1. Put the most important content “above the fold”
When users visit a website, studies* show that 80.3% of people spend most of their attention above the fold. This term refers to what you see on the screen without needing to scroll down (above the bottom of your monitor screen), everything that appears once you start scrolling, is ‘below the fold’.
Your value proposition and/or tag line and a good call-to-action should be clear and pop from the page. Sometimes this will mean making your logo smaller, moving images around, perhaps sliders are a good alternative. Simplicity & white space speaks louder than cramming words and images into small spaces.
2. Plot your color scheme objectively
There are so many colors in a spectrum and it’s easy to get carried away and get lost with all that colorful fun. But to fully visualize and emphasize aspects of your website, limit your color scheme. Remember to use colors that are well received by your visitors, not necessarily your favorite bright pink.
Choose a palette that has one or two ‘background’ or lighter colors and then one or two stronger colors that help make important information POP. Designing in shades of grey can be very classy, and then add one… maybe two colors to highlight and dramatize. You will be amazed at the value of a shade of grey and if you really need more color, use different shades of one color.
3. Limit special effects
Special effects like audio, video and even little spinning blinky things can be fun but not so much for your visitors. Refrain from using little spinning blinky things, but if you have good (and not too long) video, use that in a strategic area and if you must have audio, give the visitor the control to either turn it off or on.
There’s a couple of technical reasons you want to restrain yourself from too many moving elements: it’s distracting and will take the emphasis off your marketing message, it can often slow the loading of your website and sometimes can look extremely unprofessional!
4. Step away!
Sometimes you just run out of ideas. Your mind just goes blank. Step away for a moment and pick up a good’ol fashioned pen and paper. Write or draw your ideas down. Sometimes a good night’s sleep allows for fresh new ideas to appear the next day and don’t forget to collaborate with a team or even friends if you still need some extra creative stimulus.
5. Hire a professional
Don’t forget that hiring a professional might be what you really need to do. It costs more to try to recover from a bad brand than it does to invest in your brand from the get-go. If that’s the case, make sure you check out their work and that they can meet your time lines. There are a lot of people that call themselves designers, so as always; Caveat Emptor!
BONUS TIP: Whatever you decide to do, build your site in WordPress. We simply do not recommend using free utilities such as weebly or wix. WordPress is the most user-friendly, google-friendly and design-friendly platform on the internet… it’s what we use!
Looking to build a new website or redesign your outdated one?
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(* https://www.nngroup.com/articles/scrolling-and-attention)