PUBLISHED: APRIL 29, 2015 – ARTICLE: HANDY GUIDELINES ON CREATING A USER-CENTRIC WORDPRESS WEBSITE
Designing for the users is perhaps a thought that must occupy the minds of every designer who’s been allotted the task of delivering a website within a specific duration of time. Whether you’re designing the site for a certain business objective or for an individual who wants to reach out to the world via web, WordPress is the platform which has introduced utmost convenience into building different types of websites. If you’re already delving into creation of stunning WordPress websites then paying attention to the user experience is something you can’t afford to skip for sure.
This post takes you through some simple guidelines that can be followed for creating a user-centric WordPress website which renders a commendable user experience.
Keep The Website Navigation As Simple As Possible
Users get turned off by a website which doesn’t guide them on the way in which they can navigate from one location to another within the web pages. As a thumb rule, make sure the user is never more than three simple clicks away from the information that he/she is looking for, on your website. Therefore, ensure to maintain consistency within the navigation menus along with restricting the count of menu items to a minimum. A great navigation system will keep your visitors engaged for longer, thereby converting them into long-lasting leads.
Ensure Complete Consistency Of Site Elements Across The Entire Website
Your visitors will hate the idea of remembering the purpose of different elements spread all over the web pages. A viable means of handling this situation is to ensure that all the screen elements are consistent and purposeful across the length of the entire website. For instance, the official website of MSN is a web portal that has all its elements well executed to ease the experience of the visitors. That means, irrespective of where you go on the site, load on your memory is kept at a minimum. The site’s navigation bar does all the magic by maintaining consistency in the site’s layout.
Visuals Speak Louder Than Multiple Pieces Of Text
Although text must be at the core of your WordPress website, you also need to pay special attention to inclusion of well chosen images which can complement your site’s content in a brilliant way. Unlike multiple pieces of text, a single image can put a deeper impact on the minds of your visitors and they’ll be able to grab your message in a much more effective way.
Make Arrangement For Answering Visitors Queries Instantly
Nothing works better than ensuring that all the queries of the website visitors are being answered on an immediate basis. Fast feedback informs the user that all his/her actions on your WordPress website like: clicking a button, filling in a form etc. are being looked into well by the site representatives.
Say ‘No’ To Cookie-Clutter Design
Before going ahead with designing a user-centric WordPress website, you must ensure to know your clients better. In other words, you ought to know what message you intend to send to your visitors/customers and how this message can be injected into your website. Here, you need to follow the rule “Focus on UX elements and design the website’. Remember that following the reverse approach to this rule will land you into trouble because the final website would lack a good user interface and will be loaded with design elements which actually make no sense at all.
Pay Attention To Your Website’s Orientation
Site orientation can be easily achieved by defining the navigational clues in the right manner. Some well recognized examples include: descriptive links, sitemap and the most prominent site elements on different web pages which inform the user how the currently viewed page is related to other pages available on the website.
Opt For A Judicious Use Of Colors And White-Spaces
It’s a reality that even today, a majority of web designers are following the conventional trend of using a dark colored background with bright text as the primary design palette. This is something which doesn’t work in the contemporary world of web designing. As a designer, who’s looking forward to create a user-oriented website, you need to think about “accessibility” in everything you do. In simple words, you need to design the site, keeping the concerns of visually impaired population in mind. Therefore, I recommend you to pick up the right combination of colors along with the use of white-spaces in the appropriate proportion.
Closing Thoughts
In the wake of completing a web design project on-time, there’s a good majority of designers which forgets the basic point of their job- designing for the end user. Well, when this happens, your client as well as his/her site visitors are bound to get frustrated to a level that they might choose to navigate to your client’s competitor’s site. So, as a web designer; make user-centric website design your approach and see how appreciations will continue pouring in for an extended time period.
Mike swan is professional WordPress developer and helps users in converting PSD to WordPress theme services. He loves to share his experiences in web design and web development trends.
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