Design your way

Designing a distinctive website is difficult, when ever more websites are appearing every day. A uniquely creative website gives the page’s brand the best chance to reach out to the intended audience, despite the internet clamor for viewers’ attention.

One way to design a distinctive landing page for a brand is to give it striking headlines. Simple memorable headlines, which underpin the aims of the web site are on any successful website.

Headlines lead site visitors to the site’s content or towards more product or service information. The whole purpose of a commercial web site is to sell goods or services and because of that, first impressions count and visitors decide in seconds whether to stay on the site or to move on.

Visitors scan web sites for words or phrases that interest them. Designers can use text, typography and type treatments to grab visitors’ interest sufficiently to make them stay beyond those crucial first instants.

The importance of a good headline

A main headline must be interesting enough to make visitors want to read further. Designers must convince visitors that it is the site is worth making the effort to read on further. Reading web text takes time which tends to be a commodity in short supply in this information burdened digital age.

Some studies suggest that 80% of page visitors only read the headline before deciding whether the page is sufficiently interesting to be worthy of their time. Therefore, informative website headlines that encourage readers to read on and discover more are the most valuable.

Headlines are like road name signs; in that they let the visitor know that s/he has arrived on the correct site. Web surfers are on a hunt, headlines tell them that their quarry is on this web site.

Headlines are the workhorses of any website. They must intrigue visitors, reassure them that they have arrived and tell them the page’s purpose. In addition, headlines give the page’s visitors that vital first impression of the site.

Designing the headline

If a headline is to do all that work, it must be visually distinctive from the other text on the webpage. Designers can use many ways to make headlines visually distinctive, which they use on any particular project will vary according to the requirements of that project.

Using a larger font size for the page headline than for the rest of the page’s text draws the page viewer’s attention and insists that the visitor reads it first.

The page headline should also contrast with the rest of the text on the page to make it stand out even more. It might also be a good idea to make surrounding text, sub headings and paragraph text more subdued so that the main headline looks even more distinctive. Sub heading text should be in a smaller font size and a less striking contrast color.

Space around a page headline gives it prominence and indicates its importance. Too many elements grouped together compete for the visitor’s attention creating confusion, information overload and it also reduces the impact of all those elements. Separating a page’s headline from the rest of the text giving space around it and allowing it plenty of prominence indicates its importance.

Mistakes to avoid when creating your headline

Trying to tell a page’s entire story in a sentence and making that a headline is not only impossible, it also makes the result unintelligible and boring. Instead isolate the most interesting fact or idea of the page and use it as the basis of the headline.

Page headlines should not be too long, shorter headlines are more easily absorbed by page viewers. Headlines should grab the viewer’s attention so make it large enough to do that.

Page visitors faced by a three or four page headline in large text will take time to sort and absorb that information; they may just give up and navigate away.

Ending thoughts

Designers need to recognize the huge job that page headlines do. Designing headlines to be the page’s dominant visual element makes it immediately apparent to the page’s eventual visitors.

Page headlines should draw page visitors’ attention enticing them and encouraging them to read the rest of the content.

Knowledge, experience and research studies show that users react to headlines in particular ways. Naturally, designers should always test their pages on real users before the web site ‘goes live’, however, using all the available information and research findings can ensure that a site will generally only require minor adjustments on testing, saving the designer time and stress overall.

Prospective website visitors do not have the time or the attention span to waste on websites that do not appear to hold the information, product or service for which they are searching. If visitors cannot immediately ascertain what the page is all about they will simply leave the page and go elsewhere.

Website designers need to design pages in such a way that page visitors can scan through and gain a fast understanding of the site’s purpose, so that they will stay on the page and avail themselves of the goods or service that the page features.

Headlines design is crucial in this regard; brilliant content is wasted, when the page’s design confuses visitors and deters them from staying on the page long enough to read it. Designing out the factors that cause this phenomenon makes the page and the site itself more successful. Thoughtful and considered headlines design, using color, contrast, font size and other factors is crucial to achieving the site’s aims and purposes.

Showcase of great website headlines

The following are examples demonstrating copy use in conveying that all-important memorable branding. The designers have used typeface, font, color and composition to indicate to visitors the page’s brand and its products or services

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