There’s an incredibly fine balance between making a website impressive and attractive, and creating something that’s hard to navigate, in turn putting off potential customers. Here we share a few key ‘dos and don’t’s for anyone looking to secure the wow factor – without the ‘where is that?’
Consider user experience
User experience should be at the heart of everything you do online. When visitors to your website feel fulfilled and engaged, they are much more likely to stay there and in turn spend time and money with your business. Therefore it’s vital that you consider their needs right at the very beginning of your website build, before the key design and development stages have begun. How will they want to browse your site? What information do they need to receive first – and how do they need to receive it? What colours do they prefer? How will they react to imagery? Once you have a clear view of the requirements and behaviours of your target customer, you can begin to develop the design around them – instead of tweaking it after that fact, as so many businesses are forced to do. User first, design second.
Keep design elements simple
Fancy designs can be complicated – and whilst it’s impressive for a minute or so, for customers who want to make a purchase or a booking with you or find key information, too much all at once quickly becomes frustrating. Simplicity is key – even if you are tempted to incorporate lots of different elements in an effort to impress clients. Choose one focus and stick with it – making sure that the quality is there throughout rather than building a website that offers a confusing mix of elements that irritate and bewilder visitors.
Short and sweet
Banks of text are not preferred by increasingly impatient users who just want websites to get to the point and deliver the information they need. Instead of filling pages with swathes of copy, break it down into manageable chunks that are shared in conjunction with creative and imaginative visuals.
Make engaging with you easy
Keep contact details visible and obtainable at all times as users navigate through your site. Remember that they could decide to get in touch at any moment – so make it easy for them. Don’t hide email addresses and phone numbers away on your contact page. Responsive web design will also help keep contact information useful by allowing phone numbers or emails to be directly clickable so the user doesn’t have to deal with copy and pasting.
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