Welcome to the modern Digital Age, where technology and the internet reign supreme. Whether we like it or not, the internet impacts our daily lives in many ways.
When it comes to running a business or educational facility, the internet is just as important. Your institution thrives off of enticing students to enroll in your courses.
Make sure you’re reaching a large enough audience with your online presence. Your website is the foundation for your reputation in the modern world.
In fact, 38% of users will not even interact with a site if it’s too unattractive. Clearly, it’s important to invest in a proper educational website design for your institution.
Continue reading to learn ten useful tricks to make sure your design is up to par for today’s internet users.
1. Accuracy of Information
As an educational institution, it’s obvious that you have to seriously consider the accuracy of any information you release. This should be especially considered when you publish a website since web content is readily available for everyone to see.
Users will not appreciate a mistake in your website’s contact information, for example. Make sure you and your team thoroughly proofread any content before you publish it.
There’s a lot that goes into the architecture behind an educational website design. It’s called “architecture” because all of the information your website contains is formatted into a digital structure that allows users to navigate back and forth between pages.
This is where the design of a website begins, and it affects the rest of the design project. A design architecture that’s random and unordered is confusing and potentially frustrating for users.
For example, if a user can only reach the contact information from a certain page that’s not a home page, you most likely will have fewer people contacting you. Make sure the design of your website’s architecture allows for easy navigation throughout the rest of the website.
3. Keep Your Educational Website Design Simple
Along the same lines, make sure the aesthetic aspects of your educational website design are simple to understand. Too many features and items of content on a single page can be overwhelming for the modern user.
If a visitor gets consistently distracted by an overload of information on a single page, they might not be able to comprehend the main purpose of the content anyway.
Consider intentionally utilizing white space within each landing page of your website. Some studies suggest that properly using white space allows for over 20% more comprehension from the average user. This speaks to the benefit of keeping your website design simple and easy to process.
This site for an online math tutor is a great example of a website that beneficially uses white space.
4. Make Your Site Responsive
The average user is pouring through many websites on a daily basis. Do your best to make your education website design stand out from your potential competitors.
Make your website “responsive,” which means interactive with the user. For example, visitors tend to respond better to menu options if, when holding the mouse cursor over a list item, the menu responds by expanding to show many subcategories.
A responsive website is a great way to keep readers and internet users engaged on your site for a longer period of time than your competitors.
5. Make Sure There Are Plenty of Images
As important as informational content is for your website design, you should also make sure there are plenty of high-quality, relevant images on each page.
Successfully using images to help break up the amount of informational text you have on a page will help the user’s experience remain engaging and comfortable. Do your best to incorporate all kinds of images, as long as they’re pertinent to the information next to them.
6. Keep the Loading Time for Pages Low
A very significant part of any website is its functionality. If your educational website design is burdened with too much information for its data capacity, it will most likely be slow.
This is important to think about because a user might not wait around for your page to load. Make sure you keep them engaged with your site by ensuring it’s quick to load.
7. Don’t Over Explain Informational Text
You’re building a sophisticated educational design, so it makes sense for you to want it to sound professional. Nevertheless, most of your users will appreciate a genuine sense of simplicity in the site’s tone.
You might be tempted to use big words or over explain concepts throughout your site. Do your best to keep the content simple and to the point so that users aren’t left behind in the flow of information.
8. Make it Colorful and Exciting
Your educational institution probably already has a well-developed brand. For your website design, use this thoroughly to impress your institution’s values upon the user.
From your institution’s logo, draw a sensible color scheme to use throughout all of the website’s landing pages. From the institution’s mission statement, incorporate short, simple messages throughout the pages as well.
Both of these tips will help enhance the overall positive experience for the user, as he or she will be able to get a more well-rounded understanding of what sets your institution apart.
9. Implement SEO with Your Content
The goal of your educational website design is to attract and engage a wide range of users. However, internet users have to be able to find you online.
This is accomplished through search engine optimization (SEO) practices. Certain background facets of a website’s design allow search engines to better analyze the primary keywords within the content.
A healthy implementation of SEO is crucial for any successful website in this day and age. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to properly incorporate SEO content into your website.
10. Hire Professionals to Design the Perfect Site for You
As you can see, there are a lot of things to consider when designing a website. Make sure you take your website seriously since it is the best way to ensure new students can find and relate to your institution.
If you still feel overwhelmed with designing a website, that’s okay. It’s why there are professional services available to assist you. We encourage you to reach out to us for a WordPress website design today.
Conclusion
Designing a website can be a lot of work, but it’s essential to take it seriously if you want your educational institution to thrive. Hopefully, you have benefited by reading these ten crucial tips for website design.
Good luck as you move through the design process. Again, if you need any assistance, reach out and ask about our WordPress web design services to optimize your website.
