Introduction 

The web design industry is a constantly progressing industry. It undergoes constant development and expansion. The players in this industry are in a constant system of changing themselves. By changing themselves, they update their website and its offerings. In doing this, they formulate goals that they nurture until fruition. Particularly in the education industry, a website undergoes a number of updates. In the education sector, a website can provide online tutorials, offer a community blogging platform, offer a blog series and cultivate forums and discussions. 

The education industry has embraced online learning. Through this, it integrates technology into the learning process to offer online courses. These are either an extension of their classroom counterparts or are conducted only virtually. Courses in website development, coding, digital marketing, and learning languages such as PHP, etc are all taught virtually to students who opt for them.  This technological development in education has virtually created another sub-industry in education, that of online learning. This industry is slowly growing through small developments. 

Through community blogging, websites have developed another revenue stream. Website owners have started encouraging community blogging, wherein proponents of one thought or idea come together on a particular site and discuss it. They try to support or oppose the topic being discussed. This gives rise to a debate. Such debates are making community blogging sites entertaining. This entertainment is more interesting than what we are offered in the media. Through community blogging, users communicate with others of their ilk. 

Through a blog series, websites are inviting people from all walks of life to write for their website. People post their opinions, views on subjects of their interest. Some of them also write informative pieces about certain topical issues that matter to them. Such initiatives are a dime a dozen today because business owners want to engage with their customers to take their feedback on their products and services. This activity is necessary to tailor the product or service offerings as per the needs of the customer. 

Through interactive forums and discussions, business owners propagate the idea of freedom of speech. This also empowers people by helping them find their voice, among a crowd. They discuss the pros and cons (as the case may be) in the active forums and discussions and put forth their point of view. Such activity is encouraged by each business owner. He gains by this activity in that the user is communicating through his website and using its features. During this activity, the user also browses through the products and services on offer and makes a purchase. 

Facts about the web design industry 

Here, we will discuss eight important facts about the website industry that you should be aware of.  These facts are culled from extensive research done on many websites and their offshoots. Many small businesses were also surveyed to find out this information. A lot of effort has gone into collecting data from customers and converting that into understandable data. The raw survey data was not actionable. This activity has been conducted to understand the eight important facts about the web design industry. 

1) All web browsers render differently

Different browsers render websites differently. When you look at a website using the Google Chrome browser from your office, it may not appear the same as when you look at it using Mozilla Firefox, from your residence. This is because the two different browsers give different rendering effects to the same website. This means, it all depends on the parsing and rendering of a website by a browser. This activity gives different results for different browsers for the same website. 

2) Design dictates which part of your website users will focus on

The internet has changed the way users browse and read the content. As per Neilson Normal Group’s report, websites, which are successful in garnering traffic, have recorded a 47% improvement in usability. Web design professionals can use heat maps and analytical tools, which tell them which buttons on their website, are popular. This can cause large ramifications for the successful update and design of websites. Such information can help web designers. 

3) A two-year-old website may be too old

In the web design industry, technology changes at breakneck speed. To keep pace with these changes, professionals must update themselves at regular intervals. Moreover, business owners should also update their websites regularly. If a website is not attended to for more than three months, it becomes too old. A website, which has been stagnating for two years, will be even older. Regular updating of websites is common in the web design industry. Merchants who do not follow this are sure to be out of business. 

4) Templates will condition the navigation of your website

Templates may help you design an attractive website, however, when the time comes to update that, templates will not allow you to do it, the way you want. Templates will condition your website updates. Once a template is used, the website updates have to follow the path of the template and cannot be modified the way you want. Therefore, when designing a website, avoid opting for templates. This is apparent considering templates are rigid and condition the website design in a particular format. 

5) Images or videos can have a positive or negative impact on your business

When inserting images or videos into your website, try using their optimized version. Not doing this will make your website slow to navigate. Users do not have the patience to wait until a website with heavy images and videos opens. Such images and videos tend to drive away users from your website. Therefore, it is best to use images and videos that are optimized for websites. 

6) A good website design costs from $500 to $5000

A pricing infographic by a popular website states that the design costs of a good website range from $500 to $5000. This range is so wide because it includes the design cost of the website, the cost of optimizing the content of the website and improving the loading time of the site on search engines. Depending upon the density of a website, the costs of website design vary so widely. 

7) There is a difference between responsive and a mobile web design

When you view a website on your mobile, you are viewing its mobile version while when you are viewing it on your laptop or desktop, you are looking at its responsive version. The mobile website is restrictive, while a responsive design is flexible. A flexible website design allows modification of websites according to the interface through which it is viewed. Thus, it is better to view websites on your laptop or desktop.  

Conclusion 

Thus, we have seen above that the web design industry is a constantly evolving field. The more flexible your website is, the better it will be for you. Therefore, when you design your website, make it reactive and not a mobile one. A responsive website will allow you to modify it at a later date if required. However, a mobile website will not allow that. A mobile website will only allow you to update its content and not its design.