"Professional Website" - What it is???

[sudhani]

While doing a few websites for my clients I unusually get a comment that says "This part of the website doesnt look professional" ... Say colors in one example, graphics in another and use of flash movies in one more incident.

I always wonder what a "Professional Web Design" is all about??? Any ideas?

Isn't easy for a client to call it "unprofessional" when he doesnt like something and "really" don't have a clue what he actually wants in that place.

[vwebworld]

Well, a "professional" website... hmmm.
Unfortunately, that can be in the eye of the
person viewing the site.

A "professional" site meets some basic criteria:
consistancy of design, sound navigation, little
un-need graphics/animation, visually pleasing, and
communicates the purpose fo the website effectively.
There are a host of guidelines - does and don'ts,
follow them.

The second key is what is considered professional
for the company, or product, or service? For
example, you wouldn't use a "clown theme/graphics"
for a funeral home website. Here you can take your
cue from the company's existing marketing material
and that of its' competitors.

~roland

[SyrenSong]

Sometimes it's easier to look at things from the opposite direction - what isn't professional looking on a website?

1. Lots of animated gifs;
2. Lots of blinking text;
3. Too many fonts;
4. Too many colors;
5. Spelling and grammatical errors;
6. Too little whitespace;
7. Too much whitespace;
8. Inappropriate layout;
9. Music with no user controls;
10. Forcing visitors to download a plugin so they can view a website;
11. Too many banner ads;
12. Popups all over the place;
13. Too large text;
14. Too small text;
15. Too much text (scrolling for days to get to the bottom of the page);
16. Slow downloads for dialup visitors;
17. No ALT tags;
18. Low contrast on the pages (hard for older visitors, especially, to view the site);
19. Broken hypertext links;
20. Broken graphic links;
21. Inappropriate fonts (e.g., humorous looking fonts on a serious site);
22. Sites designed for larger monitors without taking smaller monitors into consideration;
23. Redirects without warning;
24. Try the Design Peeves forum for more examples of what people consider unprofessional....

[masterpeace]

Sometimes clients do say it looks "unprofessional" when there is somethign they don't like about a site deesign and they don't quite know why.

I tend to try get around this by asking more questions about what they DO want. The most important thing I can do then is LISTEN. Try ignore my own ideas for a minute and ensure I understand what they think they want & need.

Each business has its own style and "flavour". I have a couple of local wineries as clients. While for one their style and look is classy, boutique and "slick", another has made its niche in projecting a kid friendly, relaxed and casual atmosphere. For the "classy" winery, an animated gif would be an absolute no-no and very unprofessional. For the second it would fit in well.

Sure there is some difference between their products but not a great deal. The difference is in their market and therefore their "image" has to reflect that.

I find that usually when I get a comment of it looks "unprofessional", clients mean they want to project a more conservative look and feel. It does also happen the other way around. In the end, I find the best thing to do is ask LOTS of questions when I get this kind of response to draft work I have done, and be sure I have a full idea of what they want beofre I do anything else.

I am in the beginning stages of a site for a new client, but they had little info on exactly what they wanted in it. The result was that my initial draft didn't strike them but they couldn't really say why. I sent them an email which I have taken sections from and included below:

"...As I mentioned at the time, my initial draft was aimed at least to get "something" up and running, but I need more input from you about the style and look that you are hoping for in the new web site, otherwise we are wasting time on designs that are way off base.

If you could email me some info on the type of colours you would like, what "feel" you want it to reflect. For example, some wineries/restaurants focus on the family friendly and fun atmopshere, so a designer would use a more colourful palette when designing these sites. Others want a classy boutique look and the colours etc reflect this... This is important information as it changes how we aproach the concept designs...

Anything you can write or send, be it colours you like/dislike, the "mood" you want it to reflect. Think about adjectives that describe your business & pick the 5 most appropriate..."

The response from them was actually apologetic that they had not been more specific earlier and grateful that I bothered to ask more questions rather than risk another draft that was not suitable...

Ask questions... ask questios... and make sure you are listening carefully to the answers...

[Robin]

I agree with masterpeace. The most professional sites are the custom sites. Just like a good logo the site that is customized to reflect the entire image of the product/company or person that they represent are the best sites and they stand out.

