11

Sep

Re-designing the R3R Website – 2nd Round

Posted by: Jeremy Reither

As of the writing of this post, we’re in the middle of re-designing this website. We showed you the first draft of the re-design, and shared it with some trusted colleagues as well. Our revision process always moves a little slower on internal projects like this one because we only work on it in our free time – but we’re happy with the 2nd draft (see below).

It’s been about 2 weeks since we showed you round 1. Since then we’ve made a few subtle, but impactful changes. It’s not done yet, but it’s getting there – and we feel good about the direction this is moving.

Here are the two most important changes we made, and why:

Reduced the amount words on the page: One of the big problems with our current website is that it’s very text heavy, which makes it a little overwhelming for new visitors. We want the home page of the new site to be simple, and to communicate our message visually, without requiring people to read. If they want to read more about a topic, they’ll click on that topic’s header…and then we’ll provide more information. No need to spell everything out on the home page.

Reduced the length of the page: This is partly a product of the first change, but we also moved a few of the elements of the page so that they overlap a bit more – reducing the amount of the design that falls “below the fold” (a term that describes the part of a page you have to scroll down to see). This means visitors won’t need to scroll to find the most important messages – because they will all be visible “above the fold.”

There are some significant changes to the shading and font sizes, and a few other artistic elements, but the above two changes are the most important with regard to conversions. Obviously the purpose of our website is to get people to be interested enough in our services to contact us (whether by phone, or by e-mail, or by filling out a contact form) – that’s what we count as a conversion. The changes we made to this design are with that goal in mind. Your business website should be designed with the same things in mind – how to maximize conversions. Conversion rate, some will argue, is the best measure of the quality of a website…since it’s really a good way of telling whether the visitors like what they see.