Professional web design is like a banana.
You read that correctly.
Ask anyone in our office and they’ll tell you I’m a banana nut. I eat one every single day and try to convince others that it’s the best fruit! But what can this fruit teach us about design, particularly web design? Read on to find out!
Simple visual cues
The bright, yellow-green color of a banana catches your eye from across the grocery store, making it easy to find. And when you’re ready to eat one, you can easily tell how ripe it is, based on its color alone. There’s no picking up each one in the grocery store to see how they feel, or tapping on them to see how they sound.
Similarly, as soon as a user lands on your website, they should know exactly what your brand is and whether or not your product or service fits their needs. It shouldn’t be a guessing game. Through a simple layout with clear messaging and images showing your product or service in action, your user should be able to tell if they’ve found what they’re looking for. Is this banana ready to eat? Yes or no. Is this the type of company I was looking for? Yes or no. If your layout has too much going on and that answer takes too long to answer, chances are that your user will leave.
Ease of use
Bananas are the easiest fruit to eat. You peel it and you’re good to go. There’s no knife involved, it’s not super juicy or messy, and there are no seeds or core to eat around.
Likewise, once your user has decided, “Yes, this is the type of company I was looking for,” there should be an easy next step. Does your website have clear navigation and calls to action? Do your links actually look like links and have noticeable hover effects (Pro Tip: that’s one small thing that makes your whole website more user-friendly)?
Mobility
One of the best things about my favorite fruit – it’s mobile-friendly! I can throw it in my lunch box, eat it in my car, or let it sit on my desk all day. The protective peel allows me to take it anywhere and enjoy it without having to rinse it off first (if you’re a low-key germaphobe like me, this is a huge advantage over apples!).
And of course . . . your website should be mobile-friendly, too! A user should have a similar experience on their phone as they do on a desktop. In other words, you shouldn’t have a separate mobile site with limited options. Your website should be responsive, adapting to the size of the browser window. That way, it still looks great no matter what device a user is on.
Content that you actually need
If I wanted something else as easy to eat as a banana, I could grab a granola bar or a candy bar. But of course, the healthiest option would be a banana, or as I like to call it, “nature’s candy bar.” They’re sweet-tasting and loaded with fiber, vitamins and minerals, and are known to be an energy booster.
This sounds obvious, but does your website have content that your users actually need? Or does it contain a lot of “fluff?” Oftentimes, companies have too much content on their websites about them and their history, but not enough details about their products and services.
So, have I convinced you yet that web design really is just like a banana? Through simple visual cues, ease of use, mobility, and content, your website can become the important results-driven tool that it should be.