One thing I think is tell tale of a BAD site is a site that is based on the recognizable templates that come from FrontPage. Regards

Robin

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Robin Titus
http://www.TheDigitalHorse.com
Dressage Tests Online, with free classifieds, forums, and calendars.
Riding is simple... it's just not easy
-Anonymous

[voodooboy]

Defining a “Professional Web Design” is like defining what Semi-formal dress is. In California, where I grew up, semi-formal was a nice pair of leather deck shoes, Khaki pants and a long sleeve silk shirt. In Tennessee, where I (unfortunately) live now, semi-formal means you dust off your boots, turn your collar down and take the chew canister out of your back pocket.

Professional is all in the eye of the beholder. What you see as amateurish, may seem professional to the average viewer. A cartoonist would see joecartoon.com as a professional site, while an attorney would not.

As a designer, I look at professional as a clear, accurate representation of the person, group or company it represents. I want my site to look like, well… “Me.” I don’t want to look like Joe down the street and I don’t want to sound (or read) like Sally across town. If the site looks like and sounds like the person, group or company it represents, then it is a professional site.

When a client comes to me and says, “I want my site to look more professional.” I can usually narrow it down to the fact that they got online, looked at their competitors’ sites and liked them better than their own. Now that is not a lack of professionalism, it is a lack of one upping the other guy. It is then a matter of tackling their site and running through it (page by page if you have too) and decipher what it is about the site that they find unprofessional. Maybe they started out young and have matured, the copy sounds like a young guy talking instead of a respectable business person. Maybe the site was just some blocks of color put up to get their name online and now they realize that impressions are just as important online as they are offline.

Like masterpiece said, “It is all in the communication.” Ask questions, listen to the answers and repeat the answers back to them. (You need to know you got their answers correct, and they need to know you are listening AND understanding.) Don’t play cat and mouse with ideas. Define everything upfront before you touch your computer. If you ask the right questions and verify their answers, you should be able to nail the professionalism in their design the first time.

[kiumars]

Professional design can not be defined by a list of rules. Difference between a good looking web design and a professional design is that the first one happens ones and the second happens every time. Professional design is a combination of many things within a sales package. It is not what you see but what you do in and out even communication, collecting information, transferring ideas and above all how to guide and control the project. Forget all about design and work on your professional look and expertise as a sales person, coordinator or director of the project. Do what “masterpeace” says Listen carefully when you approach a client” and do your own long list of rules as “ SyrenSong” says when you return at your desk only but never discuss it with the client. Professional design is a combination of years of experiences. Less risk, fast work, more money, no experimental job. Remember that your creation of fantastic design and art is a bonus to your client as a surprise not the goal of your sales procedure. If you do it reverse, the client will take the benefit of having personal opinion and remove the control out of your hand when it comes to negotiation and pricing. If you go along with design and artistic feelings and show yourself sensitive and fragile, no matter of result, this is what your client might tell you “we appreciate your work very much, but if you make it cheaper then we can bring you a lot customers through this site” They thing that they are doing you a big favor. And if you get upset and all the sudden react professionally, will be too late and the client takes your motion offensive, rude and even the act of greediness. They start talking to everyone that been cheated by amatory. Well things can go very ugly and out of hand. Now whom to blame? The client? No, never and never. Dealing with clients is the most important part of a professional design process. Bottom of line, the client does not understand what a professional design means, then what are you worried about? Read their needs carefully and put the best flavor of your fantastic art on top of it. A good sales person sales before showing the product.
Design comes from your heart. Professional design comes from your mouth based on experience and practice.Go for it, strong and have ultimate confidence in yourself. Clients love to see strong characters and feel more secure and convinced.

Best regards,
Kiumars

[salubritas]

I'll chime in with a couple of (perhaps facetious) definitions of "professional web design".

1. If a site was designed by someone who designs sites for a living, then it has a professional web site design :)

2. If the site design fits with the purpose of the site, whatever that may be, its a professional design.

(1) is literally correct, but unhelpful. I personally like (2) as it should be the aim of a web designer (whether professional or amateur) to create a site that acheives the client's goals.

[jasidog]

I think it depends on who is saying it.

