Design
The important area to consider is design. Have you ever gone to such a poorly designed site that you questioned its legitimacy? Have you struggled to find contact information? Were you impressed by the photography and imagery? All of these elements are incredibly important to your user’s experience and will determine how they view your brand and if they will become repeat customers.
Mobile Responsive Design
Prior to the introduction of responsive technology, best practice was to have a separate mobile friendly micro-site from your desktop site. This typically required separate maintenance for two separate sites. What a pain! Mobile responsive technology now allows you to have one website that dynamically changes and adapts to the device the site is being viewed on. This means that the website will optimize it’s display and design so your user will always have the best experience possible.
Calls to Action
Calls to action are one of the most important parts to increase conversion. Having clear calls to action on your site will help encourage visitors to carry out the desired behavior. Calls to action can range anywhere from “Donate” to “Join Our Mailing List” to “Request a Quote” or “More Info.” These should be clickable in the form of a button or “tap to call,” making it easier for visitors to perform said action. You should also consider positioning and placement. Making your calls to action hard to find will not help generate those conversions, so make sure they are large and visible in the headers, footers and/or given their own area that is easy to find. Other ways to make your call to action easy to find can include the use of a side bar or a sticky widget that floats along the side of the screen as a user scrolls..
Imagery
Imagery is critical to design when it comes to making a site that is appealing to the user. Quality resolution matters! Be sure to use high resolution photos on your site that are clear and aesthetically pleasing. Having blurry images can ruin even the best website. While smartphone cameras are evolving rapidly, they cannot offer the best resolutions for website photography. In particular, they will not satisfy the needs of large slideshows or full page imagery, which is currently a big trend for today’s websites. Bringing in a photographer and having them snap some great photos of your business and employees is a great way to get the best quality photos. Another option is to purchase stock photography. If you do not have the resources to have professional photos done right away, stock photography can be a good option.
Menus
ave you ever gone to a website and had to drill down 5 layers to get where you wanted to go? Have you then accidentally hovered off the menu and had to start over again? Menus have a big impact on user experience. Menus should be easy to navigate, and users should never have to go more than two clicks deep to get to the page they want. If you have more than two levels consider a “mega menu.” Amazon does a great job utilizing this method to help their users navigate their deep structure.
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