If you are in the midst of creating your own website, you are probably wondering how you can best display important information. This is a crucial element because you want your content to be visually pleasing as well as informative. Here are a few pointers!

Info can be displayed on a website more effectively by doing things like answering potential questions quickly, getting to the point, staying focused, making site speed a priority, and making it aesthetically pleasing. Viewers will be more likely to enjoy a site with these characteristics. 

Want more details? Here is a list of at least 10 ways to improve your website’s display and make information easier to access.

1. Using Aesthetics: The Display

The aesthetics are the first thing your users are going to see when they click on your website. The display can not only draw the eye but can also be used to exhibit information or products. That is a particularly popular and important element for eCommerce sites like clothing stores. For example, Gucci displays their handbags right when people click on the website in a neat horizontal pattern. The colors and the product display are not only attention-grabbing, but they also give information on the products immediately. You can see more examples of excellent product displays at tympanus.net.

Something important to remember when you are setting up your display is to not only make it pop but to try to incorporate simplicity into it. It is not enough to simply have an immediate download of information; you need to set it up in a way that makes navigating the site easy for the users. A site with too many carousels, sliders, tabs, and other things might be fun to set up, but in the long run, they are pretty useless. Don’t waste time clogging your site up with flashy yet unnecessary content.

2. Use Images

This could be considered an element of display, but it is a little different. Pictures tell a thousand words so make sure you are being careful with which images you use and how many you use. You ought to use the best quality content that makes your website seem more personal and meaningful. For that reason, stock photography is probably the last thing you want to use. Instead of using a photo that could be on thousands of different websites, use one with specific meaning for you and your site.

Including people in your photos can be a great move! Not only does it make your site feel more personal, but it actually draws more attention. People like to connect with other people, and using a person as the face of your website can give off a positive effect that users will very likely find welcoming and attractive. According to torquemag.io, a case study by Basecamp found that changing their landing page from text-based to a photo of a smiling person increased their conversions by 102.5 percent. It is a simple but very effective technique. Again, beware of using stock photos because doing so can quickly negate the effect.

3. Get to the Point

Have you ever been reading a book and you get halfway through and are still wondering what the point is? Nobody enjoys reading those kinds of books and, more importantly, nobody enjoys visiting those kinds of websites. Users will likely only be reading 30 percent or less of your website’s content. Since that is the case, you ought to fill that 30 percent up with useful information that might encourage those users to read further. You should do your best to draw the user’s attention to the words you want them to read first. This will help ensure more conversions and more hits.

This is especially important on your home page as it is the gateway to the rest of your website with the most traffic. You want to ensure you get straight to the point with all your content there while still including all the important content people want there.  To learn more about what exactly that content is that needs to be on your homepage, read my post here.

Take a recipe post/website for example. Occasionally you will find the recipe at the very top, but it’s more likely that you will find the writer’s entire life story and then the recipe squeezed in at the bottom. That might be fine for some, but those who are only interested in the recipe might find this a little tiresome and annoying. You should not fill your landing page with irrelevant content. State your purpose loud and clear and make it the first thing your users will find. If they know you are serious and understand what you are talking about, chances are they will be far more confident that they will find what they are looking for on your site.

4. Consistency

Consistency can be not only aesthetically pleasing but can also convey a sense of definite professionalism to your users. Things can get a little out of control if you are bouncing around constantly with different punctuation and styles on every page. You should use the same formatting for everything. In other words, the themes, colors, and formats all need to match. The headings need to be the same size, your images should be the same size, and you should be as neat as possible. Your users notice these flaws more than you may think. They may not be able to pick up small discrepancies, but they will notice if you are being inconsistent.

A good way to help your website feel consistent is to establish a style guide. This is a handy little feature that will document every individual detail and code standard of your site or application. You will be able to access your color pallets, headers, buttons, links, and the styles of all other visual details. It will document all preferred spelling (such as color vs colour or percent vs. % etc.). You can also record header and image sizes and dimensions. Basically, everything you need will be there.

The style guide can be very helpful to you when you need to make a formatting or styling decision. You can note those decisions in your style guide and then go back to them for future reference. This is one of the easiest ways to ensure there are no inconsistencies on your website.

