to navigate
  • you must be able to get home and/or back to the top level menu from every page
  • make sure all hyperlinks are colour coded - don't leave people guessing.

Text and Images
  • Sites must be easy to read
  • Images must be sized to be both attractive, informative and load very fast

REFERENCE:

 A Design Check List

Below are articles which provides information and tips on website design

Layout

The importance of the page fold

​These articles explain what the page fold is, why it varies in placement from screen to screen and why what appears above the page fold still matters
  • The Fold Manifesto: Why the Page Fold Still Matters (February 1, 2015) What appears at the top of the page vs. what’s hidden will always influence the user experience—regardless of screen size.
  • Where is the Fold? - this is a website which shows you where the page fold comes on different sized screens and with different browsers. Note how pages with deep headers with little content lose a lot of opportunity to make an impact - unless your image does it for you!

Mobile-Friendly
​

This website contains a section on How to be mobile-friendly 
In 2013, I ran a poll to find out where artists were up to in terms of updating their website
In 2013, some 28% of you had updated your website so it integrates better with social media.  A third of you recognised that you need to do more to keep up with the technological change associated with the explosion on the use of mobile devices
Making A Mark | Artists websites: still a lot to do to update / upgrade for mobile devices
Here's what the browser statistics look like for one of my new sites for one week in March 2016

Note that the iPad and mobile browsers accounted for 40% of  visitors

(Source: Browser Statistics from Statcounter)
Statcounter Browser statistics reveal percentage of mobile users
Statcounter Browser statistics reveal percentage of mobile users

Browser friendly
​

A key indicator of a contemporary template is that it works with recent versions of every browser.

Once upon a time Internet Explorer dominated web browsers. Those days are long gone (see above chart)

It's now essential that websites are designed to be compatible with every commonly used browser - including and especially ones that are specifically designed to be used with mobile devices.

You don't need to worry about the older versions. You do need to worry about all the updates and new versions!

If somebody asks me to take a look at their new website (and I only do this for free for friends!) I always make sure that I look at it on my iMac, Mini iPad and my iPhone (e.g. see Brand new website raises design standard for art societies) and I use different browsers to do this.

Page Load Speed

Picture
This website is a very big website - and they tend to load slower. However I will be trying to optmise using the report generated by the Google "Test my Site" took

How long does it take for your page to appear?

Speed on an image-based website is largely determined by
  • overall size of the website
  • file size (based on resolution, actual dimensions and file type).  
  • the speed of your broadband - and how good the connection is
To keep your website fast you need to make sure you don't make images any bigger than they need to be. I reduce all of mine to 72 dpi as any bigger slows sites and generally does not enhance the image (unless you want people to look at fine detail)

This is Google's advice about how to test your website - and benchmark, evaluate and optimise it using the "Test my Site" tool developed by Google
(NOTE: my link is the GB link - you may need a different one. Just search for https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/ to get the right country for you.)

You can also test how fast your website is. 
ADVERTS

Text for an artist's site
​

Writing for the web

Tips for writing text on websites and blogs
  • don't write an essay
  • keep your writing style and vocabulary simple
  • people "scan read" websites FAST - so keep sentences and paragraphs short
  • use subheads to signal topics
  • ​use bulleted lists where appropriate (such as this topic)

Captions

Keep your captions consistent - decide what to include in a caption eg
  • title of the artwork
  • size (dimensions - make clear whether metric or imperial)
  • media used e.g. is it lighfast
  • support used e.g. is it archival

​Web content

How your website ranks in response to google searches depends on the quality of the content as well as the number of people who follow an artist.

REFERENCE

Buyers' "need to know" information

You must advise people of what they are buying in terms of presentation and "add ons" 
  • mounted or not
  • framed or not
  • scope of customer choice about how artwork is supplied
  • implications for pricing

Images for an artist's site

Image oriented design

You may have noticed that websites which have had a makeover recently are getting bigger and better images. Images are becoming very prominent on all sorts of sites.  

​A contemporary website design for an artist's website should provide a range of ways for displaying images.

Image size and definition

If you want people to but your art, people need to see what they are buying. On the other hand the speed of your website is a major factor in it ranking well.

TIPS:
  • make sure image size is optimised for speed of loading. That basically means nothing higher than 72 dpi.
  • use crops and close ups to demonstrate texture in paintings or quality of brushwork of paintings
  • colours will render depending on the screen used to view them. All you can do is make sure you're creating an image that is as close as possible to real colours.

Sell Art
​

See also my section on this website about Selling Art

Things you need to think about when trying to sell art via your website include:
  • a call to action button e.g. "add to basket"
  • using enough text - but not too much
  • making good use of white space - so you can items clearly
  • good quality images - be prepared to provide large images!
  • use of a visible/professional shopping cart 
  • use of a secure ecommerce facility for payments 

Most importantly, you need to think about which WAY to sell art
  • determine whether you are likely to sell enough art to make a proper ecommerce facility for your website a cost-effective proposition 
  • or consider whether you might do better to use an external third party store/site (eg Etsy, eBay) - and pay fees/commission

Reasons why your art does not sell from your website

  • nobody can find your website
  • not enough traffic to your website. Are you driving traffic to your website? (eg via Instagram?)
  • you advertise your art to the wrong people. Do you know anything about the people that visit your website?
  • you don't tell people how they can buy your art - I cannot tell you the number of artist websites where I see precisely nothing about how to buy the art!
  • your art is not distinctive - particularly relevant to those who try to copy popular artists but fail to achieve the same quality and uniqueness
  • you're offering art nobody likes. Always a possibility that artists need to confront. If you want to sell art, you need to work out what they do like and whether this is something you like producing. Or just make art for yourself.
  • nothing ever changes i.e. "more of the same" - particularly relevant to those who used to sell well - and then sales dropped off. Times change, tastes change - and customers move on....
REFERENCE:

Websites to look at

Below are some suggestions of websites to look at. None of them are perfect but all have something to help us understand what is possible.