With some people profesional means grey and corperate. With some it's do with functionality and usability. Some might call something professional if ,whether they like it or not, it appears well made and without any real flaws.

You need to take it in context.

Ultimately it can just be used as way of saying they don't like it. As mentioned above ask questions. :)

[kiumars]

You have brought two options to define a professional design. The first one is agreed of having no relation to the subject. The second however, is further out of scope, because who defines the purpose of the site? The client or the designer? Or together? Usually clients can not see the purpose of their site deeply enough therefore, they expect that the designer should help them with the concept. For example you want to build a house and ask an architect to design your house. Your purpose is very simple at the beginning but when the architect involves into the project you will soon find out that there were a huge amount of information, ideas, solutions which direct you to a better understanding of necessities which concludes stronger purpose. So the purpose can change its true colors. Not any purpose is the right purpose. So, what purpose should be accomplished to make your second option a better choice? This is a task of a professional design not just to fit any purpose.

[salubritas]

I think the whole point of design (whether a house, car, or web site) is to meet the needs, or purpose, of the project. Of course this does not mean any purpose, but the right purpose.

Kiumars, I can understand your argument that purpose is not always a fact-based concept, but it is something that must be worked out and decided upon. If you cannot figure out why you are building a site (or house or car) then you should not be creating it at all.

A commercial web site should be driven by a business need, e.g. to grow revenues, educate customers, or build brand awareness. A personal or non-profit web site might have a purpose that is simply to say 'here I am', to inform, or to put across your views.

So, to get back to the question. A professional site design is one that meets the needs of the web site. A corporate intranet is well designed if it reflects and develops the corporate identity, and enables users to meet their own needs quickly and easily. An artist's site might be well designed if it captures the "feel" of the artist's work even if the navigation is obscure.

If the site fits the real needs of the customer (even if you are your own "customer") then it's a well designed site.

[kiumars]

Hello Salubritas,

I am very sorry for giving you a wrong impression, and talked in general not exactly addressing to you. No doubt you knew precisely how to define “purpose” on the second option. However, you were a little bit lazy in writing and gave me the chance to take it from there. The purpose of discussion is to leave doors open for negotiations and through negotiation we may be benefiting of ideas that placed directly or indirectly within the lines. We are not here to prove anything to each other. No one is better than the other or any is trying to make a statement. We are all busy with our work during the day and this Forum is a wonderful place to get together and share some common ideas together. Most of the questions that asked in this Forum are already cleared and obvious to the person who puts the questions at the first place. For example I am sure that this topic (I always wonder what a "Professional Web Design" is all about??? Any ideas? ) that brought “Sudnani” is already cleared. And it is not right to look at the writer as a desperate person looking for an answer but a person who opens op a delicate topic which can be discussed or inspired by some one else. Like the music and movies we all enjoy and maybe one word can be the inspiring point to someone, if not at least we relax and take some pressure off hard working day. All people in this Forum are professionals, that’s what bring us together otherwise we would have discussed about art and design with our neighbors and if we did would have become a boring freak to the public eyes.

Best wishes,
Kiumars

[salubritas]

Kuimars, I'm just trying to argue my point to make this an interesting debate. I agree with everything you said in your last post. No offence has been taken or is meant.

In reality, I think most people use "professional design" to mean the absence of what are normally amateur elements in a site like those listed by SyrenSong. Of course lists are a simplification - you can't avoid using lots of animated gifs if your business is selling animated gifs!!! Having said that, if a beginner said to me "I want to make my web site look professional" I think a list of do's and don'ts is ideal.

It's certainly an interesting question and I do not think there is any correct answer - which makes for a lively debate!

[voodooboy]

It's certainly an interesting question and I do not think there is any correct answer - which makes for a lively debate!

This is the whole point. There is no correct answer. When it comes to "design" it is all perception. My perception of a professional site may not be the same for you.

You could look at a lawyer’s site and say, "Now that is a professional looking site." But if a daycare owner comes to you and asks for a professional looking web site, are you going to think of the lawyers site and use that influence to create the site for the daycare? If you're a designer you aren't.

