A website can look striking and expensive and still not help its owner at all. Often it’s the little things: the headline explains nothing, the buttons compete with each other, animation gets in the way of reading, everything slides around on a phone, and the information you need takes a long time to find.

Visitors don’t need to understand design to feel the inconvenience. They are simply trying to get their task done, and if the website makes them put in extra effort, their patience quickly runs out. Below is what we most often find and fix.

1. It’s unclear where the person has landed

The hero section doesn’t have to explain everything, but it should give visitors something to hold on to: what company this is, what it does and why it’s worth staying. If visitors see only an abstract phrase like “creating the future together”, they have to guess what it means.

A figurative headline works when there’s a clear subheading beside it. A phrase about digital worlds sets the mood, and the next line explains that the site is about website development. Emotion catches attention; specifics help people understand the offer. The article “What should a homepage include?” explains how we build the hero section and the rest of the homepage.

2. There’s too much on the screen

When every caption is large, every element moves and all the pictures pull attention towards themselves, the eye has nothing to hold on to. Overload doesn’t take dozens of blocks; sometimes a few accents competing with each other are enough.

That doesn’t mean the website should be sterile. We give each element its own role: one creates an impression, another explains, a third helps people act. If everything shouts at once, nothing is heard.

3. Animation for the sake of animation

Movement helps make a website memorable: an image responds to scrolling, an object appears, the background changes depth, transitions connect sections. But when every element moves on its own, the visitor sees a stream of distracting signals.

We’re careful with effects that hijack scrolling, delay the display of content or make it hard to press a button. Animation should strengthen the idea and help people find their way. If it can be removed without the meaning suffering, we remove it. More in the article “Animations on a website: when does the wow help, and when does it get in the way?”.

4. Lots of text, but no answer

“An individual approach”, “high quality” and “a team of professionals” appear on every other website. These words aren’t bad, but on their own they explain almost nothing. It’s more useful for a person to learn what the service includes, how the work goes and how the options differ from each other.

Concrete reference points work better than general promises: how decisions are made, what happens after the first conversation, which questions need to be settled before starting. There’s no need to write a hundred-page manual; it’s enough to answer real questions at the right moment, and we help put those answers into words.

How to describe your service so people understand you

5. Navigation as a riddle

An experimental menu can be beautiful, but people still need to understand how to get to the services, projects, contacts or the information they need. If familiar elements have been replaced with symbols, we check whether the function itself has been lost behind the idea.

An interface doesn’t have to be boring. Unusual shapes, animation and non-standard composition are fine as long as people don’t have to decipher simple actions.

6. A mobile version nobody seems to care about

A phone has a narrower screen, and with it interaction, text size, line length and the amount of information on screen all work differently. Tiny captions, awkward buttons and cropped images spoil the impression of even a beautiful desktop layout.

We don’t leave responsive design until later as a formality; it’s part of the design process. Sometimes the composition needs to be rebuilt, secondary details shortened or image behaviour changed. The goal is to preserve meaning and usability, not squeeze the desktop version into a narrow screen.

7. The website promises more than it can back up

Loud claims, invented figures and unfounded reviews only convince at first glance. As soon as a visitor notices an inconsistency, trust disappears. That’s why we show what really exists and describe the service honestly, without portraying what the business doesn’t have yet.

A study, concept or personal project can be shown as long as it’s called exactly that and not passed off as a commercial commission. The work loses nothing by this, and it’s easier for people to judge correctly what they see.

How we look at a website through a visitor’s eyes

If several of these points apply to your website, take a look at the article “Seven signs your website needs a redesign”: we fix some of the problems in a targeted way, without redoing everything.

What matters in the end

A website isn’t made to please its creator or designer. It should make the right impression and help visitors find their way, understand the offer and take the next step. An expressive visual language and convenience get along perfectly well, and it’s precisely their combination that convinces.

Unusual design doesn’t require sacrificing clarity. At SOMO STUDIO we discuss the visual idea together with the structure and goals of the project, so that the website is memorable and at the same time helps people understand the offer. Formats and starting prices are on the “Pricing & process” page.

— SOMO STUDIO