5. Using White Space

White space is basically the empty portion of a webpage where there is no writing or styling done. Many web designers are highly opposed to having too much white space on their site because they feel it is wasted space that ought to be utilized.

In some cases, this can be true. However, do not ever underestimate the power and importance of white space, because it does serve a purpose.

White space actually makes the text on your site page more legible and more attention-grabbing. It has been proven to increase user attention considerably and even increase the attractiveness of your site in general.

White space gives a website a fresh, modern look that is very appealing and welcoming to users.

The only downside you should be aware of is that white space does indeed take up space on your website. Having too much white space could potentially be taking the place of valuable information that users need to see.

The white space should accentuate important info rather than overwhelm it. You should carefully select what is the most important information for users to know and include that at the very top of the page. After that, you can more easily gauge a good amount of whitespace to use to make that text stand out.

6. Use Clear Headlines

If your purpose and meanings remain ambiguous, chances are, you are going to lose users. As mentioned before, not getting to the point makes people less inclined to stick around until the point is made. Especially at the top of the page where users are going to explore the site first, you need to have a clear headline that stands out. Explain the purpose of your site and list the benefits and services immediately. Make the headings pop with easy-to-read, elegant fonts and formatting. Including keywords in your headers is a great way to ensure you will attract your target audience.

It is also important to remember that search engines will usually highlight headings more so than other content. If you want search engines to pick up your headings, make them stand out! Headings are also used to guide the user through your website and direct them to what they are looking for. Do not make it confusing! Help your users to easily navigate your site so they will feel inclined to stick around.

7. Less is More: Hick’s Law

Hick’s Law is a rule that states that the fewer choices people have, the more quickly they will be able to make a decision and vice versa. You might be wondering, how does that apply to your website? Obviously, you need to put the most important information on your landing page, but if you overwhelm your users with it, things can quickly become confusing.

Providing your users with fewer immediate choices will make things simpler. Some good ways to do this include limiting form fields and focusing on a single purpose and call to action. Only write what needs to be said. Use simple and short sentences that will be easy for anyone to understand. This might take a bit of strategizing, but in the end, it will be well worth the effort!

You should also reduce the number of menu items and stick to one goal per page. Social media is a great way to advertise your site and find more users. Including buttons for social networks on your website is also a great way to gain followers. However, you should only include buttons for the networks you are active on. Including all of them can lead to confusion and that is the last thing you need.

8. Keep Things Simple

While exploring the concept of less is more, let’s talk about simplicity. This can apply not only to your content but to the design of your site in general. Studies have shown that people do not particularly like visual complexity. The visual effects of your site need to be attractive and eye-catching. However, if it is too out there and too complex, users will begin to perceive it as less and less beautiful.

When designing a website, it is tempting to use every good idea you have as well as every visually appealing feature you see. This is why it is important to filter out the most important data available. Using only what you need will make your site much more appealing.

 

9. Use Particular Formatting

The formatting you use on your website is also an important factor in getting traffic and more efficiently guiding users through the site. This is also an element of keeping your design simple. One of the greatest ways to hold a user’s attention is to create a hierarchy of information.

The landing page is where your most important information should be prominently displayed for the users to see. These should appear at the top of the page in headings or short statements. The shorter the better; as mentioned before, people will likely only read 30 percent of the content on your site. We live in a fast-paced world where instant gratification is in high demand. The best way to ensure traffic is for your points to be quick, concise, and immediately available.

10. Speed Matters

Last but not least, let’s talk about speed. While this is not necessarily an issue of information display, the speed of your website will greatly affect its use. If the site is painstakingly slow, users will not feel inclined to stick around, no matter how eye-catching your display is. A slow website does not make money and there’s really nothing you can do to change that except, of course, make changes to make the site faster. Make the speed and the search engine optimization quick and efficient. Doing so is bound to get your website more traffic.

Not sure how to increase speed? Some applications and websites can help you gauge your speed and improve it. For example, Google has a service that will help get you information on your site speed. You can also learn what your site’s “bounce rate” is, which means the rate at which you lose users. Learning both of these things can help you learn how to improve the site’s performance.

You can also optimize images so they are suited for the monitor size and aren’t overly complex. Slow-loading images can be a death sentence for your website’s success!