First impressions are everything. 

We often define our perceptions of people according to how we feel during our very first interaction. Our senses are constantly at work — tracking body language and analyzing the conversation to assess how we feel. And while there’s more to a person than what we learn and observe in a matter of seconds or minutes, humans are conditioned to make judgments or arrive at conclusions quickly.

First impressions aren’t solely reserved for human-to-human interactions. They extend into how we perceive everything — a whiff of dinner in the oven, the first few notes of a song, or the cover of a book. These first touchpoints are so crucial because they’re sticky — they’re what people remember. But how do you make something memorable?

With good design.

Good design ties everything together with intention and purpose. For composers, it’s how you string notes together to create a melody. For architects, it’s the details in a blueprint. For companies, it’s how a vision is shared with the world.

For today’s businesses, websites serve as the central nervous system of your marketing operation. It’s where your brand comes to life through design and where you can create a guided experience for visitors. It’s also your digital home, creating necessary space to connect directly with customers. 

In our extremely online world, simply having a website is no longer enough. No matter how someone ends up on your site, it should impress visitors and tell your story. It should be designed with your audience’s needs in mind; It also needs to bring your visual identity to life as your business and brand evolves — and it needs to be optimized for performance to ensure long-term success. 

But the truth is, as a company grows, your customers’ behavior often changes, too. You might find new ones or your current customers’ needs might shift, which often prompts the need for a website redesign. Businesses who are forced to deal with restrictive templates, hard-coded websites, or limited engineering resources, however, lack the flexibility and speed they need to continuously adapt and deliver relevant experiences. And if you can’t make changes or updates in near real-time, your customers will grow frustrated — and fast-moving competitors will catch their eye instead.

In order to deliver successful redesigns today, companies must find paths to better cross-departmental collaboration and trust without putting their business at risk. And with the proper tools, teams, and processes in place, businesses can start taking the legwork out of site design and maintenance and start using their websites to their full potential.