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Unfortunately, you do not have all day to impress visitors with your website. You can have the best content in the world and it can be ignored. The first couple of seconds when a customer lands on your website is important. You need to make sure that you capture their attention straight away before they are even going to get to your content. Are you not sure how to do this? Here are five essential tips that are going to allow you to improve your web design.
Feature Customer Reviews
When you are buying a product or going to use a service, you want to check up and see if other customers are happy with what they received. Indeed, you rely on previous customer reviews in order to make your decision. Reviews are a means of customers to indirectly talk to each other. This is where a product or service gains authenticity, gains the trust of new customers. Details of the product’s delivery, of its longevity and functionality, of customer service will all be described. Although some will simply state, “great!” which may well just be enough. Reviews are something you should utilize in your web design. Be it in a sliding header or in columns – like you’d find on a film poster or in a book – at the base of the page – you should show them. If you have had a lot of good reviews, make sure that you feature them. This can help you gain new customers. Don’t be shy about success, be proud.
Storytelling
People like stories. People trust stories. Businesses by default are “brands”. The brand is the story, the environment of the business. Every square-inch and pixel tells the story of your business, which becomes your brand. No business can avoid a story and, by extension, becoming a brand. A website, then, becomes essential to this practice. It must further establish your business values and what your business wants to be perceived as. The images, colour scheme, font – all this matters.
A lot of people are visual. In other words, they are going to gain a better understanding and trust your brand through images. This is something you can incorporate into your web design to attract customers. For example, consider the online casino NetBet. They make it easy to find your favorite casino games through colorful and eye-catching images.
Also, it’s key to be consistent with your images. For instance, your business might be versatile, and require a different aesthetic for different sections. However, using animated-cartoon-like images and professionally composed, glamorous headshots next to each other on the same page will be jarring. Online casinos, like NetBet, often have the online games where the popping imagery of animation is used in the thumbnails on one page and in a different section have live casino which uses the glamorous imagery. This separation and clarity, with the change of aesthetic, defines the difference, and ensures the customer is aware of their surroundings.
Colour and font are integral too. If you want to appear luxurious then having multiple bright colours may not contribute to that. Equally, while papyrus might be the go-to font for current decorative objects, it might not be ideal for your brand. It’s all about being appropriate. Best practice is often to keep things simple.
Do Not Fill Up White Space
One mistake that a lot of businesses make with web design is trying to fill all white space. But realize that you do not have to use loads of images or include a lot of information. Making your website simple and spacious is a good thing. It means that your visitor is not overloaded with visuals and there is not too much to take in. Overwhelming your customer can make them anxious. Only include information that is important and that adds value. Avoid ‘fluff’ and keep images low. Think about adding quality and not quantity, especially on your homepage.
A website isn’t like a shopfront. You shouldn’t try to look busy, look full, look as if you have an abundance of things to sell and offer. A website is more like an employee. It should be simple, polite, and helpful – indicative of the general ethos of your business.
The above practice of not filling up white space aids navigation too. Visitors to your website will decide in just a few seconds whether they are going to stick around. So, you need to ensure that everything is easy for your visitors to find. This means having easy navigation. It should never be complicated to find services, products or information. Keep it simple and make sure that you put yourself in your customer’s shoes.
Some websites overdo the descriptions, captions, and storytelling elements of their design. For instance, luxury furniture designer websites will incorporate the history of the piece(s) into the page where a customer selects a sofa design. The whole thing becomes distracting and complicated. It’s hard to tell whether you need to select a sofa here or find a more standard results page. The morale of this story is to keep things to a minimum.
Having a clear search bar is a helpful failsafe. Some customers will opt to use it straight away before trying to explore or, should customers have difficulty even if the website is easily navigable, it can be used as a last resort.
Optimize for Mobiles
More people than ever are browsing on their mobiles. Tasks can be completed on mobiles thanks to the advanced technology and programmers seeking to make the user’s life easier. As such, devices like laptops and PCs aren’t a necessity anymore. This means that you have to make sure that your website is optimized and ready for mobile viewers. After all, if the website is not responsive or is too complicated for a mobile device, they will simply leave and look for a competitor. Ensure that mobile users are going to have a good experience and are going to be able to find everything they need.
