What is quite often forgotten in the process is the consideration of how users will respond to the website. Whilst it is generally universal that a beautifully made website is beautiful (notwithstanding everyone’s individual subjectivity) it doesn’t necessarily mean that the site itself will lend itself to good conversions or user response, and this is what we want to focus on primarily with this article.
Factors to consider for web design
There are many factors one would consider when designing a new website, the look, feel, colour scheme, contrasts, balance, images and text to name but a few. All of these factors make up the individual components for the brand and message that is being conveyed through the website.
Whilst many sites you come across do this very well, less actually give you the initial impression of either their brand or overall message to the user. In its core, a good converting website will be able to deliver that message within fractions of a second of initial viewing of the website, whether through mobile or desktop.
A word which will be used here and is always good to keep in mind is balance.
As with most things in life, once you strike the right balance you will be well on your well to a success at a given task or goal. In this case we are referring to the balance of providing enough information to the end user but not overwhelming them.
There has been a definite shift in overall web design to make websites more functional and providing more information within a given space. Whilst the delivery of information is essential (with average user times reducing ever more) providing the right information in the right place makes a huge difference.
Understanding what a conversion is (to your own website) is very important as that definition could be a multitude of varying tasks.
To an e-commerce website, a direct sale, for a brochure site clicking on a contact form, for a business desiring leads, contact via phone or email is what is wanted and needed.
In many cases, all methods of conversions can be tracked and monitored coupled with running A/B testing to measure which version of a page converts stronger.
It is also worth defining your site potential user personas and how each of them may react differently to the site sections and interactions by following different user flows.
In the same way that there are compulsive buyers which may lead by appealing images of a product or the buyer profile
which would dig into more detail by finding information before executing the purchase.
There are many examples and universal strategies that we put in place to ensure your website will get the best possible start to help facilitate conversions to occur. As we have spoken about already, getting your core message/brand across within moments of the site loading.
Making sure you have the right balance between enough information but not overwhelming the user.
Making the site easy to navigate and ensuring you have calls to actions distributed throughout the site.
However, we think that if these factors along with proper visual and verbal communication coupled with a good funnel strategy which provides an optimal flow towards your web objectives, we can confidently say that it is likely that conversion will work well.
These points are all worthy of individual consultation and detailed explanation
and that is something Appart_ will take you through very early in the design stages to ensure your website, and your online business gets the best possible start you could wish for.
