The hustle and bustle at the firm is enough to make anyone put web design on the back burner. 

A sophisticated, professional website is crucial for your credibility as well as meeting your clients needs. 

Before you research for a web developer, arm yourself with knowledge for a great website.

We will cover the basics, features, fonts, and colors for a website in the legal industry. 

Whether you are a law firm or a manufacturer, all websites require some basic structure to get started. 

Usability

The ability to easily navigate a website is crucial. The user experience must be intuitive. This means a site-user should not spend 15 minutes figuring out how to contact your business. 

The Necessities

• Calls-to-Action: A call-to-action will be placed throughout a website (sometimes in the sidebar) to encourage the site-user to take action.
  • This may direct the user to:
    • Contact Pages
    • Product details or ordering
    • Company information
• Easy Navigation: An easy navigation means your main navigation makes sense to the site-user. You should arrange your items with the most important being on the end.
  • A sub navigation should make sense for each page as well, for example, your product page may list other products in the sub navigation.

Interactivity

While usability is a given for all designs, interactivity would be per industry. 

What To Consider

• Associates: This type of database will allow the firm to add all associates to the website.
  • You can link published articles, industries, or other services those associates offer.
• Services: Have a database that will seamless filter your services.
  • Some firms cover different industries or legal topics.
• Blog: Increase your SEO and build credibility in the industry. 
  • Use your blog to share knowledge and firm news.
• Careers: A careers database will allow site-users to effortless apply for positions.
  • ​This is crucial for large companies.

When selecting a color, you need to be aware of its emotional value. Different colors create different moods in the site-user. 

Colors For Law Firms

If you're into environmental law, it's highly likely you'll want to adopt a green color palette, since green evokes nature. But if you're into trusts or securities, you might also want to adopt green because it's the color associated with money.
FindLaw

Blues, whites, and silvers create a powerful, trustworthy experience for a law firm. Reds and warm colors may also signify authority and power. 

Ultimately, you will need to work with your existing branding to determine the perfect palette. 

Gender

What if you're trying to appeal to a certain kind of person? Well, there are colors for that, too. Women like blue, purple, and green, while men prefer blue, green, and black, according to Fast Company. The analytics website KISSmetrics additionally determined that men respond more to shades (a color plus black) while women respond to tints (a color plus white).
FindLaw

Some law firms deal mostly with men, while others deal with women. Many times, you have a mix of both. 

Psychology

If your company is not focusing on a specific gender, you may want to look more into the psychology of color.

Often, people do not consider the weight that fonts have when creating their websites. It may just be easier to go with something standard or basic when selecting a font. 

Fonts For Law Firms 

What makes a font suitable for legal writing? I like fonts that seem “at home” in a legal document—clean, authoritative, but not humdrum or self-consciously offbeat. I also look for fonts that have noncontroversial italic and bold styles, because lawyers use those frequently. Of course, I also want to be able to get small caps.
Typography For Lawyers

Pairings From The Top Legal Sites

There are some common elements on award winning, high conversion websites in the industry. 

The front page of your website should be about one thing, and that one thing should take up the entire page above the fold. This is sometimes called a “hero” layout.
Lawyerist