A website is an inanimate object, yet it’s also one of the most important and tangible touch points between your brand and its customers. If you want to amplify the value of your website and show your brand in a positive light, you must find a way to humanize your brand through strategic design, content, and navigation.
3 Tips for Humanizing Through Web Design
The interesting thing about web design is that your job is never complete. As soon as you think you’ve figured things out, trends evolve and customer preferences change. However, if there’s one thing you’ll never regret, it’s using web design to humanize your brand and connect with customers on a personal level.
Here are some ways you can do this:
1. Tell Your Story
Your website should tell your brand’s story – via content, design, and navigation. You should be using storytelling throughout the site, but your “About” page is one of the first tabs visitors will click on to learn more.
“If your ‘About’ section only contains the facts about your business, it’ll be dull and less likely to engender customer loyalty. People like to see a story. Start with your About page and integrate the storyline throughout your site,” explains Green Residential, a property management company that assists clients with building their brands.
“As you craft the story, talk about how you got to where you are. Think about where you want to be. What helped you find your place? Do you have any significant achievements or lessons to relate?”
The more details you provide about your brand’s story, the more personality your business will exude. And when it’s all said and done, personality is what makes you look human in the world of faceless businesses.
2. Ensure Smooth Functionality
How’s the functionality of your website? Does it feel smooth and effortless, or rough and clunky? Whether it’s page transitions, dropdown menus, product page design, or anything in between, you need to be prioritizing smooth functionality.
“Car doors don’t suddenly open when we touch the handle. There’s the feel of the handle, the click of the lock, and the easy swing of the door, all within a quick response time,” web designer Doug Gerber writes. “Similarly, these micro interactions are all an effort to humanize the usability of our websites. Design should inform and include the user and not feel like a burden.”
3. Personalize Experiences
You talk differently to your 90-year-old grandmother than to your 7-year-old son. As people, we change how we talk and what we say based on the audience. If you want to humanize your website at a deep and meaningful level, you must personalize the website experience so that each visitor feels like he’s being prioritized.
Website personalization can happen in a variety of formats, but storing cookies and using them to develop a behavioral targeting strategy will lead to better engagement and improved conversion rates.
Strategic Web Design is the Answer
Most of the time, we expend energy thinking about web design in terms of aesthetics. We’re worried about how certain elements appear and how they affect conversion rates, subscriptions, or any number of task-based actions. But what if the real value of a website isn’t found in the number of email opt-ins you get, but how it engages visitors and what it reveals to them about your brand?
Humanizing a brand isn’t easy, but you have a number of resources available. The more you look at your website – and web design, in particular – as a tool for humanization, the more valuable it will become in the grand scheme of your business.
