The Importance of Social Skills in Website Designing

Web designers and developers today start out without having extensive prior knowledge about coding. They do not go to art or graphic designing school. They decide to make websites and start self educating. That is how many designers start out.

These self educated designers believe in themselves and many of them accomplish a lot – they can brilliantly create designs and websites that have flow and are well connected. But because they have learned everything themselves, they often become overambitious and try doing more where less is needed.

Many sites are becoming unnecessarily complicated. Site creators should learn that their designs need to be accessible for the average internet user. Account creation is one great example of this. If somebody wants to create an account on your site, he should not have to hunt for the “Sign Up” button – the button should be right there, catching the visitor’s attention. Similarly the account creation page should not require any instructions. Its flow should be simple to follow and understand.

Here is an image extract from HuffDuffer’s signup page:

You can see how simple and user friendly the account creation page was made. HuffDuffer realizes the need to have social skills in their websites. People visiting a site want a nice change and something that presents information in a conversational manner is surely appreciated.

Sifter’s support page utilizes a similar social skill pattern.

Any visitor with a complaint or question will not only enter his summary but also learn when to expect a response.

Incorporating such simple social skills into one’s website can add a great deal of charm to the site. While interactive design and tools are important social skills are a key element in today’s successful websites.

A site with a brilliant design that lacks a conversational manner is the internet-equivalent of somebody with great looks but an unimpressive personality. Try adding that ‘personality’ feature to your website to make it stand out.