Your website tells your story. There are a lot of tricks and strategies for getting your story out there in the most engaging way possible, and lots of navigational tools and breadcrumbs to lead your visitors where you want them to go in order to get your full story. But what’s your website’s first impression? When someone clicks that link and loads your website, what’s the first thing they see? What’s their motivation to even begin to explore, or at the very least, bookmark your site for future visits?
Tom Muller, associate creative director at Code and Theory, says what we’ve known for a while: that mobile devices are changing how people consume content. Muller suggests that we’ll be seeing a move towards feed-based design, where people “dip in and out of news and context streams that deliver content in a visually rich, easily scannable, ‘snackable’ format”.* This can be a good thing, in that it translates to more potential eyes on your site. But it can also mean you have even less time than you think in order to “hook” your visitors and get them interested in learning more about you. Think of it as a kind of speed-dating for the internet.
What does this mean for your website?
It can mean a number of things:
- Your logo and brand identity need to be easily defined and consumed.
- Call-to-action buttons become even more important.
- Visual elements like photos and videos need to load quickly and display smoothly; no more extended page load times, because people won’t wait!
- And, of course, page content needs to be sized appropriately for mobile devices.
When was the last time you took a glance at your website?
