The story of traffic on the internet today cannot be told without the mention of mobile devices. Mobile has become increasingly important to websites when Google stated that over 50% of mobile searches come from mobile devices. To account for the mobile audience website owners must utilise the concept of responsive design when developing their websites. Responsive design ensures the layout and content of a website is optimized to fit the screen of all devices and screen sizes. The concept seeks to ensure a good user experience across all device users.  For a website to be engaging, it must first be responsive because user experience is an important aspect of engagement. So How to Create an Engaging and Responsive Website ?

Engagement is one of those concepts which cannot be captured completely in one definition because it means a lot of things to different people. Generically, engagement refers to the ability of a website to capture the attention of visitors and convince them to perform a desired CALL-TO-ACTION. This largely depends on the expected task but it can be; to click on a link, to like, to share, to make a comment or even purchase a product. It is very important to track and measure engagement in order to analyse and make improvements. The importance of responsiveness and engagement to a website cannot be overemphasized because the benefits are numerous.  To ensure your website is designed to reflect both concepts, it is advised to seek the service of a Web Development Company or Website Development Company that is familiar with developing websites for businesses. This article provides a checklist of requirements for a website to meet before it can be responsive and engaging.

1. Use Clear and Easy Navigation

Websites with complicated or difficult navigation can be frustrating to visitors.  When it comes to spending time on a website, an important requirement is an easy-to-follow navigation.  Website get tempted to go creative with navigation but simplicity is usually the best strategy. A very important practice is to include the menu and a search button (at the top) which enables visitors to find what they are looking for easily and very quickly. A website with a poor navigation fails to be engaging as frustration only makes the visitors to exit the website.

2. Use Simple and Beautiful Layout

Beauty is an essential aspect of engagement. In this case this refers to the use of simple layout with colours that go together. The look and feel of the website should be welcoming and encouraging to enable the visitor stay longer. Use of loud colours can put a strain on the eyes of visitors which might just encourage them to leave. When choosing layout and colours, simplicity should be the guiding principle.

3. Make the Website Responsive

There is a possibility that a great chunk of traffic on your website comes through mobile devices. If the website is not designed to include mobile users, this impairs on mobile user experience. A business website should encourage traffic from any sources as this may gain them a potential customer. The use of mobile devices for search is increasing rapidly, if you have not made your website responsive it is recommended you do so immediately.

4. Take Advantage of Images and Videos

The online community love video and images. This is one of the vital tools used to drive engagement. A good video can evoke reactions from website visitors and it is the reactions that are engagement. Note that very long or heavy videos can increase load time and it may not be very good for visitors.

5. Have A Clear Call To Action

People like to be told what to do when they are in a new place. The same can be said of the web pages too. When a visitor lands on a web page, a Call to action tells them what to do. Having a bold, clear and simple call to action enables the visitor to follow easily. Websites without call to action does not convert easily. Whatever the purpose of the web page, a clean and clear call to action can make it more engaging than when there is none.

6. Use Short And Relevant Content

When it comes to content sometimes less is more. Having excessive content can be a heavy burden on the eyes of visitors. This does the opposite of encouraging engagement. To get more engagement the content should be relevant, short and straight to the point.

7. White Space Is Your Friend

Space is a vital tool in design just like silence is very important for effective communication. The use of white space gives the entire website a layout that can be understood by the eyes. White space can be utilised to emphasise an important detail or simply to reduce the stress in the visitors’ eyes. A good space across the webpage makes it easier for a visitor to be comfortable and easily find what they are looking for.

8. Use Clean Fonts

There are millions of fonts that can be used today, and more are still being developed daily. Having to choose from this massive tool of fonts to use on a website can be a daunting task. One important thing to note is that fonts can be suited for different purposes when it comes to design. Find a simple, clean and very legible font to be used on your website.

9. Use Of Analytic Tools

These tools help track the behaviour of visitors on your website. Using this tool can be of immense benefits because it provides relevant data for research, analysis and improvement. Studying the behaviour of visitors on a web page could uncover a problem which may be causing the visitors’ behaviour. For example, having about 60% of the website visitors leave in the first 5 seconds of their arrival could mean there is a problem with the layout which visitors may not be comfortable with. The use of analytic tools is one of the best strategies in driving engagement because it helps to report problems and also provide relevant information for improvement.

10. Pay Attention To Feedback

The end users’ opinion on the services provided is very important. This is important that it can be used to make improvements. Before launching  the website, you can get a group of people to test and provide useful feedback about the engagement and responsiveness of the website. This has proven to be a useful strategy in pointing out errors and faults otherwise hidden from the designer. As the use of the website commences, it’s important to pay attention to the feedback from the users as this can determine how engaging your website becomes in the future.

Conclusion

When designing an engaging website, it is important to remember that you are designing for people. Use a clear natural language and pay attention to important things. Write in a comfortable and kind manner and ensure that visitors connect to your content. When taking my advice to be simple remember the difference between simplicity and ease. Simplicity may be difficult to create but easy to understand and Ease on the other hand means absence of difficulty (in creating and understanding). When engaging people, simplicity should take the centre stage (not ease). Remember that the fact that things are easy to understand by the visitors does not mean it was not difficult in its development. Creativity is the hallmark of engagement. Get creative today!