Websites are still raging on as the primary means to inform the masses about a person, a cause, a business or a product. To refresh: UI stands for User Interface, which is best defined as the overall look and feel and the presentation and interactivity of a product. On the other hand, UX stands for User Experience or the usability and ease of use towards the end users. In part 2 of this blog, we continue discussing today’s most important and essential website components.
User Interface Design—Top Website Components
Visuals are definitely key and worth explaining as the first piece of UI design. Every business will need visuals of some sort, be it a photo gallery, backgrounds, professional product photos, videos, video graphics and so on. When we mention visuals, headshots and maps are very popular for innovative teams. Letting people know who is the face of your company or who is on your team helps visitors build trust between you. Where you are in the country or the world is a helpful tool as well.
Fonts, although separate, can also fall under visuals. It’s not often these are overlooked, but some websites are rough. Papyrus is not a font to use as body text and we’ve seen it before. Keep fonts light, legible, and properly-sized. Use multiple fonts to create flow within your design as well.
Email subscriptions—yes, this is the big one. We all love and hate email subscriptions. The right marketers know how to keep their list growing without an excessive number of opt-outs. It’s a matter of properly balancing emails and newsletters to their user base. Even before discussing your list, talk out the details of time delays or a trigger on your website. Do you want your email subscription pop up to appear as soon as a visitor lands on your homepage? Would it be better if the email request box popped up when they reached a certain section of your website’s homepage?
User Experience Design—Top Website Components
Visuals are important enough to list in both categories. One important part to realize is how many visuals to include. Too many visuals can overwhelm prospects, while too little might be a turnoff and a disservice to yourself and your brand.
Giving people information about you will earn their trust. Hopefully, it is true information about yourself and your business. Company past milestones and how the entity was founded is great to share. You may not think people will care about it. However, in the long run, it adds to the relationship between you and your customers. Your ‘About Us’ page should reflect a variety of things such as chief staff, history, your mission and vision statement as well as your value propositions. This is also the page you can use to professionally boast your achievements.
A great follow up component to the ‘About You’ page is a secondary page for testimonials. Of course, a great way to maximize the effectiveness of testimonials is to film them and embed a YouTube video or Vimeo video on your website. This is just our hypothesis, but people will most likely favor giving a written testimonial in lieu of a video testimonial. If that’s the case, use a written testimonial that can’t be simply copy-and-pasted. IDEA: You could screenshot a written testimony of a popular review-based website like Yelp, WeddingWire, or any resource found in this snazzy article!
Just as important as testimonials is your portfolio. Showing potential new clients what your past projects have included is a great move. Some people may be against this for fear of others stealing their work, which is a possibility. We recommend watermarking and/or copyrighting any work you can before posting it online. Keep in mind that not having any past work to showcase might draw a flag. Now, if you’re new to business and don’t have a portfolio, well, of course, you can’t showcase any past work. Be sure to work hard and hustle to get one growing as fast as possible. Don’t fake any work until you can show your real work. People will see right through the curtain and your credibility will take a serious hit.
Checklist And Recap
- UI: Visuals
- UI: Fonts
- UI: Subscription
- UX: Visuals
- UX: About You
- UX: Testimonials
- UX: Portfolio
Be sure to enter to win our free website giveaway if you haven’t already! Our contest runs from now until January 31st, 2018 at 6 pm! Enter here to win an exceptional website from our team: https://limginc.lpages.co/new-year-new-brand/
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