How to Best Use Interactive Media on Your Website

In previous years, building a website was usually done from scratch and took several months to finish. On top of that, developers had to be extremely knowledgeable in their craft, compared to today’s website builders who can easily rely on content management systems like WordPress and time-saving tools like GitHub.

Nowadays, developers can build entire websites within a week, and sometimes quicker depending on the project. However, just because you build a website doesn’t mean that people will visit and convert.

Today, websites need to be interactive. If you’re interested in taking your website into a new age, refer to this guide for all the practical tips.

Why is Interactive Media Important?

The advent of the internet has changed the way websites and media work. Fundamentally, modern websites allow users to interact with different aspects, such as images and content.

Once users visit your website, they’ll be tasked with viewing your content and deciding whether or not they want to convert. Interactive content serves your most important content on a silver platter for your target audience.

Interactive media helps users engage with page elements more efficiently. Nowadays, developing an interactive website is no longer optional. Here are some irreplaceable benefits to using interactive media on your website:

• Intuitive User Experience — User experience (UX) is everything when it comes to attracting and retaining potential customers. On your website, you’ll want to ensure your page elements are displayed intelligently and attractively to hold your audience’s attention.
• Improved Engagement — The most obvious benefit of using interactive media is improving user engagement, placing users one step closer to converting on your website.
• Lower Bounce Rate — Another benefit interactive media offers is a lower bounce rate, which can improve your website’s SEO and page dwell time.
• Brighter Interest — When users are able to interact with your content, they’ll learn more about your business and what interests them.
• Increased Conversion Rates — The more users are engaged by your website pages and learn more about your products and services, the more they’ll be interested in converting.
• More Shares — If people are truly impressed with your interactive media, they’ll be more likely to share and bring more traffic to your website.

Keep in mind that interactive media should resemble face-to-face interactions. Interactive media will effectively transform your website into a digital salesperson, which should be reliable, helpful, friendly, and intuitive.

Core Fundamentals of Interactive Website Design

The whole purpose of creating interactive content is mimicking real human interactions on your website. This way, users can bypass the usual robotic and mundane experience of navigating a traditional website.

They can instead interact with your website like they would an ATM. If you’re interested in deploying an effective interactive media strategy, here are some core fundamentals to follow:

• Purpose-Driven Design — Interactions should be focused on human connection. Therefore, every step in your interactions should direct users closer to conversion.
• Seamless Usability — Intuitive interaction reduces friction and improves usability. This results in effortless UX.
• Helpful Signifiers — Every interaction should speak for itself and imply its own meaning. These are called signifiers, which should be present in every interaction on your website.
• High-End Learnability — All interactive elements should be both consistent and predictable. Simple-to-use interactions will help users better learn how to better use them.
• Timely Feedback — Interactions on your website should look and feel like a human-led conversation. This will showcase your services and products in a supportive, relatable, and friendly fashion.

While website design trends have changed over the years, the fundamentals behind interactivity and UX have been constant. Every animation, contact form, and button is an aspect of your website’s interactive design.

Discover Animation Opportunities

The most visually attractive way to use interactive media on your website is by implementing animations. Animations do a great job of evoking the right emotions from your target audience.

They can instantly grab the attention of your target audience and become quickly immersed into your website’s content. Animations, even minor ones, can create a lasting impression with your target audience.

They can be used to inspire people and tell stories. Nonetheless, how can you identify areas where animations can be used on your website? Here are some timeless animation applications you can try.

Loading Page Creativity:

If your website takes a while to load, you can add some animation. Loading page animations can help keep website users on your homepage and even make the waiting process enjoyable.

Direct the Users:

Animations are also an attractive way to direct users to navigate your website properly, whether they want you to use a calculator or make a payment. Make sure you keep these animations concise and provide instructions to help them achieve your desired result.

Create Interactive Scrolling:

Scrolling a website can frankly be boring if you’re navigating an extensive website or landing page. Luckily, you can even animate how users scroll on your website. This is a great way to showcase some amazing animations and make your website more stylish.

Explain Your Point:

Did you know that you can even use animations to teach your target audience something and ultimately make your website more informative? Using animations is a great way to provide a convenient guide for your website users.

Elevate Your Portfolio:

Your portfolio will already set a first impression for your brand. Why not make an even better first impression. If you operate in a competitive niche, every impression matters. Elevate your portfolio by using intuitive animations that will showcase your best work.

Create an Interactive Website Today!

Using interactive media on your website is a great way to retain your target audience and captivate them to convert. There are more things to consider when building an interactive website, so it’s best to hire a professional moving forward.

Are you considering altering your existing website or building a new interactive site? If you want to learn more about how we can help, contact us today to speak to a member of our team.

Ryan Nead

Ryan is the VP of Operations for DEV.co. He brings over a decade of experience in managing custom website and software development projects for clients small and large, managing internal and external teams on meeting and exceeding client expectations–delivering projects on-time and within budget requirements. Ryan is based in El Paso, Texas.