1. Research and structure
Who comes to the site, what are they looking for and which step do they need to take? That determines the structure: pages, levels and what can go. Wireframes come before colour.
Web design
Web design: digital craftsmanship
A website with a character of its own that helps visitors take the next step. With fifteen years of experience in UX and development, we design and build around your content and visual identity. We adapt the structure, imagery and interactions to your organisation. Accessible on every screen and manageable by your own editorial team.
Does your current site work well, but look dated? A redesign on the same foundations is usually enough. We will tell you if that is the case.
How we design your website
Zenjoy is a web design agency and digital product studio in Leuven. For us, web design means research, structure, design and handover. We design around your real content and your organisation’s identity, test with the people who will use the site, and build in Nimbu, our own CMS, so your editorial team can maintain the design without breaking it.
Designs that still hold up after launch
200+ editors actively work in Nimbu
WCAG 2.1 AA as a starting point, with measured contrast
15 years designing and building from Leuven, since 2011
When is an AI design no longer enough?
For a landing page, an initial test or a sole trader, an AI website builder can often produce enough. Once the site needs to fit the way your organisation works and last for years, more is needed. Four things we often hear:
“Our site looks like everyone else’s.”
AI designs draw on the same patterns. The site looks polished but says nothing about who you are. Making your brand recognisable takes more than a logo in the corner.
“It looked good until we added our real text.”
A template expects three short sentences and a stock photo. Your content is longer, in three languages and changing. A design based on real content can handle that.
“Nobody can find the button.”
Beautiful and usable are different things. The step a visitor needs to take is the first design decision; the call to action follows from it.
“After three months of editing, the design no longer holds together.”
The people who work in it every day choose another colour, a longer heading or an extra block. A design that does not account for that wears out within a year.
Good web design is a set of agreements that keeps a site coherent under your own editorial team, long after launch.
What does a Zenjoy web designer do?
Four steps, in this order. The order matters.
2. Design around real content
We design with your text and images, in the languages you need. Typography, colour and rhythm follow the brand; calls to action follow the step you want visitors to take.
3. Usable and accessible
Keyboard, screen reader, slow connection, small screen. WCAG 2.1 AA is our starting point, with contrast we measure rather than guess.
4. Handover to your editorial team
The design lives in Nimbu as blocks with boundaries: your editorial team can write, rearrange and publish without breaking the design. It includes a review step and version history.
Web design and web development sit in one team of designers and developers. Designers know what the CMS can do; developers know why a block is designed the way it is. At handover, your editorial team gets a short training session and the design rules in writing. Nothing gets lost between design and launch, and the site remains recognisable after updates.
Need a complete website, with content, languages and integrations? → Website development
Do you sell online? An online shop follows its own process. → Online shops
Professional web design: recognisable and usable
A website is not a poster. Graphic design makes something beautiful in one format; web design makes it usable on every screen for visitors who came to do something. We start with three questions: what is your brand story, what should a visitor do here, and who will maintain it?
Branding on the web
Your brand is already recognisable offline, for example on a brochure or letterhead. Online, we translate that identity into typography that stays readable on a phone, colours with enough contrast and imagery that works even when editors choose their own photos. We document those rules so the site still feels like the same brand two years later.
Helping visitors take the next step
Conversion is the step you want a visitor to take: request a meeting, become a member or find a document. Each page type has one clear next step and a call to action that leads to it. Potential clients do not have to search for it.
UX before UI
A usable website starts with the route visitors take. An intuitive menu and clear buttons help them move forward without detours. We first map the flows in wireframes and test them with real users from your audience. The visual design comes next.
Copywriting is part of the design
A design without real text is a promise. We design with your content, and where copy is still missing, we help write it or work with a copywriter who knows your voice.
The result is a custom solution for an SME or organisation that needs a professional website rather than another version of a template: websites that work for visitors and search engines because structure and content are designed together. This gives your online presence a strong foundation, built around the people you want to reach.
From brief to design: how we work
More about our approachUnderstand
Who visits, what are they looking for and which step do you want them to take?
Structure
Sitemap and wireframes before a single colour is chosen.
Design
Based on your real content, with a visual style that fits your organisation. We measure contrast and readability.
Test
With the people who will use it, on real screens.
Hand over
Components your editorial team can combine themselves without the design wearing out.
Custom web design, still in use years later
Order vegetable boxes online
For De Wikke, we designed a website where members choose their vegetable box and collection point. The gardening project can present its produce and manage subscriptions.
A website for members and visitors
For the Belgian association of perfusionists, we redesigned the website with a members’ area and symposium registration. Information, membership and payments come together in one place.
Making technical expertise clear
For Elsyca, we redesigned the website and visual identity. The collaboration expanded to include digital marketing, an online support centre and custom software.
What does your website need?
We look at what you already have: content, colours, imagery and tone. We carry what still works into the new design. If your brand identity also needs updating, we bring in a partner for that work.
In an initial conversation, we look at your content, your audience and who will manage the site. You then receive a proposal that sets out what is included, what is not and an estimated timeline.
Questions we often get
It is the design of a website: its structure, user experience, visual design and the agreements that keep the site usable. Web development is the build. At Zenjoy, both sit in one team, so the design matches what the CMS can do.
Research who uses the site and why, map its structure in wireframes, design around real content and a recognisable visual style, test accessibility and different screen sizes, and hand the design over to the people who work with it every day.
Yes, it can create a polished layout. It does not decide what your site needs to do for whom, design around your real content in three languages, measure accessibility or protect the design from three years of editing. It may be enough for a simple page. It is not enough for a site that needs to support your organisation.
We do not charge for web design by the hour. You receive a project proposal covering research, structure, design and handover, with exclusions made clear. The price depends on the number of page types, languages, the amount of visual design work needed and how much content is involved. An hourly rate does not tell you that.
Yes. We design for a small screen first because most traffic is there, then test in the browsers and on the devices your visitors use.
No. It is designed to prevent that. Blocks in Nimbu have boundaries: an editor chooses content, order and images; the design sets colour, typography and space. A review step and version history let you undo changes.
We work with partners to create logos or complete visual identities. We translate your existing visual identity to the web: typography, colour, imagery and the rules that keep them consistent.
Web design determines a large part of findability: structure, headings, speed and whether content remains readable without JavaScript. We build that in. We work with partners for ongoing SEO.
Allow a few weeks for research, structure and design for a site with clear content. It takes longer when several languages, page types or a large amount of existing content are involved. Content determines the timeline more often than design does.
Want a design your editorial team can keep coherent?
Send us your current site and tell us what bothers you about it. We will take a look with you.
Book a call
You will speak with someone who can think through the substance of your project. No obligation, no standard pitch.
Would you rather see what we designed first? View the cases