Do You Need a Website?
If you need a website —or an improved website— to better represent your business online, take a virtual seat.
Let’s start with a question —
What job has your website been hired to do?
Because if you think about it, each and every page of your website will have a job to do.
Or should.
Because when you think about a website this way?
You get a purposeful website.
Which luckily for my clients…
Is exactly what I make.
I ask every page, “why do you exist?”
And I build the answer accordingly.
And I do it:
- Vertically…
- Using mostly type-oriented design to deliver a message that resonates with the hearts and minds of your visitor.
Need a Website Built?
Many agencies today will build you a website using a multipurpose WordPress theme, sprinkled with a bit of content, and call it a day.
Not here.
I care about the details.
Why not view my…
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Learn more
Shall we discuss a few things? —
Monoble is a boutique consultancy specialising in direct-response web pages where results matter more than vanity.
I craft your web design in Mere, Wiltshire (at HQ) for clients all over the world. So, whether you are looking for web design in the City of Bath (our nearest City,) or you are from sunny San Diego, I can make it happen.
I also do CRO1, and web design that could load2 on a Commodore 64 8-bit computer from 1982.
Still here?
Let’s talk about a few concepts involved in building websites…
Responsive Web Design
In the last decade or so it was hip to build mobile responsive web pages. From the introduction of the Apple iPhone, to the phone addiction society we now live in, if your website failed to accommodate mobile users they would rightly swipe away.
Responsive web design is the strategy of adapting the presentation of design from large to small.
From desktop screens down to the mobile screens.
This approach guided the web designer to start with the desktop version of a web page. Once happy, he or she would then make the design “responsive” (and sometimes remove elements that will not fit on the smaller display.)
Done well, you can describe it as a “graceful degradation” approach.
Scaling back the features and content as the viewport shrinks.
However, there is a better way.
For 2024 and beyond, I build websites with a mobile first approach instead, to reflect the reality of modern web browsing.
Yes, there is a better way…
Mobile First Design
The mobile first approach is the strategy of primarily building for the smallest screen first.
From mobile UP to the desktop.
This is called, “progressive enhancement” where you begin with the smallest display. This forces you to provide the canonical and BEST experience for the mobile user. Or as close as you can…
Then, as the screen size increases, there is little —or ideally no— disparity between the small and large screen in terms of the features and content displayed.
The web page can be enhanced as the viewport increases, naturally, but it is recommended to maintain content parity between mobile and desktop as Google is now a mobile-first search engine.
Progressive Enhancement Design Wins
It is easier to scale UP than it is to scale down.
Many brands today have complicated web designs which were clearly born on the desktop.
As a result, they have to find ways to scale down their design and features to fit in your hand.
The user experience of which is poor, and the compromise in quality is clear.
Worse, forcing a mobile user to download a desktop-class design and feature-set further spoils the experience.
No one likes to be kept waiting while the page is downloading unnecessary distractions.
This is why Google is cracking down on slow and fat websites.
The Problem With Mass-Produced WordPress Themes
There is a lot of money in the WordPress theme market.
Many web designers use themes which were made to appeal to the widest market possible. This means they contain huge customisation options in an attempt to cover as many bases as possible.
The problem?
You never get the best when you use a “one-size fits all” theme.
When your website is built using an “everything but the kitchen sink” theme —very popular with web designers— you inherit all the code-bloat that makes those kind of themes possible. This is why WordPress websites are slow in most cases.
Even if your website looks good, the user experience suffers.
And web maintenance becomes a nightmare.
As many businesses are finding out, it’s the wrong foot to start on.
If you would like a website built right, start here:
1 Conversion Rate Optimisation.
2 load as in, “fit inside the memory.”