According to a DMA study, email marketers can expect an average ROI of $42 for every $1 spent on email campaigns.

Source: oberlo.com

With such a massive ROI, it comes as no surprise that email campaigns are the marketer’s favorite. According to Emarsys 2018 analysis, 81% of small businesses still rely on email campaigns for primary customer acquisition and 80% for retention.

Source: oberlo.com

Put simply, emails are so popular among digital marketers that email engagement is considered a top metric for evaluating content performance.

But here’s something that will disappoint you. The majority of the marketers see their email campaigns fail – some struggle for months to improve campaign results, while others succumb to the intense competition.

Now, why does that happen?

Because there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to email marketing: if strategy A has worked for Company X, there’s no guarantee for it to work for Company Y as well.

That’s why it is essential to run A/B tests when trying new formats or strategies for your email campaigns. Until a marketer thoroughly tests different variables in their email campaigns, they’ll never figure out what’s best for them.

Before we get into details, let’s quickly understand what exactly an A/B test is.

Understanding A/B Testing

A/B testing, often termed as ‘split test,’ is a method that involves splitting your email list into two separate lists and sending different variations of emails to each. Then, you’ll send these two versions to two similar audiences and evaluate which one performed better.

Source: marketingexperiment.com

Let’s understand with an example:

To run an A/B test for email marketing, you’ll create two different versions of your promotional content with the first variable as ‘Subject Line.’ In other words, you’ll create two different subject lines for the same email content, i.e., Subject Line 1 (Sent to Group A) and Subject Line 2 (Sent to Group B).

After sending these emails to Group A and B, you’d start comparing the open rates and clicks for both subject line variations and figure out which one got more clicks.

Just like the ‘Subject Line,’ you can run, make changes in different parts of your email content, and run A/B tests to compare results.

The bottom line is – for your email campaigns to become successful, you should focus on experimenting with your own emails.

Choosing Variables for A/B Test

The first step to setting up an A/B test is deciding the variables that you’ll test.

Instead of relying on assumptions and guesses, it’s best to run an A/B test and then make a more informed choice. Fortunately, there are many variables you email marketers to test. Below is the list of variables you might consider testing in your Email Campaigns.

Subject Line

An email subject line is one of the most powerful email marketing elements. It’s the first thing you people see and read when they enter their inbox – and it’s what they use for deciding whether they’re going to ignore, read, or delete it.

Look at the short (yet catchy) subject lines of the emails in the image above (also notice the urgency each of them is trying to create through the subject line itself).

Without a doubt, every email marketer should A/B test their subject lines to figure out what their customers like or dislike. Some of the variations you can make in the subject line include:

• Length of Subject Line
• Word Choice in Subject Line
• Clarity of Message through Subject
• Questions and Punctuations in Subject Lines
• Urgency by talking about limited-time offers

The key is to keep it short, simple, and catchy—people today like No Nonsense email subject lines. In a broader sense, the best practice is understanding your audience well enough to know what style, language, and offers will be attractive to them. You can learn the same through multiple A/B tests.

Personalization

Another fastest growing trend that’s seen in email campaigns is personalization. By personalization, we don’t mean adding a user’s first name into the subject line – this one has become such a common practice that users don’t find it attractive anymore.

So, you’d need to try variations here as well. The key is to go beyond the first name. How about trying location-specific language, offers, and interest-specific terms. Most good email contents rely on a personalized, conversationalist tone to attract readers.

Source: campaignmonitor.com

Sites like BuzzFeed are known for taking advantage of conversational, casual tone, and super-successful clickbait headlines.

What you can do as an email marketer is to test different variations of personalized email content for determining which one hurts or helps your engagement or click-through rates.

Below are few techniques for writing personalized emails:

• Personalize Email campaigns around the Buyer’s Persona
• Personalize around Buyer’s Interest
• Make use of user location
• Make use of specific times to the day
• Highlight Mutual Connection
• Use their name more than once

The Layout of the Message

Email layouts are equally important. They serve a purpose beyond the visual appeal of the email body. A neat layout can make a significant impact on how your subscribers engage with your email.

Look at this email we received from Paytm – notice the simple design, no-nonsense approach, plenty of white space, short text, and of course, a decent CTA.

