Six useful ways you can spruce up your website design

Six Useful Ways To Spruce Up Your Website Design

When you invite people over to your house, you would want them to have a good impression. No one would invite dinner guests over in a messy house and then not give them food. The same principle applies to websites.

People usually tend to have short attention spans when browsing websites. This means the amount of time you have to grab their attention is minimal. So, it is important that your website design is not messy and delivers a clear message. 

Fortunately, here are six ways you can spruce up your website design and make users engage with your site.

Incorporate visual hierarchy

The concept of visual hierarchy translates into organising the elements in your website. It helps you to prioritise which factors are more important and highlight them effectively.

The goal is to make users gravitate to what is most important without actually forcing it on them. The first thing to do here is to identify what elements are most important. Structure your site by adjusting the colours, position and size of those elements. 

Before anything else, draw the visitor’s attention to the site’s mission statement. Work down the hierarchy and remember to include a call-to-action button.

Effective Call to Action messages

Call to action (CTA) messages are vital if you want to engage users. 

According to David Hamill, an expert in usability research, website designs should include clear CTA messaging. CTA buttons such as ‘Download,’ or ‘Open an Account’ provide more clarity to users instead of buttons labelled ‘More information.’ 

A practical way to create effective CTA buttons is to use words or phrases in the first-person voice. You can evaluate your CTA buttons by using the Wilty Wilt test.

After choosing the words for the CTA button, ask the question “Do you want to…?” and answer with “I want to…” The word or phrase on your button should make sense in both statements. 

Another aspect of a good CTA button is the use of colours. 

For example, if your website design consists of muted colours, a CTA button in another contrasting colour will draw more attention. The key is in finding a colour palette that can accentuate your CTA button without making the site look tacky.

Remember to give the user a clear idea of what they will get when they click on the CTA button. This will improve your chances for conversion.  

Take advantage of testimonials

Not many people click on testimonial pages on websites. However, researchers opine that correct placement of testimonials can go a long way in improving user engagement.

Many expert web designers from London suggest that testimonials can be strategically placed throughout the site instead of a dedicated ‘Testimonial Page.’ 

So, if you have people saying good things about you or your products, find innovative ways to highlight them. Scatter the testimonials on relevant product or service pages. You could also opt for video testimonials which tend to catch more attention than text.

Create Team Pages

In any field, people are interested in learning who they are buying from and who their service providers are. Features like team pages will help create empathy between users and the businesses they are engaging with.

More and more companies have had this realisation, and web designers now incorporate ‘behind the scenes’ aspects in their sites. 

Use the site to let the visitor know the people behind the products or the services. This allows them to see the company from a more human perspective and creates a bond of sorts. Many experts believe that this type of interaction could prove beneficial for the company in the long run.

Make it mobile-friendly

Making your web design mobile-friendly is an absolute must. 

Tech giant Google recently updated the algorithm for rankings based on mobile searches. Now, mobile-friendly sites will be ranked higher than those that are not mobile-friendly. 

The reason Google did this was to ensure a good experience for users on any website. A site that has several tiny links and is not easy to navigate will not engage many users. The ‘pinch and zoom feature on non-mobile-friendly sites are also not very convenient either.

Another aspect to consider is that most users now access the internet through mobile devices. This should be motivation enough to start thinking about mobile-friendly web design.

Think beyond the fold

Scrolling is one of the most natural things to do for people browsing the internet. Although most users pay attention to elements that appear above the fold, you don’t have to clutter everything up there.

The most important aspect of the brand messaging should be above the fold. However, you need to give visitors a reason to scroll through your website.

For example, if you want to track conversions or collect user data, contact forms can be placed below the fold. No one visits a website and immediately decides to give out personal information. You must also formulate your questions in such a way that it is not intrusive. 

Visual components like illustrations and photos can also be used effectively to encourage users to scroll. Just remember that they should be relevant to the site’s messaging and services.

Conclusion 

It is always recommended that your website does not leave visitors hanging. Create links to other pages so that they are always on the move. For this purpose, internal links like CTA buttons and contact form links are most effective. 

As we mentioned in the sections above, make sure that users know what they are getting when they click on links and buttons. 

Finally, one of the most effective ways of keeping them engaged is using a ‘Thank you’ page. It gives you another opportunity to engage users. A service-based company can offer discount coupons or codes or have users follow their social media, there is no cost here, but it could eventually pay off and lead to more meaningful engagement with clients.

We hope these tips will help you create more effective and efficient websites.