Chief Delivery Officer
Mike Minecki is a developer who dabbles in management at Four Kitchens.
January 21, 2021
When you need to get a message out for any organization, there’s no greater hindrance than an uncooperative website. Whether you work in ecommerce, higher education, or technology, you need to generate new pages quickly to publicize your initiatives. But your existing workflow likely isn’t up to the task
For marketing or communications teams, new projects require new landing pages, which often involve a design team or outside agency. After months of delays, you receive a static mockup, which must be approved by the stakeholders in your organization. Then, maybe weeks later, development starts and the project you needed a month ago finally launches after a full quarter has passed
A development cycle requiring that much time and effort is unsustainable. But with a design system in place, your team is free to craft new landing pages on their own. You see results in days instead of potentially needing months to accommodate outside schedules. Along with enjoying more creative autonomy, your team avoids being mired in the busywork of shuffling design comps between departments
With the right design system, you get the creative work your organization deserves at the pace and quality you need
Quality landing pages balance technical complexity with thoughtful design
Regardless of your website’s infrastructure, your new digital projects face a long list of requirements to ensure success. Along with functioning properly and delivering a positive user experience, your landing pages must comply with your organization’s design requirements. Plus, to ensure legal compliance, your project must maintain accessibility standards to serve every audience.
Building blocks of a well-designed landing page
To deliver a consistent experience, new landing pages must comply with your brand’s established visual standards. But you also must satisfy the core elements of any effective landing page:
- Eye-catching visuals: New projects must align with the larger design framework of your organization, but they don’t have to be boring. Images, white space, and color are just a few ways to establish a distinct but consistent visual experience.
- Logical organization: Pages must have a clear structure that establishes a hierarchy of information. As a result, your users find the important information they need.
- Clear calls-to-action: Your landing pages should engage users at their points of interaction with compelling copy and clearly communicated outcomes.
- A variety of content layouts: Ideally, every project should be flexible enough to customize for different needs. That way, their lifespan extends beyond a single use.
- A bespoke design polish: While every new landing page should reflect your organization’s established style, it should also deliver a distinctive visual experience.
Technical requirements of digital projects
Looks aren’t everything when it comes to digital design. Satisfying the technical demands for an effective landing page delivers a strong experience for both your users and your organization:
- SEO: Following established best practices ensures your landing pages rank highly on search results pages and are easily found by your audience.
- Responsive: Website users view your site on multiple devices and platforms. Your landing page designs should provide a positive experience for every use case.
- Accessible: Given the clear legal requirements in place, you must ensure every new landing page provides an equitable experience for all users.
- On brand: While new projects should carry a distinct look, their user experience should be consistent with the larger organization.
- Trackable: Through applying a few best practices, you can track the performance of your landing pages and user behavior using Google Analytics.
Design systems bring the demands of technology and design together
Striking a balance between the visual and technical demands of creating a new landing page is a complicated task. When you have to keep track of so many details to create an engaging and effective user experience, it’s little wonder production delays are so common in traditional digital development
However, investing in a design system allows you to apply best practices from both disciplines in a flexible way. Design systems break down your website into reusable building blocks accompanied by complete documentation that outlines their use. By breaking your website down to its granular elements, you transform your designer’s vision into reusable pieces that can be assembled into great-looking pages
From individual buttons to complete forms, these are technically perfect components your content creators can apply to every project. Regardless of your team’s technical capabilities, they can be creative and ship finished pages in a fraction of the time a separate team requires. And, with new projects developed with proven components, you gain the assurance that what they create is performant, meets accessibility standards, and satisfies every technical requirement. Consequently, the review process before launch becomes much quicker.
Streamline landing page development by integrating a design system into your CMS
With a design system in place, your content teams gain a library of tools to create new pages quickly. Once the system has been intelligently incorporated into your CMS, your marketing and communications efforts accelerate that much faster
Whether your organization uses Drupal, WordPress, or another platform, you need a flexible backend interface that allows content teams to create landing pages that satisfy every need. Each component is clearly labeled and flexible enough to be customized by your team. The design system sets guardrails that ensure new projects won’t break your site or its design standards
Regardless of the complexity of your organization, design systems deliver faster development while preserving your technical requirements and user experience needs. For example, if you manage communications at a large university, a design system allows each department to develop new pages that suit their needs. Instead of managing the roadblocks of awaiting approval from multiple stakeholders, your teams freely develop projects from trusted components
Plus, with site analytics, your teams can quickly recognize how users are responding to new pages. Design systems allow your teams to iterate and publish changes while bypassing any potential organizational bottlenecks. With a design system, your marketing and communications grow more agile by democratizing the content creation process
Suddenly, your complicated website isn’t so uncooperative after all.
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