CHA-CHA-CHA: Architecture Website Design Principles

Your website is often the first impression potential clients get of your firm.

When someone lands on your homepage, they will immediately get a sense for your firm’s:

• Style

• Aesthetic

• Personality

• Communication

What senses and feelings does your homepage create today?

Most Common Mistakes

Complexity is the silent saboteur of many architecture firm websites. It dilutes the impact of your online presence and confuses your potential clients.

Here are the ways I typically see complexity play out:

• Overloaded Content: Trying to cram every piece of content on to one page, like the homepage. This overwhelms visitors and obscures your key messages. Instead of a cohesive story and introduction to your firm, visitors are met with a chaotic array of projects, news updates, blog posts, and more.

• Dense Text Blocks: Large, unbroken blocks of text deter readers. We’re conditioned to skim content, looking for highlights and key takeaways. Dense text makes it hard to find the right information and often leads to frustration and disengagement.

• Lack of Focus: Without a clear focus on what action you want visitors to take, your website will fail to generate leads. Whether it's scheduling a consultation or signing up for a newsletter, each page should avoid choice paralysis and guide visitors towards a specific action.

• Inconsistent Design: Consistency in design elements like color schemes, typography, and layout reinforces your brand identity. A lack of consistency will give the sense of a disjointed and unprofessional firm.

To be clear, avoiding complexity doesn’t mean your site has to be bare or boring. The goal is to communicate your value in a simple (and skimmable) way.

How can you do that? With a little cha-cha-cha 🕺

The CHA-CHA-CHA

The CHA-CHA-CHA is an acronym that I came up with for three high-converting website design principles:

1. Clarity

2. Hierarchy

3. Action

Here’s how you can implement each principle into your firm’s website:

01 // Clarity

I define clarity as undistracted purpose with each page. For example, your homepage should immediately communicate who you are and what you do with both design and messaging. This is something Nikita and I will cover in more depth on Tuesday at the High-Converting Homepages for Architects live training session.

In short, you can achieve clarity by:

• Utilizing an underlying grid to organize content.

• Using visuals that complement, not clutter, your message.

• Implementing scrollable pages that naturally guide visitors through your content.

Apple’s homepage is a perfect example of this. It’s a $2.6T company with a simple, gridded layout.

02 // Hierarchy

Hierarchy tells visitors where to look and in what order. It defines a flow that guides the eye from the most critical information to secondary details.

Establish hierarchy by:

• Using typography to your advantage. Make headings stand out and body text easy to read.

• Employing color and contrast to draw attention to key elements.

• Strategically placing content and using spacing to break up sections for easier consumption.

When you attend the live training on Tuesday, you’ll get a complete homepage template with all of these details. In the meantime, Superhuman’s homepage is a great example of using hierarchy to guide your attention.

03 // Action

Every page on your site should prompt visitors to take action, whether it’s booking a meeting, subscribing to a firm newsletter, or downloading a lead magnet. Clear calls-to-action (CTAs) are crucial.

Ensure your visitors know what to do next by:

• Designing CTAs to be visually distinct and easy to find.

• Using action-oriented language that’s concise and compelling.

• Placing CTAs above the fold, within each section, and at the end of pages to catch visitors at different stages of engagement.

Teachable does this well - think about what action they’re clearly encouraging visitors to take.

TL;DR

Avoid complexity across your firm’s website in order to increase conversions and generate meaningful leads. Review each page through the lenses of clarity, hierarchy, and action. Ask yourself:

• Clarity: Does this page have a clear, singular focus?

• Hierarchy: Is it obvious to visitors what they should focus on first, second, third?

• Action: Will they know what action to take here?

And consider this: the principles of clarity, hierarchy, and action are just ONE SLIDE of High-Converting Homepages for Architects, the 60-minute live training session happening on Tuesday.

• Nikita has reviewed more than 600 architecture websites 🤯

• I’ve spent more than 1,000 hours helping businesses double and triple their website conversions ✅

We’re helping you skip the line of testing and trying things for yourself. Instead, you walk away knowing exactly how to increase leads from your ideal clients through your homepage.

Grab your seat for $97 before we reach capacity >