Does your website have a five-pixel border with a clean-cut design and pretty colors? That’s great. Do you have some seriously impressive wordage on your site? Even better. But what prompts your customers to take the time to read and appreciate the content on your site? A clean, functional website design. So, let’s discuss three important tips for better web design that will showcase your content.
Clarity
We at Compulse will tell you time and time again that one of the main things you should worry about is clarity. Your customers need to know who you are, what your business is about, and how they can interact with your business. Don’t add too many buttons and competing call-to-actions that could sidetrack your customers from your main goal and get them lost. Remember, a great user experience is a key ingredient for better web design.
How does this affect your content? The same principle of clarity we tout for your site’s architecture also goes for your site’s content. Don’t overwrite for your business! If your site has a blog, think about your brand and what makes you different than other small businesses in your market. If you work within a particular niche, write frequently and position yourself as “the expert” in the niche. If your business feels like a unicorn, a unique stand-out finding your way in a broader category, you might want to narrow your focus to one specific product or service. Make sure your content creation is of high-quality as too many “fluff” or “salesy” articles can quickly deter your followers.
Balance
Most designers will tell you not to use every color in the crayon box on your website. Too much color can visually overload a lot of people and cause them to abandon the virtual ship. However, using only one or even two colors can be underwhelming. You need to find a nice balance amongst the color palette that still shows off your company’s personality.
Though it may not always seem like it, color has everything to do with content and great web design. If your color scheme leans towards the more conservative side, people might start to skim rather than read – especially if your page is full of text. Readers can see a mass of text without color accents and assume the material is dense or uninteresting. Mixing up page layouts and introducing small splashes of color are excellent ways to keep your audience’s attention. If you have a cleaner background, opt for content that mixes images in with your text. If you have a busier background, feel free to keep your pages lined with well-written text.
Variety
Does your website design utilize the same colors in the same layout across each page? Not usually. Website designs tend to keep things like text size and formatting the same, but the actual design of the pages usually varies. This is because a well-designed website is built to keep things interesting for the human eye so that the customer’s interest is easily sparked.
If you’ve recently switched your website’s layout, you might be asking what you should do with all your old content. Simple: you vary it. Remember – content isn’t just text and photos. It can also be videos, animations, and sounds. You don’t have to use all different kinds of media to vary your pages, but mixing and matching different types will keep the main content of your page intriguing.
Your site could have the best content in the world, but without allowing your site to take advantage of careful, thoughtful website design, no one will ever bother to see it. The best way to do this is by building a web presence that is versatile. Learn more about how you can balance your website’s content and design by calling Compulse today.