As I said before, "I look at professional design as a clear, accurate representation of the person, group or company it represents." If you go to a site and see a clown character in the logo are you going to think lawyer or daycare? Exactly! (I'm presuming you said daycare.) If the design creates an accurate perception of the person or company it represents, then it has done its job and would be in my opinion, a professional design.

[mathias]

Well from what others have already pointed out, all these comments add value to the answers.

I consider a site to be professional if it meets the goals and objectives it's intended to achieve. For any site, be it a personal or client site, has to portray fully the purpose for it being developed. If the objective is clear and works fine, then the site has achieved its value.

The other issue is in the use of the different components in building the visual interface and functionalities of the website. You can have the functionality going perfectly in the backend but if the visual looks are irrelevant to the image the website is expected to pose, that in itself is a bad website and the only conclusion anyone could have is lack of seriousness.

I think to achieve a better sense of a professional website, you have to identify the target audience. That is the majority of users for such a site. Anyone who has worked on a corporate site for serious organisations will probably explain more on the experience they go through trying to please their client.

Some big shot always looking out on where to invest their money, has no time for fancy graphics on a website, while an art collector always wants to have a feel of imagery before they enter to select on pieces of art.

Well thoughtout and structured sites, are considered professionally done. A rush layout and navigation can only be done by a novice in the game and so considered amateurish.

When a client points out that their site layout looks unprofessional, it probably isn't meeting with their goals and objectives.

The bigtime investor looking for a stock site should not say that a fun video downloading site is unprofessional because it wasn't built with him in mind.

To all this, be extremely sharp with how you present your design elements. Keep on your checklist all neccessary things to make your site easy to use and appeal to all users. I think by then, we can forget the big shot, he might also end up looking at the video site.

Anyone to add???

Matt

[mathias]

Don't know how this happened but read post above

[venezart]

The big questions.. What makes a site "PROFESSIONAL!!?" d-.-b , well before we get into that question, lets look at what the definition for "PROFESSIONAL" is. One of the definitions that I know is "A person who earns a living in a sport or other occupation frequently engaged in by amateurs."
Just like the most of us, that live, breath and compete daily in this development world of ours. So as competitors we already seen quite few amateur websites come and go through our long research of improvement.
What makes a site "PROFESSIONAL" well you as a competitor, Do you know your sport, How knowledgeable are you in your sport, think of what you seen and ask your self, "IS IT PROFESSIONAL".©

[SyrenSong]

There's a lot of great discussion going on in here. It certainly got my mind going, too!

I just got off the phone with an attorney who told me that he wants a "professional looking website" for his local bar association. He then told me he wants trees, water and blue sky. Why? The "local bar" he refers to is in the Wisconsin Northwoods - well known for lakes, blue skies and trees, as well as a great vacation place for outdoorsy types.

Personally, I wouldn't normally think of trees and lakes as being a "professional" image for a bunch of lawyers, but that's how folks think up here. The whole idea of "corporate" would be totally out of place in this neighborhood.

Another site I know of for a law firm in the southern part of the state uses a checkerboard in an analogy for their "professional" website. Does it work? Absolutely! They're a relaxed, but totally professional group of about 40+ lawyers.

The hard part in designing a professional-looking website is coming up with an idea that suits the people/company your designing the site for, as well as the people who will be using the website.

Sometimes where the people live can also make a big difference in what's considered professional.

It's not simply one thing or another that needs to be considered. It's a great many things that need to be combined in a way that works to suit the purpose of the site and the people who will be using it.

[mathias]

I suppose SyrenSong is right. In most cases here in Africa, everyone wants to have something with an "african feel". Even though I am African, this still breaks down to how african my design will be.

I still want to believe that being professional is not like getting paid for your services. It's about how well you handle a project. If you aim for the highest standard and do it exceptionally well. The comments are obvious.

Think outside the box.

[salubritas]

I agree that being seen as "professional" should not mean being paid.

I suppose that "professional" is often used to mean "high-quality" or "expert", rather than anything to do with livelihood. I was pleased to see that www.dictionary.com has 4 definitions for the word. The first is about the "old" professions - lawyers and doctors, the next two are about something you do for pay, and the last is:

4. Having or showing great skill; expert: a professional repair job.

Hurrah! We do not have to be making a living from web design to be correctly called "professional"!