Website Design That Successfully Reaches a Global Audience
In the past few decades businesses have had something they never had before: The internet. These days, with that sort of reach, it is vital to understand that your customers aren’t just in your home country, they’re worldwide. While this opens up your opportunities, it also opens up the competition, which is why optimizing your website to be used by a global audience is so vital.
Design and layout
The first and perhaps most important thing when creating your website is layout. It is important to have a design that is simple to navigate, and presents your product or company in the most relevant light. If you visit the website for the United Nations Foundation, its front page is crisp, uncluttered, and neatly designed. It expresses the professionalism and organization of the foundation, and very clearly reflects their mission and goals. Clients will not be encouraged to stay on a website that is difficult to use or comprehend.
Languages
To reach a global audience you have to provide your information in as many languages as possible. A larger basis of language offered means a larger audience, and more opportunity to build the best clientele from every demographic.
Fonts
Layout and language are lucrative, but if the font is in an unprofessional or strange design than it throws off the credibility and feel of the entire page. Take Greenpeace for instance. They offer a simple to navigate, user-friendly site that can be translated into almost any language spoken around the world. Even with the crisp, modern look of the page, the entire feel and credibility would be thrown off if it were written in Comic Sans. Spend time looking at sites that run down the same avenue as yours, and study what types of fonts they use, and how they use them.
Cultural research
Know your audience. Whoever you’re marketing to has to have something relatable on the site to build rapport with. UPL Limited, for instance, is a company based out of India. However, upon visiting the website their country of origin is not obvious. The design is universal to anyone that might access it. It is carefully built so that it is all-inclusive and non-discriminatory to any culture. Jai Shroff was the guiding light for this after he became the CEO of UPL Limited. Under his direction, he broadened the global accessibility of the company and now has implemented food security in more than 120 countries. He understood the fundamental of global business is simple: to narrow your reach is to narrow your success. Whether you’re selling shoelaces or new cars, it is critical to reach every client that you can, and present your product in a fashion they can relate too the most.
Pictures
If you want to capture the visitors to your site, you’ll have to have pictures. Think back to the last interesting blog post or article you read. Were there pictures involved? How did they help the content and how interesting and informative would the piece have been otherwise? Pictures are as important as words, and help bridge the mental and visual story that is being built for the reader. They also are a fantastic tool for breaking up continuous paragraphs of text, which will help keep the reader focused.
Currency translation
To help with ease of access set up your website to allow purchases in multiple currencies. At Nike’s website, visitors have the option to see prices and checkout details according to the country that they choose to search it from. If you allow your client to see the rates already translated into their currency and mapped out clearly with all included fees, it will build trust. That means better reviews, and repeat customers.
Get help
There is rarely one person that can build an entire website from scratch. Somewhere along the line, you need the assistance of others who can supply the knowledge that you lack. Even if you’re a complete software novice, there are plenty of tools and resources online to help you find the tools and aid you need. Don’t be afraid to spend a little money in this area, as the most important part of the building is the foundation. Your website is no different.
Try new things
Step outside the norm. Pay attention to patterns and implementations that were successful for other websites and businesses, and try to see if there’s a better, renewed approach to take with those ideas. Often times the smallest change in successful design will have largely positive results.
Most of the innovation in the history of mankind was either an accident or pursuit of alternative methods. So don’t be afraid to explore. It just takes you and your company further than you ever could have expected.
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