This summer my husband and I discovered a new love of ours: kayaking. Being part fish, I love being out on the water and discovering new places that we can't discover by car. In our spare time, we strap the kayaks to the roof of our Equinox, throw the paddles in the trunk and grab our "first mate" pup, Milo (see photo below) for a relaxing evening of kayaking. With summer coming to a close soon, we wanted to plan a kayaking trip. So I jumped on the internet and started researching.
My keywords included "overnight kayaking in Indiana," "best places to kayak in Indiana" and "kayaking and camping in Indiana." I received many search results with potential of a great kayaking trip, but the end result of my search ended up in pure frustration. My frustration didn't stem from the campsite prices, the long drive to the sites or any other logistics of the trip. What put me over the edge was the design of the websites I was researching.
Four words. These. websites. were. awful. Not only did they look awful, but the UX design (user experience design) was out-dated or non-existent. I like to think that I am pretty tech-savy and can navigate my way efficiently through the web. Actually, as a graphic designer, being tech-savy is a must.
A word to the wise: every successful business needs a successful website. Living about two hours from these camping sites, I don't have the luxury of swinging by after work to check out the scene. I have to trust the campsites' websites to help me make that decision. There were so many sites that I didn't even want to explore due to how poorly they were designed.
Design is so important. Like I said in my earlier post, you only get one first impression. For many businesses that first impression is made digitally. For many of these websites, I was so overwhelmed with the poorly designed site, which persuaded me not to use their business. Shallow? Hardly. We've all had to make a decision like this sometime in our lives.
Answer this: If Speedway sold the same drink products that Starbucks offers, at the same price, in the same exact locations, would you start buying your coffee from Speedway? Probably not. Why? Because Starbucks' design is better. It's that simple.
My advice to everyone with a web presence: make sure your website makes a great first impression. Invest in your business by investing in a well-designed website. Your website could be the first chance a client gets to interact with your brand, and unfortunately, it could also be the last.
So what was the outcome of my kayaking trip search? I found a trip on the cheaper end at the expense of a poorly designed website. The site was simple (not in a good way), informative and straight to the point; however, it lacked creative design, which made me cringe as a graphic designer. It was outdated and stale. Despite the overall design of this company and my constant need to bargain shop, we will be embarking on our overnight kayaking trip with "the company with a poorly-designed website" which I won't mention by name.
