October 25, 2014
Website Design
1) Clean website design
Imagine yourself walking into a high-end retailer. You will notice the open layout of the store. Products are neatly displayed. Featured items catch your eye and you will be pleased to see there is no clutter. You feel energized, you feel awake. It is because of this ambiance that you soon open your wallet and make a purchase.
Now transplant yourself into an off-price retailer (or a big box discount store). You will find racks of clothing, books placed next to kitchen utensils, and finally that random pair of shoes that fell behind a shelf. Your anxiety builds, you feel lost. Soon, you feel discouraged and all you can think off is finding the nearest exit.
Your website is no different than those store fronts. If you have a small website, fill in the gabs in an organized manner. Make your visitors feel welcome. For the big sites, organization is even more important. Highlight relevant content just as a high-end retailer would do with featured products.
2) Clear navigation
According to Shopify, 25% of online shoppers leave your website because the navigation is too complicated. Think of it this way – before we had GPS a business’s location was even more vital. If the navigation was too difficult, the consumer would go elsewhere. It is still the same today. Website users want information fast. If they can’t find it, they will leave.
3) Simplify things
Remember the acronym K.I.S.S.? Keep it simple stupid. The times of spamming search engines with astronomical amounts of useless content and keywords is over. Most sites are penalized by search engines when using such spamming methods. The new approach is to have content that is fresh, simple, and relevant. Stay on top of your customers mind. But don’t be overwhelming. Simplicity will attract genuine visitors.
4) Find the balance between visual impact and content
There are endless opportunities to make your website visually impactful. But remember, just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Try and look for a shirt online. It will show you the available colors but when you hover over the color swatch, it will also tell you the name of the color. If you would only see hot pink written out, then it leaves it up to your imagination how that shade of pink will look like. On the flip-side, having a photo of a pink shirt without description doesn’t tell your customers anything about measurements, materials, or quality.
Show what you have to say and explain it. But don’t be overbearing. Nobody has time to filter.
5) Mobile responsive design
With one-quarter of global web searches conducted on a mobile device by over a billion users worldwide, mobile websites are just as important, if not more so, than desktop versions, says Huffington Post. There is simply no way that you can go without it.
Your visitors will have to scroll more as is; therefore, the mobile version of your website needs to be even simpler than the desktop version. Clean design, clear navigation, and the right amount of content are crucial to ensure that visitors enjoy your mobile responsive site.