Having a good website design goes beyond the aesthetic value, to how it works and helps connect with your audience. Let’s focus on the latter.
Web Design and Connecting to Your Audience
When it comes to designing websites, the divide between what makes a good website, and what makes a great one is huge. Figuring it out is what brings you a step closer to connecting with your audience.
While most people would not be able to pinpoint what they love about your design, in particular, it’s enough that visiting your web page gives them a feeling of satisfaction, and a reason to return. To this end, it is vital to know what you should have in mind when designing your website, or if you already have one, when redesigning, to ensure it connects with your audience.
Ways to Build a Connection With Website Design
Make it Humane
Although a website is a virtual intangible entity, it has to have a touch of humanity to it. It means that when designing a website, you must have in mind that it is for humans, and would be used by them. Thus, having a design that makes it hard for your audience to use, or features they don’t understand, is a no-no.
A friendly website is user-friendly, preempts its audience's needs, and meets it without much hassle. It should have the following qualities:
It Should Be Consistent
Consistency is vital; the pages and the story your website tells should flow together without unnecessary breaks. Don’t change your layouts too often, and use patterns that your audience can quickly get used to.
It Should Be Readable
Some website designs make it challenging for their audience to read the content. Often, because the designer is focusing on creating something catchy and trendy, the designer uses color schemes that do not match. Thus, ensure the color contrast between the background and text is clear. Also, ensure you use the right font size that’s suitable for your audience.
It Should Be Clickable
It means that features that highlight different aspects of your webpage should be designed in a way that makes them stand out. For example, using colors like green when a purchase or registration gets carried out successfully sends a message before the words appear. You can also color-code links to products, services, or solutions in a way that separates them and makes them easily noticeable.
Give It Emotions
Not every action or decision that people take comes from a place of rational thought. Emotions play a massive role in how people arrive at conclusions and take steps, and a balance of the two often produces the best results.
Thus, for your website design to connect with your audience, the result should speak to their emotions. To achieve this, the website should have imagery, vibrant but balanced colors, and fascinating graphic designs that appeal to the audience.
The emotional language of your website has to be consistent. Limit how you change your designs or features during upgrades, and if you must, ensure it’s something relatable, that would provoke the same feeling as before in your audience.
Also, you can incorporate smileys and emojis. For example, if your website sells products and services, a thumbs-up emoji can pop-up after purchase as a way of saying thank you to your customers.
It Should Tell a Story
Your website can tell a story from its design. Most sites have horizontal or vertical designs or both. Therefore, whether a person is scrolling down or swiping to the left or right, the contents that appear should tell a story.
Often, storytelling on websites follows the following pattern:
- A catchy phrase about the business of the site
- An “About us” feature
- A list of the products and services rendered
- A list of past clients and testimonials
- Blog posts that shed light on the business of the website
- A call to action which are the ways to make contact with those behind the scenes.
All of the above tells your story, and should be arranged in a way that takes a person from one stage to the other, and keeps the information flowing and progressive. Note that in telling your story, the contents used should not be boring; avoid lengthy paragraphs and use bullet points.
Ensuring Your Website Design Connects Your Audience
Know Your Audience
Knowing your audience cuts across different fields, and web design is one of them. To create a website that connects with your audience, you have to know those you are creating for, after all, you can’t appeal to the emotions of those you don’t know.
Find out what kind of people visit your page, and tools like Google Analytics and social media platforms are good ways to investigate your audience.
Make It User-Friendly
The importance of a user-friendly website cannot get overemphasized; it doesn’t matter if you know your audience very well, or the design connects with their emotions, they won’t get to know your site if the design makes it unusable. Thus, ensure it is navigation-fluent and has an interactive interface.
Make It Interesting
No one wants to visit a boring website, so consistently create content that would keep your audience interested, and make them visit the site frequently. Note that graphics, color scheme, and layout, contribute to exciting content. Ensure everything remains organized, and where it is supposed to be.
Conclusion
When it comes to generating traffic on your website, going all-in is good, but doing it with an understanding of what works for your audience is better. If you follow the ideas we’ve shared with you, it will help you build a connection with your audience, and ensure they keep visiting your website frequently.
