At our webinar ‘Creating a communications experience – how the User Experience in Corporate Sites is Evolving', we discussed the latest trends and techniques, what a great experience looks like, and shared some top tips on how to asses the user experience of your own website.

We discussed some of the key themes we are seeing this year including;

Creating visual appeal is important to reflect a company’s brand and set the scene for the business.

67% of companies deliver a visually appealing style when users first arrive on a website – 63% use high quality imagery throughout their website, to attract and retain users.

Delivering an engaging experience is key to creating intrigue and drawing in audiences.

23% of companies use ambient videos on their homepage, which help help users to understand a company’s core narrative and brand.  28% use animation, whilst 27% use content teasers, using subtle ways for navigation and rollovers which make the experience far more appealing for users as they navigate through the website.

Enabling quick access to content – it’s not just about navigation or quick links, but about using enhanced functionality such as search elements. 90% of companies implement drop downs and megapanes to enable 1 click access to content, whereas approx. half (44%) are implementing advanced search, thinking about how audiences are using the results of their initial search to delve down further into the content. 

Emergent technology – Features such as chatboxes are definitely on the increase, but how do these enhance the experience? At the moment only 7% of companies have a chatbox on the website, with most of these predominantly appearing on careers websites. Chatboxes are designed to enhance a user’s experience on the site, enabling a more personal experience, tailored to their requirements.

Keeping the conversation going…

Companies need to consistently engage people, whilst understanding that users have different needs and requirements. 45% of companies offer options to subscribe to company news and access content yet 33% allow you to subscribe to specific types of news, so there is work to do in this area.

Implementing cookies

90% provide a constant link to their cookie policy, allowing users to select exactly what they are looking for, to personalise their experience.  Interestingly, only just over half allow users to accept between analytical and functional cookies.

Corporate websites are clearly the go-to destination for corporates to communicate their message to different audiences, and are even more critical in a COVID world. User experience is critical in: determining users’ perception of an organisation; being able to access the content they need; driving engagement and deepening their understanding. If you want to review your own website and user experience you need to firstly consider your audience and their persona/needs, looking at the site through their lense. Review the site architecture to ensure that you’re meeting those individual user needs. Look at labelling and navigation to see if you can understand what content is in that page before you actually go to it. Look at content and visual hierarchy to ensure that it is easily digestible by different users.

Watch the webinar

 

If you would like to find out how else we can support you, or a benchmark of your website, please contact Naomi Hawkins.

Black Sun is a stakeholder communications company. We help businesses to communicate authentically how they deliver value to inspire, engage and influence their important stakeholders. We believe that inspiring strategic communications can spark positive change and drive long-term, sustainable performance. We want to work with companies who want to build better businesses through better communications.