by John Stevens
July 3, 2012 6:00 PM
Years ago when the Internet was in its infancy, many sites had horrendous design faux pas. Many had a black background. (Black backgrounds are difficult to pull off successfully.) There were blinking, rotating, and flashing gifs. There were tickertape messages scrolling across the screen. Too much blinking and flashing on too dark of a background.
Web page design has grown up over the last 20 years.
RES Management, a self storage management company based in the Carolinas, wanted to change and improve their website, Storage Centres. They had two major needs: a cleaner design and a better user interface.
Those two criteria normally wouldn’t be very challenging. But when you have a website that features 8 different brands and 18 different facilities that becomes a huge issue.
RES Management partnered with WebWorks and WebWorks created a site that follows good webpage design, is easy to use, and is crisp and clean looking. The new site has:
- Excellent use and balance of white space
- Ample padding around graphics and logos
- Navigation is well organized and easy to follow
- Consistency in the style of the site (size of headers, fonts, logo placement)
- Pleasing color palette
While all of these features are very significant, the most important ones are under the hood – features that aren’t visible or obvious to customers who visit the website. One invisible feature is the ability to listen to phone calls through the administrative side of the site. Mark Amos, Director of Information Technology at RES, can determine where the calls are coming from and what customers are looing for.
The site also has improved search engine optimization (SEO). Good SEO helps the Google ranking of a site and helps customers find self storage facilities in their desired location.
The site now includes a storage calculator, lead tracking, and the ability for customers to reserve a unit or pay bills online. These features are becoming ‘must haves’ for self storage websites.
Amos is very pleased with their experience with working with WebWorks. WebWorks listened carefully to their needs and what RES wanted their website to accomplish. When Amos or those working with him made suggestions, WebWorks immediately made the updates. Amos said that the folks at RES are very proud of their site.
Sources Used:
“RES Management Increases Traffic, Leads With New Website.” Virtual Strategy Magazine; 2 July 2012.
“9 Essential Principles for Good Web Design.” PSD Tuts; 17 December 2007.
Storage Centres.