We’re pleased to announce the launch of our latest client website, http://www.baymarkets.com/

The Swedish based I.T. company, provide cutting-edge software for OTC derivative trading systems and have a prestigious portfolio of clients such as the Norwegian Stock Exchange, Vantage Capital Markets and Cleartrade.

Baymarkets asked us create a website to communicate their core sales messages effectively to their highly corporate market. Following an extensive consultative design process, we’ve delivered a very clean layout with a generous use of white-space offset by powerful abstract images.

Having recently been launched at an international trade show in Chicago, the site has so far been met with universal approval.  We are confident that the site will perform and help Baymarkets improve their already impressive track record.

We’ll be reporting measuring and reporting on site performance as per usual, so watch this space…

It often bothers the collective Gravitate Media psyche how often simple web design principles are ignored in favour of a one-size-fits all approach.

Off-the-shelf website templates have become increasingly popular, especially with the proliferation of WordPress blogging tool with its numerous third-party plug-ins and burgeoning development community. Their popularity is testimony to the tempting freedom it can offer businesses with the obvious potential short term cost savings. But before everyone runs off and attempts DIY website solutions, businesses should remember that most off-the-shelf web templates are exactly that – a basic template – and as such should be handled with care.

A working example

We were recently approached by A Helping Hand, a London based company offering one-to-one IT tuition for silver surfers. Following numerous conversations about their website performance, we were commissioned to improve design and user experience of certain key pages.  What was immediately clear from initial discussions was as the site was based on an adapted WordPress template many of the finer details that add up to a commercially successfully online presence had been missed.

Generic home page

Their existing home page used an identical grid/layout to the rest of the site (as dictated by the WordPress template). This presented the visitor with long paragraphs of copy devoid of visual prompts – the result was at best underwhelming and did not work nearly hard enough.

Along with setting the tone and creating the right immediate impression, a good home page design should encourage and entice visitors into the most effective zones of the internal site. Our solution http://www.ahelpinghand.co.uk/ broke up the main central column up into multiple areas descending in a hierarchal order. 

Ecommerce issues

The page selling vouchers also suffered by adhering to the generic Wordpress template. Important ecommerce features like the Buy Now buttons were pushed far too low on the page and the purchase options confusing.

Page example pre-overhaul

We applied tried and tested design principles by splitting the main column up into two. Our solution brought the call to actions up above the page fold and allowed for a greater level of supporting messages and information.

Page example post-overhaul

The lesson

Although off-the-shelf templates may seem to offer a tempting short-cut, the visual solution that they produce can be rather generic and lack individuality. Many professional websites share similar goals but individual design requirements are rarely identical. In order to get the most out of any template purchased or provided by the likes of WordPress, expertise in the shape of for an experienced designer is still required. This then begs the question whether it may be better (and more cost-effective in the long run) to ask an experienced designer to produce a bespoke website from scratch in the first place.