Web Design Scores…
Whether you love football, hate it or just couldn’t care less, the World Cup is upon us at last, and set to dominate television screens, newspapers and many of your male friends’ conversation topics for the next four weeks. It will also undoubtedly inspire many loosely football-themed posts in the blogosphere, so for a kick-off here are five shamelessly (and somewhat tenuous!) footie-themed ways to score big and win fans with the design of your website.
Goal! – Having an uncluttered page
There is a point at which your website can become too ‘busy’. Skilled web designers know when to rein it in and stop adding things to the design. Far from being impressive, a page loaded with a multitude of bells and whistles can be distracting, sometimes to the point of becoming unusable.
Goal! – Making your navigation clear and intuitive
Your website is not just for looking at, it’s for using. Therefore it essential that it is easy to use – user-friendly. Have clearly marked out buttons for everything that a visitor might wish to do, and make sure they take them where they expect to go,
Goal! – Having a website that works great on desktop and mobile devices
Web users come in many different flavours – desktop surfers, public transport cyber-wanderers, couch shoppers and laptop lovers. Your site, however, should come in only one, and should be as attractive and intuitive to use on mobiles and tablets as it is on a desktop computer.
Goal! – Ensuring your pages load quickly
This is 2014, and people expect instant action when they click on a website. Your page should ideally load within one or two seconds. If it takes longer than four seconds then you should seriously consider taking steps to reduce page load times.
Gooooal! – Having Clear and well-defined ‘call to action’ areas
It’s all well and good people liking your site, but you want them to take action – to buy, subscribe, call etc. Make sure that you have prominent buttons or textual content that are designed specifically to enable the user take these actions.
D’oh! Own Goal! – Being so South Africa 2010
Look at a site from just four years ago and you’ll notice significant differences in functionality and style. Users can quickly identify websites that belong in the past, and needless to say this will not help your online marketing efforts.
