Writing great content for your website is not enough. The design of your website, or a specific page, and the formatting of the content must make it easy for users to understand the content and grasp the main points efficiently. It can be more difficult to read on a screen and therefore designers need to be aware of the user base and if they could possibly have any special needs or circumstances you must address visually.
Its All About the User
Most people use the internet to find information that they can actually use. This means providing content that is useful for the users instead of what is useful for you and your website. The more specific, the more useful. General overview information is fine, and can be extremely helpful, especially on About pages. But when people are searching for information they need you should be sure to provide all the content they need.
Define the Main Purpose of a Page
If a user finds it hard to understand what the main point or purpose of your website, or individual page is, they are likely to leave the website promptly. Best practice is to keep each page focused around one main point and link to related pages that extends the content with another main point. Users are not afraid to scroll, but only if they think there’s something of interest to them on your page.
Establish a Personal Connection with the User
This is something easier said than done but it is very possible. Keeping content personal, and if possible very conversational, is a great way to create a personal connection with any user. If the content speaks or hits home with a user they will stay on your website longer and read more content. This creates a trust between the user and the website owner that is essential to growing a user base.
Formatting
Formatting your website’s content correctly will make it easier for a user to read and understanding what the content is saying and grasp the main point.
Always start with the headline as the main focus or topic keyword(s) because it is the first, or should be, written content the user will see. Following the headline the page’s content should be written and formatted in a content hierarchy. Using sub-headlines to separate your paragraphs into logical categories of the main point can make it really easy for users to understand the page’s main topic. People tend to skim headings looking for specific topics so and if they see a headline that interests them they will read the paragraph text.
Colours and Text
There are three main points here: the colours of text, hyperlinks, and the background colours the content sits on. Most websites use black text, standard blue hyperlinks and white backgrounds. This is very standard across all types of design as black text on white backgrounds is visually understand by all humans.
However, in this modern time of web design, with the popularity of flat colours, bigger fonts and hero images, black text on white backgrounds is starting to take a back seat. Designers need to consider the contrast between the text and background colours. With a good contrast the text will be very readable.
When it comes to hyperlink colours contrast is very important again. The colour of links has to make it stand out from regular text and make it so the user understands that it is clickable.