Does your brand have a website and what is it for? The Drum Network hosted a panel to explore one of the most fundamental components of the web.
“The WorldWideWeb (W3) is an initiative for wide-area hypermedia information retrieval with the goal of enabling universal access to a large universe of documents.” This is the first line of the introductory text on the very first website. By and large, the definition still applies. But what about these “documents” and how can you access them?
Traditionally, websites – a collection of web pages – have been the primary access point to the internet. However, with the increasing popularity of mobile phones and the vast improvement in mobile technology, access has shifted to other means such as apps and social media platforms.
However, a website should still be essential for any self-respecting brand, says Chanelle de Nysschen, Group Creative Director for Innovation and Experience Design at Merkle. Because, as she says, “you don’t build on someone else’s land.”
“I think, yes, there are many platforms now and many places where you can get attention. But the website is the only place where your brand can be completely itself. It’s the place where you can differentiate yourself from other people and other brands. It’s a place where new customers judge you and where your long-time fans fall in love with you. Every brand needs a standout website.”
Graham Lubie, vice president of digital at Wasserman, agrees. He believes that if you’re not fully promoting your own brand, you’re probably promoting someone else’s. “If you don’t have your own web presence and you’re not able to really create your brand identity, not just visually but across all touchpoints, … you’re at the mercy of Facebook, TikTok or any of the other channels,” he says. “And at that point, you’re reinforcing their brand instead of them reinforcing yours.”
WWWhy?
Getting the “why” right is crucial in web design, says Francis Williams, Head of Experience at Hallam – and it’s something clients often don’t quite get right. “Many marketers still don’t understand ‘what role does my website play?'” he says.
“I work with some clients where the big challenge is that they have a website because they’re trying to deliver a brand experience. But the website is for the user experience, like e-commerce. And that’s in line with what happens after the website and what really matters to users.”
For Mike Weir, head of behavioral research at Impression, lack of focus is actually a problem when designing websites. “If you don’t know what you’re designing for, it becomes more challenging, doesn’t it? And then of course with the research side,” he says.
However, Weir disagrees with de Nysschen that every brand needs a website. “It’s only when brands reach a certain size that they definitely need a website. But I don’t think all brands need to have one from the start.”
“I think when you look at things like social media marketing, you see that some incredibly effective brands are being created on platforms like TikTok, which then perhaps evolve into websites.”
However, he adds: “There is a level of brand maturity where, from a customer perspective, you are expected to have a website.”
3D websites
When it comes to build approaches, Andy Eva-Dale, Chief Technology Officer at Tangent, says that when building sites, architectures are more interesting than languages.
Williams says he feels that no-code options are more common than ever now that some of the previous obstacles have been overcome. Webflow, he says, can deliver particularly good results.
De Nysschen adds that VR, and to some extent AR, may not have reached their full potential yet, but 3D integration on websites is certainly in demand among customers right now – and is delivering “amazing results.”
“Things like 5x dwell time, improved SEO – because Google really values these sophisticated experiences that make people linger,” she explains. “We see things like 40% fewer bounces when someone interacts with an object in AR because it feels so much more personal, you’re much more aware of what you’re getting. And up to 65% higher likelihood of purchase after a full 360-degree rotation and being able to interact with and see features.”
She adds: “For us, the continued integration of 3D in completely new ways, whether for commerce or for immersive storytelling and brand experiences, is definitely a big trend that we are very excited about.”
Digital before marketing
All of this has led to a massive shift in the nature and importance of UX designers in companies. According to Williams, they now play “a more strategic role.”
“You have your digital director or your experience director who knows these things,” he explains. “And they ask how the marketing strategy fits into the digital strategy. So that dynamic has completely changed.”
Eva-Dale says changing customer demands have actually given rise to new roles requiring new skills – not least in conversational design. “One thing we’ve probably seen in the creative space is the role of CX being more important than anything before with the advent of AI and conversational interfaces. Conversational design, which is a different medium – how to convey a brand through conversation or the tone of voice of a particular brand – is a very different part of the creative space that we’re certainly seeing now.
“The products we’re building have pushed our teams to expand into new areas and push them outside of their usual remit. It’s almost like they’re playing a role like copywriter meets UX meets brand.”
Williams says he feels his own role has changed to the point where he now sees himself as a “human systems designer.”
More content
Weir believes that technological advances are creating unexpected challenges for brands and their websites. “I think that while AI could increase relevance, it could also increase the amount of content,” he explains. “That could actually create a problem because people are looking for even more sophisticated filters and even better ways to filter out content and irrelevant messages. So content needs to be more succinct. Because I think right now the CRM platforms are pushing for more emails, more messages, more touchpoints, more content.”
De Nysschen believes the future of AI could be in personalization. “We’re starting to work with clients to design their websites to integrate conversational and transactional agents that can display any information you want and, so to speak, customize the website for you as you talk to them,” she says.
“But I think long term it’s going to be about how these bots interact with Google search or personal assistant bots to really help people find information and products and things much faster and more conveniently.”
