With all the business competition in the marketplace nowadays, no matter what industry you are in, it’s not enough to simply employ the usual marketing strategies. At the core of it all, the difference will rest on the tiny details of how you project your brand. Ultimately, these details and how they consequently affect user experience is what’s going to drive clients—either towards your brand or away from it.
One of the more effective platforms wherein you can attract customers with excellent user experience is through your official website. This is an important element of digital marketing because this is essentially your business’ representation online. If you’re targeting a wider market scope, the fastest way for you to do that is to put up a website and lead people here. That way you can make the most out of the website’s functionalities.
Website Functionalities
First and foremost, websites should contain vital information about your company and brand. If your company has multiple products, you can have a separate company website that delves more into your identity as an organization. You can focus on your mission and vision, the developments in your team, perhaps even corporate news-related items.
However, if you would like to focus simply on your product or service, then you can also come up with a separate and distinct website for this purpose alone. Here, the main focus of the content will purely be about the goods—price points, availability, sales transactions policies such as returns and exchanges, discounts, or even promotions and events. You can also put an option for online sales in this website.
Of course, you also can just have all of them in one website, if it’s convenience and consistency that you want to promote. If that’s the case, however, and given the sheer volume of information and data that you’ll be putting in it, it’s only right that you make your website as intuitive and ergonomic in use as possible.
Good Reading Flow
Among the important elements of a good web design is a good layout. The common reading pattern for Western audiences is to read from left to right, up to down. As such, the way the content is laid out should follow this natural reading pattern. Make the more important information or captions a lot more prominent by increasing the font size and using easy to read letters.
The rest of the page should also have good visuals and readability, otherwise it will turn off readers. Even if your content is good, therefore, it’s not going to be appreciated as well because it’s difficult to read.
Themes and Color Schemes
Another factor that will inevitably affect the readability of the site is the color scheme and themes to be used. As much as possible, it should be aligned with your brand’s official color to keep your marketing strategy consistent across the board.
Avoid colors that are too bright or sharp. If your brand’s color is maroon, for example, you don’t have to use this as the whole background color, or even the text color itself. Instead, the designer can simply incorporate the color in other elements of the website such as the borders or the logo itself, for example.
The point is that the design should not overwhelm the visibility of the content. After all, that is the main point of your website—to give information. Always remember to prioritize function over aesthetic.
Links and Embeds
Use both external and internal links to further improve the reader’s user experience. Be mindful of how you put them in, though, because there still has to be a certain balance to the length of the text versus the amount of hyperlinks in it. Lists on the sidebar usually also feature links to lead the reader to another section of the website or outside of it. Make sure that each and every one of them actually do work.
Meanwhile, video embeds should also be sized accordingly. The file size and quality of the video will also affect the performance of the website. The heavier the file is, the slower the loading time tends to be. Take this into consideration when populating your website with big-sized data. Online users are known to have very little patience, expecting instant results with literally a click of a button. If your website keeps bogging down or is slow to react, it’s definitely going to turn them off sooner rather than later.
That’s why a company like JTek Resources should be tapped to get your website design up and running smoothly. Strategize your web design to improve your brand’s online standing and reputation.
Sources:
10 Principles of Good Website Design. smashingmagazine.com
Top Web Design Trends to Watch in 2017. Forbes.com
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