Part 2
Last month, we started looking at a few of the most crucial points for good website design. In part two of our discussion, we are wrapping it up with a few more tips.
6. Avoid Accordions Where Possible.
Accordions have their place in certain music genres, but not so much in design, though. Given that most of your visitors come to your site to quickly scan for info, you should not keep your content hidden in different tabs or expandable boxes.
Show off your great content in a simple, easy-to-find way.
This accordion menu, for example, can become hard to navigate for mobile users:
Sweat Vac, on the other hand, has concise menu descriptions with short labels. You can see exactly what the company does, and their products are listed in a simple, minimalist way.
7. Images.
Studies show that faces draw our attention more than anything else. Images of people can help you connect with audiences on an emotional level. Not only do we spend most of our time looking at people’s faces, but we also follow their line of sight. This is the ideal opportunity for you to get creative with where you place your call to action.
Remember to not rely on stock images too much. They tend to look artificial. If you have the budget and resources available, hire a professional to capture high-quality images of people that match your brand and website style.
8. Keep Your Navigation Descriptive.
Your website navigation gives you a chance to tell your visitors what to do. Visitors typically start scanning for information from the top left of the website, and move across in a Z-format, as shown below:
When your navigation tabs are too generic, you miss the opportunity to tell users what to do. They will have to search around longer, and they might miss certain information.
NavCo, is a good example:
9. Let Us Talk About Writing…
There is one crucial thing you need to keep in mind when designing a website. The design itself serves as a “container” for your content. Having a beautiful, easy-to-navigate website is crucial, but even more important is the information on it. Words have the power to encourage or discourage the sale.
Here are a few basic tips when putting together the content for your website:
• Save Your Key-Phrase Headline for The Home Page
What is your company’s core focus? Your unique differentiator… Save this as a main headline for your home page, so people can immediately associate it with your brand.
• Use Descriptive Sub-Headlines
Sub-headlines provide you with an additional opportunity to guide your audience’s browsing. Avoid vague descriptions, and try to be as specific as possible. In NavCo’s case, here are a few examples:
• Answer Your Visitors’ Top Questions
People visit your site to solve a specific problem. They have certain questions. By answering their questions with your content, you have an additional opportunity to build trust and keep them on your site.
10. Finding What You’re Looking For.
As mentioned earlier, the visual elements of a website are important. They should evoke emotion and appeal to your users. But more importantly, you should feature content that addresses users’ pain points. People should easily be able to find what they are looking for.
Research shows that the main cause of users abandoning a site is because they struggle to find what they are looking for. In Google Analytics, Average Time on Page can give you a good idea of how long people spend looking for something specific on your site. The natural thought would be that the longer people spend time on your site, the better, right?
Wrong…
If you’re a retailer for example, you’d want people to find something within the first minute on your website. If you have a catalogue with thousands of products, you don’t want users scrambling through pages and lists of unorganised content. So, group your products together in a way that makes sense, and avoid using too many sub-menus.
The discussion about good design can carry on for days or even weeks. Industry experts place emphasis on different things. Your audience’s taste differs. However, there are a few cardinal things to keep in mind when designing or revamping your website. In our experience, the most important are:
• Always Identify Your Marketing Goal Before You Start the Project
Do you want to generate leads with your website, or do you rely more on face-to-face sales? Do you simply want to provide users with more information about your products or services, for example?
• Design to Reach Your Objective
Regardless if you want to generate sales on your website or not, it should be easy to navigate, and users should painlessly be able to find that they’re looking for.
• Test and Measure
Always remember the importance of testing different layouts and being creative. Only when you know what your audience responds to best will you have clarity on where you need to focus most of your time and budget.
Need advice on your website? Contact us today:
(012) 771 7640
