Ever since the advent of the internet, experts have been fine-tuning the intricacies behind web design and user experience. Nowadays, the field of web design has been boiled down to a science and we have access to precious insight that allows us to craft a perfect website without going through a painful trial-and-error period.
One of the most significant aspects of web design, according to specialists, is visual context. In this guide, we will explain this term and its importance in the overarching structure of the website, plus add tips on how to improve visual context on your business website or blog.
What is visual context?
In his article “Visual Objects in Context”, neuroscientist Moshe Bar explains that visual context is “glue” that serves to tie together all aspects of a visual scene. Namely, context is used to model a pattern that will allow the reader (viewer) to quickly identify objects and visual structures.
If we apply this to websites, visual context is a feature that allows the reader to find out exactly what the website is about using their previous knowledge and experience of object and visuals placement.
For example, if you run a healthcare clinic website, you can add visual context such as images of doctors or the clinic to instantly inform the reader what the website is about. It takes much less time to process visual context of a doctor image (100 milliseconds or less) than to read a 50-word textual description of your business (around 10 seconds).
“We should never underestimate the power of the visual. Even the best web writers would fail if the visual background of their text is horrible. Still, it’s one of the things many web designers ignore, causing a number of well-written texts to go unnoticed”, says Elizabeth Myers, a writer at WowGrade.
Why is Visual Context Important in Website Design?
Just like Elizabeth pointed out, poorly developed visual context can break an otherwise high-quality website.
Visual context serves multiple purposes:
- it allows a clearer presentation of content
- adds order and cleanliness to a site
- can trigger emotions and responses
- improves trustworthiness and professionalism
How To Improve Visual Context On Your Website
- Craft eye-appealing content
While you compose content, make sure to stick to the rules of clean and visually-appealing design. This will be an important component of visual context throughout your website.
Remember to make the text easy to read and skim through. Instead of piling up long, impenetrable paragraphs, split up your texts into subsections.
You can also use other dividing methods to make your text more appealing to the eye. In WordPress, there are built-in divider images that you can add with one click and separate one section of a text from another.
If you want to create visually perfect content, try some of these services:
- TrustMyPaper – you can hire professional writers on this platform, who can help you develop a clean-looking, visually-appealing content
- Grammarly – an AI writing assistant tool that will warn you when parts of your texts are too chunky and suggest paragraph breaks
- Canva – an online designing tool that can help you add visuals to your posts or turn your data into infographics
- GrabMyEssay – another writing platform where you can cooperate with writers who have experience in design and visual context
- Magisto – an online tool that enables you to create short videos and animations to boost your content’s performance and engagement rate
- Use a lot of images
The easiest way to place textual objects into visual context is by adding a lot of images. It also has other benefits: not only will the text be more appealing to the reader, but you can use image tags and descriptions to boost your SEO.
Another great method of utilizing images is to introduce branded visuals, especially for social media. If your website features brand visuals that are constant throughout your website, the images will be more memorable and impressive.
For adding images to articles for free, you can use some of the online platforms like PixaBay or Unsplash. If you subscribe to a premium service, you can access some of the world’s top image databases like Shutterstock. Also, you can hire writers at Studicus and Best Essay Education that will add the images using their own license.
- Add infographics
According to the Search Engine Journal, adding infographics to your content has versatile benefits.
Firstly, they will do wonders for improving your visual context by closely linking the information presented on your website with visual representations.
They are also much easier to skim through than full-blown stats articles and reports. This is why presenting data in the visual form of infographics is especially recommended when you’re presenting facts like numbers, percentages, and diagrams.
Infographics are also very social-media friendly because they are among the top categories of content that users are likely to share with their followers.
4. Use online tools for visuals
You don’t have to fork out a bunch of money for a top-notch designer in order to achieve visual context harmony. Nowadays, there are plenty of free and paid online design tools at your disposal that you can use to create captivating visuals.
Next to Canva and Magisto that we have previously mentioned, here are some of the top free tools that you can use for visual design:
- Crello: an online design tool that’s very easy to use, appropriate for beginners
- Photopea: a cloud-based, online version of Photoshop
- Figma: an interface design tool with an option for real-time collaboration
- Gravit: allows vector-based design, so you can use it for logo and poster creation as well
Conclusion
With the help of online tools, you can significantly improve the harmony of visual context and your website’s content. Simply research and learn a bit about the basic principles of building visual context and you will surely notice a difference in your UX.
If you’re not ready to tackle the challenge yourself or you hate having to deal with anything design-related, you can hire an outside expert to help you on a one-off basis.
After that, you can continue building your content on this underlying structure and achieve great visual context even as the volume of your site increases.
Bio
Nicole D.Garrison is a content strategist, writer, and contributor at SupremeDissertations and a number of platforms for marketing specialists such as PickTheWriter. She is a dedicated and experienced author who pays particular attention to quality research. In her free time, Nicole is a passionate runner and a curious beekeeper. Moreover, she runs her own blog LiveInspiredMagazine.