The successful business owner considers both best practice and best fit when it comes to their work. Your websites should consider this too to be the most effective.
What is Best Practice?
The best practice is a term that dictates the elements and trends that businesses are assumed to follow and adhere to at any one time. For example, in 2016; the best practice for business websites would be to ensure that business websites are mobile responsive. It could also be argued for best practice that businesses should have their own app as apps are a commodity used by many smartphone users in 2016.
What is Best Fit?
The best fit is a set of parameters that dictate what elements are best for an individual business to utilize. These are specific per business and do not have blanket coverage across an entire industry. If we take the example of the app mentioned above, while having an app is commonplace for many businesses today; a small local business such as a florist would not need an app as it would not be an ideal fit (in terms of necessity or usability) for a business of this size.
How can this apply to Website Design?
We need to take a look at recent revelations and trends in terms of website design to illustrate this. Social sliders come to mind – you are probably used to seeing these on websites. They usually form a semi-transparent overlay on web pages and have popular social media icons (such as FaceBook, Twitter, etc.) within them that when clicked on bringing the user to the businesses’ social media accounts. This may be best practice (to have social media accounts linked to a business website to thus gain more followers), but it may not be the best fit for each and every business. A business aimed at the grey market may not rely on social media as much as a business aimed at the millennial market; therefore they do not need to compromise their website design with this social slider overlay.
What do I do from here?
Now that you know the difference between best practice and best fit, you can start to identify what elements of your website need to be added or need to be taken away. Yes, trends and developments in terms of website design are important but said importance has lesser or more importance per business. By following every single trend and adhering to every single development, your website will become bogged down and lose its focus, and USP(s) become nothing more than a sheep following trends.
Contact the expert team at Ireland Website Design for more information on best practices and the best fit in website design. Our work drives sales to your business, so we are happy to help you meet your online aims and goals.
