There are some design ideas that are extremely easy to implement but have a high success ratio. These are often overlooked because a lot of people think that they are too simple to yield meaningful results. Implementing these ideas would enhance the functionality of your website, improve the user experience of the visitors to your site and also improve aesthetics and standard of the content, improving the interactivity of the website. Some of the ideas are as follows-
Usability:
- Don’t clutter with too many ads: If you want to ensure that you visitors keep returning to your website, you will have to improve their experience as well as provide them with the right content or service that they are looking. One of the UX best practices are that you should not cramp the website with too many flashy advertisements and affiliate banner advertisements that decrease navigability, slow down the website or reduce visibility of the actual content. Although, the commercial aspect of a website cannot be altogether ignored, it is also true that your website would only be successful if it can drive conversion. That would happen only if users don’t find too many disruptive elements in your website.
- Put the most important links at the top of the page: A lot of websites make the mistake of stuffing the bottom of a website page with important links and other vital information. It is been discussed multiple times in the past and it is an appropriate time to reiterate once more that it is a general tendency to not scroll down to view content below the fold. In such a scenario, the most logical alternative will be to place the most important links and information at the top in plain view. Avoid pop-up or drop-down menus. Usability studies suggest that it has been noted through experiential findings that users don’t mind being taken to separate pages as long as their information content is met.
- Don’t use music or videos that auto-play and don’t use flash: Users are put-off if a website is too heavy and takes too long to load. You should never include music and videos that start to auto-play. Also, you should not use Flash technologies which slow down the speed further. Javascript and CSS make more sense. Don’t use stock photos just for the sake of adding one. Use images that complement the content.
Design:
- A proper layout: A website should have a sound flow. The content, ads and widgets should be mixed in such a way that they don’t intrude in each other’s space. Images help to break monotony. But, it shouldn’t overpower the all-important text.
- Right font size, line spacing, white space, length of a sentence and right image size: A good UI uses optimized images which don’t slow down loading. It should also use the right amount of white space to de-clutter and also use line spacing, padding so that the written content can be separated from the rest and also the right font size which makes reading easier. Keep the website simple.
A website is meant to improve user experience. All the strategies adopted should work towards this goal. But sometimes, designers forget the goal and make a means the goal itself ending up reducing functionality and usability of the website. If you want your website to standout and increase search volume, you will have to get these basic design ideas in place, no matter what, and you can rest assured that there will be a surge in site traffic soon.
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