Ah, web design. The ubiquitous practice of creating a website. An activity that you can do yourself with open-source tools or that you can spend more than it cost to build your house and furnish it. And a profession that was deemed to be secure because, well let’s face it… everyone needs a website, right?

Well, everyone needs an online presence. Your customers need to be able to find you and with such a large percentage of the US population possessing in-home WiFi, a mobile phone with a data connection, or both, the phone book is now on the world-wide web.

The way consumers interact with the internet has changed, however, with many people bypassing websites and using Siri, Facebook, Yelp, or other aggregate outlets for their information. You can use Google to find the hours and menu of your favorite restaurant and place a call to them without ever leaving Google’s page.

This adaptation even led mashable.com to post a blog proclaiming that “web design is (finally!) dying of irrelevance”. A bold statement for sure. But reading through, I found that it was more of an attention-grabbing headline than a truthful statement. Their main premise was that through the proliferation of templates and site builders, the stagnation of web innovation, and social media and mobile outlets, web design as a profession is in jeopardy of being irrelevant. Touché!

What we now see is an increased demand to design and manage how a consumer interacts with a brand, not just how pretty a web site can be. Your potential customers are bombarded daily from traditional and digital marketing sources with more information than human beings care to absorb, through mobile apps, social media, search engines, billboards, radio, television, brick-and-mortar stores and more. Maintaining a consistent branding experience throughout all of these interactions is essential.

As Mashable explains: “And all these touch points need to be designed, planned, and managed. This is a job that will continue to exist, regardless of the channel. We will still need cohesive experiences and valuable content across smart climatizers, virtual reality devices, electronic contact lenses, and whatever we invent in the decades to come.”

You – the business owner, the non-profit director, the home blogger, the car manufacturer, the federal government – can’t simply dispense your information onto a page whose content has to be actively sought by the end-user.

Engagement must be encouraged, purchased, or even incentivized. Across all platforms. On all channels. While exhibiting a cognizance of the data’s geographic and social ramifications. And looking great in the process.

This is the rise of the user-experience (UX). This is where generic solutions cannot co-exist with innovation. This is the next iteration of the digital marketplace.

This is what High Road Digital does. We design and manage your marketing architecture. If you would like a free consultation to learn more about how High Road can help manage your brand’s UX, contact us at highroaddigital.com.