10 simple tips to improve your website
Nowadays it is very fashionable to “do-it-yourself”. For example, I already have a couple of friends who have found their hidden vocation of being mechanics and have managed to “camperize” (if that’s even a word) their white vans in a record time of 2 years and well, at least the gadgets work, although sometimes I think they found their source of inspiration in Penelope; the faithful wife of the classic hero Ulysses, who every day wove and unwove the same dress to outwit the suitors who wished to court her, and await the return of her longed-for beloved. Except that the story of my friends had more to do with assembling and disassembling mechanical components and their goal was rather to escape from their parental duties. But anyway, as most of us mortals are honest people with limited time and simply looking to save a few bucks, here are 10 tips in no particular order to help you design a better website (good taste should come as standard):
1. Be concise
We are on the internet folks, where the definition of immediacy takes on its full meaning. Precise and clear information, without distractions is key. A good example to follow is the headline-making scheme in journalism: what, who/whose, why, when and where, but divided into different headings and subheadings. If you don't believe me, ask your friend, the deep thinker, who takes his Tinder biography as a space to post Oscar Wilde quotes, and see how that works out! Yes, I’m one of those.
2. Responsiveness
Of course, one size fits all, right? Unfortunately, not. It’s important to consider mobiles and tablets etc. and beware the Judderman, device orientation complicates things further. Whether we like it or not, most peoples first interaction with any site is on a mobile device so it's important to make that experience as smooth as possible. Tools such as Bootstrap and Material Design can help you in this endeavour and we even have a few of our own.
3. Color palette.
We've called on a relative or friend who can draw better than us to do our art homework. Keep things simple, choose 2-3 colors to create harmony and avoid creating a Jackson Pollock painting. Canva has a useful tool for creating a palette that fits your theme.
4. Navigation.
Surely you are one of those people who are able to navigate your way in and out of a neighborhood with both kidneys intact without the use of GPS. Not everyone can. Facilitate access to content and help the user understand at all times where they are within the different parts of your website.
5. There is no number 5. Clickbait.
6. Contact.
If after a chance encounter, a shared drink or two and an evident connection, you leave without a trace... go pick up the pieces of your dignity. You’ll never know if it could have been something more. Provide forms to help people get in touch and keep engaged. That's when you’ll catch their attention.
7. Social networks.
Add links to your social networks. Even if your last post expired longer ago than your gym membership, it will create extra visibility across platforms and search and indexing engines giving you a greater presence in the digital world.
8. Saturation.
People will mindlessly scroll through social networks for hours without ever consuming any meaningful content. Keep distractions such as images, graphics and animations to a minimum to avoid suffering the same fate.
9. Call to action.
Provide a call-to-action, provide many. Throughout your site, give users a way to interact with buttons like “register here!” or “join us!”, depending on whether you are organizing an event or starting a cult.
10. Don't follow any advice.
If you've made it this far, here's the real tip: be unique. In love and design anything goes. If you’re outlandish enough to break all the rules and make it work, then you do you. Don't believe me? Take a look at Lings Cars
Now it's time for us to practice what we preach and go implement these techniques in our own websites. See you next time amigos!