There’s a big difference between a good website and a great one. But ask a user what actually makes that difference and they’ll most likely struggle to give you an answer.
In general, users don’t know exactly what it is that they like about a website. They just know they like it. That kind of feedback can be hard to go off when you’re thinking about the design of your next website.
In this article, we’ll explore two of the most important factors that help a great website stand out from the crowd. Finally, we’ll also provide you with specific web design tips to help you create a great website for yourself.
If you need help creating a or redesigning your website so that it connects with your audience, contact us today.
What Makes a Great Website?
Design for Humans
All great websites are human-centered. They’re intuitive, easy to use, and tailored for their users.
This means that anyone that lands on the website will immediately know how to navigate it and how to use it to complete whatever it is they’re trying to do. When you are creating a business website, you need to make sure this is easy.
A website is like a waiter at a restaurant; it serves as the primary point of contact between a company and its customers. Truly great websites capitalize on that and make sure to offer users an enjoyable experience.
Some of the most common problems users encounter on a website include:
- Consistency and Navigation: All your pages should be consistent and easy to navigate.
- Readability: If your content can’t be read it’s literally useless. Make sure all users can easily read any text by trialing various font styles and sizes.
Design for Emotions
Many people mistakenly believe that the choice to choose one company/product over another is based on rational decision making.
Emotions are a huge player in making us pick a product or brand over another. A great website will capitalize on this by using colour, fonts, imagery, and other design elements to manipulate how a user feels about the brand they’re interacting with.
Figuring out how you want customers to feel about your company is closely related to branding. If you haven’t already thought critically about your brand image, make sure you do that before settling on a website design.
If you already have a solid understanding of your brand’s image, make sure to deeply ingrain that into your website.
3 Tips to Ensure Your Web Site Connects with Your Audience
Now that we have a better understanding of what makes for a great website, let’s explore some specific website design tips to help you connect with your audience.
Understand Who Your Audience Are
You can’t expect to connect with your audience without having a clear understanding of who they are.
Some great places to start researching your customers are social media and Google Analytics.
Use Facebook’s Insights tool to start gathering some detailed information about who is interacting with your brand online. This includes everything from the age of your customers to where they live and what interests they have.
Twitter Analytics can also provide you with further insight. Lastly, if you already have a website, make sure to use Google Analytics to research what kind of people are already visiting your page.
Focus On Usability
Next, make sure your website is easy to use. No matter how well you know your audience, you can’t expect to connect with them through a hard-to-use website.
As we mentioned earlier, make sure your site is intuitive. Everyone who lands on it should immediately know how to use it to complete various functions (such as browsing your products or contacting you).
Make sure that navigation between your various pages is fluent and that all your content is easy to read. Also, make sure any interactive design elements are easy to understand and that you’re not linking to any broken 404 pages.
Keep It Interesting
Last but not least, a great website needs to be interesting.
Make sure you give your users plenty of reasons to visit and interact with your site. To do so, think about your sites colour scheme, design style, and, most importantly, content.
All your content needs to be engaging and interesting. If it does not provide your users with something new or exciting, consider replacing it.
Finally, also make sure all your content is easy to read and organized in relevant categories to make it easier to digest.
Get In Touch
Please remember to check out our website design and development portfolio to see some of our recent work.
To learn more about how we can help you create a website that connects with your audience, please visit our page on website design.
