A Must-Read for Technology Companies Designing a Website

Whether you are a new high-tech startup starting a new website or a more mature technology mogul looking to overhaul their existing web identity, here are some website recommendations that will dramatically improve your user experience and consequently your bottom line.

Mobile First Web Design

If more of your target audience are accessing your website on mobile devices rather than desktops and laptops, you may want to consider mobile first web design where you design for mobile devices first and then gradually add more features and content for larger screens, also known as “progressive enhancement”. With mobile visitors having outnumbered desktop and laptop users as of 2014 and a staggering 1.2 billion mobile users worldwide, most users carrying the Internet around in their pockets so it is best to serve web content selectively and design around the slowest loading devices with the smallest screens first.

Clearly Describe Products or Services

Do not make your visitors read your entire website to understand what you do. Get to the point and briefly describe your products or services and their benefits on your homepage using language that your target market understands. This description is usually placed on top of a full-page hero image with a call-to-action to learn more. One of our responsive web design clients, Aortica, does this well.

Full Page Images

Full-page responsive images help to better illustrate your messaging, engage your users and vary the page layout for more visual interest. If you do not have the marketing budget for images, please check out these free stock photography websites that do not require attribution and are equipped with search:

Short Videos

According to Invodo, videos now appear in 70% of the top search results and viewers are 64-85% more likely to buy after viewing a product video. You can also tell a story that might not have been as interesting or easy with text and images. Finally, full page video backgrounds can really enhance the mood and ambiance of your website.

Simple Iconography

A set of simple, flat and consistent icons is an effective and visually appealing way of supporting your content. When a user first visits your website, you only have a couple of seconds to intrigue them to stay to read more. Icons are a great way of adding visual interest and make your content more digestible.

Parallax Scrolling

Parallax scrolling is where background images move slower than the foreground, creating an illusion of depth in a 2D scene and adding to the immersion. With parallax scrolling, you can show your product in 3D, tell a story and interact with your visitors. A unique and entertaining website will bring more traffic than any amount of SEO. Here is a good example of parallax scrolling.

Bold Colors

Your color scheme needs to resonate with your target market. A young gamer might gravitate towards dark colors whereas an old grandmother would prefer pinks and pastels. A simple way of creating a color scheme is to choose three colors and use them in the ratio of 60%, 30%, and 10%. Spy on your competitors and choose different colors to stand out from them. Different colors evoke different meanings and emotions so select colors that support your brand and messaging. Go bold or go home.

Profile your Management Team

Showing off your management team with professional photos and interesting bios can add the personal touch to a cold technology company. You can have visitors click for more if you want to feature long bios but reduce scrolling. This is crucial when customer service is an important part of your products or services. You might also want to include links to each person’s LinkedIn and twitter accounts to increase social media engagement.

Clean Typography

Typography creates an ambiance that evokes a response the same way as someone’s voice. Chose fonts based on how you want your visitors to feel and experience when your website loads. For technology websites, you cannot go wrong with no-frills, sans-serif fonts like Open Sans or Roboto. For lightweight fonts that display well across all devices and browsers, stick to Google Fonts and limit your website design to two font families for a clean, consistent and professional look. Less is more.

Targeting Different Industries

If you are a B2B company looking to sell to different industries, you might want to silo your web content to target each vertical. If you want to target the education industry per se, you could create a landing page that highlights how your product benefits educators, education-specific case studies, whitepapers, and testimonial videos to add credibility.

Clear Call-to-Action

A call to action is an instruction at the end of each webpage that solicits your visitors to do something like “call now” or “subscribe to our newsletter.” Usually, it is more effective when you offer them an incentive like a 30-day free trial.

Gate your Resources

If you have more than a few whitepapers and case studies in your resource center, you might offer a few of them and then gate the rest behind a web form to generate more leads.

Please contact us if you are a San Francisco or San Jose technology company in the market for a new custom responsive WordPress website.

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