Clean House: Improve Your Law Website Usability
The famous architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe once said, “Less is more,” an old wise adage every law firm should follow if they want to improve the user experience of their website. But one of the biggest website mistakes we see time and time again on law firm websites is trying to overcrowd the pages, hoping the visitor will be able to see all their content at once. Going to these busy websites is like visiting your local state fair and trying to figure out from all the bright and neon signs which ride to get on; everything is fighting for your attention. Giving too many options at once will only confuse the person.
It would be more beneficial to lead the user to the final result that you wish to achieve with your website, whether that is to have the user contact your firm, or just to provide valuable information.
The following are some useful tips to avoid clutter on your website and lead the user to the vital information.
Use of Whitespace
One of the best ways to ensure that your website does not have a busy feel is to make great use of whitespace. By whitespace, we do not mean the actual color white, but the space, padding or margin between elements or objects. It’s the negative space. Not having enough space between elements gives your site a busy feel; having the right amount can make a difference in calling out certain elements you want the visitor to focus on, and giving the eyes a visual rest.
It also works on the micro level. Some sites are hard to read just because there is not enough space between the lines of text; sometimes just increasing the line height will do wonders in cleaning up the readability and cleanliness of your site. There also should be consistent spacing between the elements, such as the same spacing between headings; otherwise your site might look unprofessional.
Reduce the Amount of Content
Consider reducing the amount of main content text as much as you can. If you already reduced it, try trimming it down again. People on the web read differently than reading print material. We tend to read books and magazines in a linear fashion; on the web it is a more non-linear affair; we scan text online, jumping around the page to what piques our interest; usability eye-tracking tests bear this out.
Having a lot of text can be of great benefit in search engine rankings, but SEO should never take precedence over the user experience. The user is the primary goal you are trying to convert to a client; and if you overload them with too much text all at once, you may lose that visitor, no matter how good your law firm Web SEO is.
If you absolutely need to have a lot of keyword rich content and links, consider moving some content to the footer area of your site as supplemental information, or links can be moved to a dropdown menu from your navigation areas. Do not worry about some of your content being below the fold because users have grown used to scrolling on the web.
Decide what is your most important content and sell it well above the fold; leave the rest to secondary areas of focus.
Visual and Content Hierarchy
It’s also important to break up of text with headings, lists and photos. Having proper headings, along with minimal content and the right whitespace, allows the user to quickly jump to what interests them, creating a visual hierarchy.
Balance of Design and Content
Some sites suffer from putting too much focus on a pretty interface and design, with gradients, bevels and chrome galore. The design should support and emphasize certain areas of the content, not overload the user’s eyes with visual graphical noise. The design should almost be there as background noise, leading the eye. A good litmus test to determine if your design is too heavy is quickly go to your website and see what you see first at a glance – the text or the graphics around the text. If you see the graphical interface first and not your content, you should tweak the delicate balance between design and content.
Conclusion
To be sure, there is a fine balance between the content and design, but by ensuring there is ample whitespace around the text and other elements to lead the eye, we only enhance the user experience. Be kind; don’t overwhelm your visitors with clutter. Minimize by deciding what you can live without and emphasize what is vital.
Link Resources:
Eye-tracking studies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=AU&e=&hl=en-GB&v=ilq9qeyVjT0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=AU&hl=en-GB&v=sVXjMXnU56E
If you would like additional information or to learn how we can help you improve your law firm website conversions, please feel free to contact us at marketing@consultwebs.com or call us at 800-872-6590.
