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How to create a website that will capture your audience

  

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Beyond the edge...

Have you ever gone on a website and hit the back button right away because of the way the website looked?  Think about your website.  Are your viewers doing the same thing?  Viewers rely heavily on the design of a website to determine whether they want to continue exploring your site or bouncing off. Wherever you search online, the appeal of a website is one of the first things people look at.  You may have a great product, but without the right presentation, you will not reach your audience.  In this article, you will find 5 elements that can help you create a website that will grab your audience’s attention.  Each element – balance, consistency, focus, color and functionality - is essential in helping you achieve a strong website design.

Balance - Creating a sense of balance for a website is similar to the balance of a scale.  Each element on the webpage needs balance in order to hold your viewer’s interest.  The size, shape, and color of the elements on your website can make a difference in the “feel” it creates for a viewer.  Whether you have large, small, bright, or dark objects, there needs to be a balance.  The design of your website can either have a symmetrical balance, identical elements placed on a design evenly, or an asymmetrical balance, elements of different sizes, shapes, and colors placed on each side of a page in a way that still equalizes the weight on a design.

Consistency - The flow of your website is also very important, as it helps bring all of the elements together.  Whether it is text or images, it is important that the flow is consistent throughout your website. Inconsistencies may confuse your viewers and lead them to leave.  For example, if you have a navigation bar at the top, keep it at the top for all of your pages.  Do not change it to the right side for all of the other pages.  Your design should always be easy for your viewer to follow.  Can you imagine you customers having to spend more time looking for your website’s navigation links than actually looking at the products or services you offer on your website?  Your website should never be a scavenger hunt for your viewers.  Other design consistencies include fonts, colors, text, sizes and spacing for headers, subheadings, the body, links, captions, margins, and padding throughout the website.  This adds exponentially to the visual appeal.

Focus – The design of your website also revolves around the objectives of your business.  To reach your goals, your design should direct the attention of your viewers to a main focal point, the most important piece of every layout.  For instance, making a “Submit” button in a convenient and easy to find location will ensure that your customers will know where to make a purchase.  However, try not to have too many focal points on one page as this will lose your viewer’s attention. 

Create a focal point by:  

1. Using darker colors for headings and subheadings, while using lighter text for the rest of the content. 
2. Making text or images different shades to highlight the main content. 
3. Using fonts that are colored or unique for important information. 
4. Placing the image or text directly in the center of the page. 
5. Using a line to lead a viewer’s attention towards a point of interest. 
6. Bunching less important information in one area and placing the more important images or text in an area with empty space.  This will put more focus on the image or text.

Pattern – The design of your website needs to have a general pattern.  Once your viewers understand the pattern, they will be able to find what they are looking for without much effort.  Repeating items with a few variations make it easier for your viewer to adjust and creates a more comfortable, predictable flow. 

Color – Color plays another key role in a website’s design.  The colors you choose can either pull a viewer’s attention towards your goal or push them away.  Throughout our lives, color has been used to symbolize items around us.  For instance, red is used to convey danger or love, whereas green is to convey freshness, life or money.  Colors also have a subconscious affect.  Bright colors like oranges and reds can promote energy, action and even appetite, while blues and purples have a more relaxed, calming effect.  If you are not the best with colors, it would be more beneficial to hire a professional because colors that do not go together can spoil your whole site.

When choosing a color for your website, it should depend on your focus:

1. Brand Awareness - choose colors surrounding your logo.  This will help customers associate the colors with your website. 
2. Emotional Awareness – choose colors that fit that type of emotion.  For instance, if you are developing a website for a couple getting married, you may want to use colors like white for purity and pink for sweetness. 
3. Contrast – choose colors that are stronger or darker than the rest of the contents on your web page to make your focal point standout.

Functionality – Design your website so that it is accessible for most users.  For instance, do NOT use high resolution images that are only visible with higher end computers.  The majority of people viewing your website probably will not have that type of equipment.  Flash presentations have also become popular.  However, if you are targeting people who are less likely to be interested in Flash (and are not likely to have the plugin to view a Flash presentation) or if such a presentation does not match with your products/services, skip it.  No matter how nice something may look to you, you must consider your target market first.  After all, they will be the ones to whom you are targeting your website.  You must make sure that your pages load quickly, the important information stands out from the rest, and the coding for your website displays correctly for the majority of Internet browsers.