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Like most designers, you more than likely use drag and drop functionality to build websites. Drag and drop is popular, and in most instances easy to use. When you have a drag and drop page builder at hand, you’re definitely in your comfort zone.
There’s another approach to website design that’s worth looking into. It’s a trend that is being taken up by more and more designers because of its advantages.
The trend is towards Lego-like builders. A building-block approach to website design is faster and easier than the drag and drop approach, plus it avoids some of the constraints inherent in using drag and drop functionality.
Why this trend?
A website built using a Lego-like builder will always be responsive; a capability that is not always true with drag and drop builders, plus aligning elements is a much easier task. Since iframes are not used, pages built from building blocks tend to be faster loading, and have cleaner code that produces better SEO results.
The Importance of Efficiency in Web Design
Efficiency in web design is sometimes overlooked, thanks to a web design culture that puts looks before efficiency. Lego-like builders put efficiency first, without sacrificing design quality. It’s a win-win.
There are three efficiency-related characteristics clients absolutely need in 2016 in a well-designed website – and where better to hear and learn about them, than from you.
- Website Clarity – Website clarity directly affects conversion rates. Clarity involves a proper placement of elements such as CTAs, headings, and in the case of online stores, products, where the messages they are intended to deliver are clear-cut and delivered without hesitation. The whole point behind website clarity is to get users interested and engaged.
- Search Traffic – This is the most important type of traffic. It is the traffic from Google searches that lands organically on a website, and does so because of the design approach you have put into it. Search traffic size will naturally vary from time to time, but together with clarity, it is what will have the greatest impact on a business over the long haul.
The better its SEO ranking, the more traffic a website will attract, and more traffic translates into more business for your client. In addition, investing time and money into search traffic will usually result in a smaller client acquisition cost, which can’t help but make your client a happier one.
- Responsiveness – In 2016, it’s estimated that between 35% and 40% of a website’s traffic will come from searches generated from mobile devices or tablets. This is where you put on your consultant’s hat, and let your client know the importance of responsiveness in website efficiency, and why you strongly recommend delivery of a responsive website – which of course, you are quite capable of doing.
Your ability to deliver websites noted for their design clarity, ability to attract traffic, and responsiveness, will not only improve business for your clients, but it should also increase the amount of business that will come your way.
You don’t have to become a marketing expert either, or practice delivering sales pitches. Current and prospective clients will be much more impressed if you simply offer advice and information in those areas where website design and marketing intertwine.
When looking for a website builder, think of the advantage of only having to be concerned with finding one that will help you deliver more efficient websites, faster and easier than ever. A solution is not that far off – think Lego-building.
How a Lego-like Builder Works
A Lego-like builder takes each building block as a bit of information. This “bit” can be a photo, a block or area of text, a video, a graphic, or whatever you choose. The block building approach is simple. With this kind of website builder, you only need to select a stripe, and edit its elements.
Select a stripe, edit it by incorporating the content you want, and go on to editing the next stripe as you build your page. Building blocks, edited stripes, pages, websites – it’s as simple as that. Publishing the website on a domain is also an easy thing to do.
The team from XPRS invites you to try out this building block approach. They want to show you how much fun using this approach can be.
Want to try the Lego-like approach?
If you would like to try something new, they have launched a campaign (for drag and drop users only). The campaign is giving away a free lifetime license. All you need to do to try it out is to complete the form on this page.
If you’re a student, an artist, or you represent a non-profit organization, you can receive a license free of charge. A license for commercial use costs $7.95/month, and if you are either a reseller, a white-label user, or you are a web professional who serves multiple clients, you can receive an unlimited number of licenses for $350/year.
All good, except when trying to sign up for free lifetime licence, nothing happens.
Thanks for this article it shows me a lot of things I want to try. Do you think that Lego builder type code is clean or do you always pass your site through w3c Markup validation? Thanks!