Web Design: 5 tips to improve the online ‘shopping’ experience.

  

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Reading some blogs or web pages is like shopping at a discount clothing store. Claustrophobic. Overwhelming. And dubious that it will be worth the trouble. You know there is something of value buried in those racks but it’s going to take some work to find it.

Racks packed so tightly you can hardly see anything. When you pull something out to take a closer look you can barely get it back onto the rack. All the colors and styles are jumbled. After a while you wonder what it was you were even looking for.

Such a deal! Not!

If you are like me, you like a bargain but you don’t really want to work for it. My time is valuable and investing an hour to possibly come away with something just may not be worth it.

On the Internet people are shopping for information. Some of them may be dedicated, subscribed shoppers. Others are just browsing. The diehards will come back and stick around despite the unpleasant experience. But the shopper who’s browsing may leave before they’ve even gotten past the first sentence.

Discount bargain basement or upscale Bloomingdale’s experience.

So often I hear that page design doesn’t matter. It’s all about the content. Just put it up there and they will come, read and return. I don’t think so. Readability, organization, scale, all play a part in communicating effectively. Why make your readers work for that nugget of information when you can make a few changes that will make a difference and may bring them back to browse again. Give them the upscale treatment they deserve.

Here are some tips to improve the ‘shopping’ experience for your readers.

1. Make it easier. Narrow the distance the eye has to travel to read from line to line. Wide text areas with small type make it more difficult for the eye to find its place when it returns for the next line. Some blog templates don’t even wrap when you scale the window forcing the eye to travel 8 to 10 inches across. It’s just too much effort. Adjust your template to a narrower text column. Enlarging the font size can help somewhat but not in all cases.
2. Remove obstacles. Instead of just dropping in photos that fill the full width of column, scale the photos so the text wraps around the photo. Huge photos break up the flow and continuity of the copy.
3. Categorize. Long, run-on copy is tedious. People like to scan first to see if there’s something worth reading. Organize your copy so you can chunk the text using subheads, lead-in copy and bullet points.
4. Allow some breathing space. White space allows the eye to pause before moving on to the next point. Single line spacing on monitors is just too tight. Experiment with adding more line space (leading) and see how much easier it is to read. Add space between sections. There is no reason to pack the text in. The space is free and you aren’t paying by the square foot like in a retail outlet.
5. Spice it up. Add graphics and color. Black is a great color but try something different. Use your brand colors as long as they are dark enough to be legible. But don’t go overboard. Stick to 2 or three in the whole article such as a headline color, a subhead color and a basic text color. And one last note on color…don’t reverse lots of type out of a dark background. It is just too tiring for lengthy copy.

Your blog and website will look more professional and credible if you pay attention to some of these visual details. Over the next few weeks I’ll show some comparisons so you can judge for yourself. In the meantime see how you can make it a better ‘shopping’ experience for your readers. They might actually stick around and buy something.

Remember:
•    Make your columns narrower
•    Scale your photos so they integrate with the text
•    Break up long copy with subheads
•    Add white space
•    Use color

What kinds of things make ‘shopping’ for information on your site or blog an ‘upscale’ experience?

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