You can test vibrant colors, off-grid designs, a retro look, and bold typography for your email campaigns. Following the trend, you can go for 3D imagery with more image depth, isometric illustrations, and futuristic designs. In short, make as many variations as you like, and A/B test them to understand audience taste. You can follow the following tips:

• Structure your email for easy reading
• Be relevant
• See email design as an extension of your brand

The key is to make sure your designs are visually captivating, without having too much written content or graphic that distracts the audience from essential parts of your email.

Testimonials to Include

No matter what people say, testimonials have the power to attract new customers. Recommendations written by previous users take away any hesitation a new customer might have about making the purchase.

And that’s the reason why email marketers today harness the power of testimonials in their emails. Let’s look at different ways you can incorporate them into your emails and A/B test each of them to see what’s driving more conversions:

Source: hatchbuck.com

• Incorporate short product reviews (best testimonials are punchy, not long)
• Make use of user-generated content (utilize their images, video, or social media post to enhance impact)
• Share complete case studies
• Personalize the use of testimonials by highlight customers that belong to the demographic of the mail recipient
• Combine testimonials with a different form of social proof

Images

Yes, texts are a crucial element in emails. However, marketers should never underestimate the power of images or visual content. Images not only allow you to strengthen visual appeal but also help communicate messages that can’t be conveyed through text.

Here’s a simple (and equally captivating) email I received from Indigo. Make note of the catchy headline, simple image, the CTA button, brand-relevant colors, and useful messages they conveyed using just a few words.

Follow these best practices for A/B testing your marketing emails and get most from the variables:

• Use email background images
• Use email banners or templates
• Try stock images for increasing visual appeal
• Use illustrations and videos
• Ensure brand identity by using standard brand colors and styling elements

In other words, it’s natural for humans first to notice a visual instead of text – but only if it is captivating enough to grab their attention.

Preview Text

With modern email clients, it’s not only the subject line that appears in the inbox but also the preview text. So, email marketers can use this as well to increase open rates – because preview texts tell your audience more about the content of your email.

The light grey colored texts you see in the image above are ‘preview texts.’ They range from 35-140 characters, which makes them an important part of your email.

Hence, just like the subject line, your preview texts must be as interesting. If your preview test shows unclickable links or unmeaningful texts, then you’re wasting the opportunity.

Call to Action

Just like the Subject lines, CTAs are also a crucial element of your email. It encourages the email recipient to act. So, while designing emails for your campaign, be sure to optimize your CTA and maximize the conversion rates. Here are few tips you can use for optimizing CTA and A/B testing them:

• Use action-oriented texts (Try it Out Free, Get the Discount, Reserve Your Spot)
• Create Urgency (Shop now, Reserve now – 6 Spots left, 50% off today only)
• Make your CTA button large and easily readable.
• Add enough white space.

Look at this Upwork email we received – note the sufficient white space, personalization, short message, and unique CTA text that encourages users to take action.

The key is creating CTA that converts prospects into customers. If you haven’t run enough A/B tests, CTA buttons are a perfect place to start. After all, there’s no button that works for everyone, at all the time. So, go run some A/Bs – test style, font, placement, color, and words.

Analyzing A/B Test Results

Once you’ve run email campaigns with different variables or variations, take a close look at the results. For emails, you might want to look at the email open rates, the conversion rate, and the click-through rates.

As a marketer, your most important job should be tracking these metrics for each email version to ensure you’re not losing a critical insight or sales. The end goal should be identifying what’s working. You should focus on conversions and not just the open and click-throughs.

For analysis, you can also use A/B testing tools. Fortunately, there is plenty of software that’ll make your job easy.

To make sure you get significant insights from test results, make sure you don’t miss out on any of these tips.

Test both variations at one time

When you’re running an A/B test, make sure to run the two variations at the exact same time because timings play a vital role in any marketing campaign.

If you run version X at 10:00 pm and version Y at 5:00 am, how would you know if the performance changed because of the time difference?

Run tests for a substantial time period

Depending on your email content and the kind of action you’re expecting from your audience, it’s wise to give A/B tests enough time for producing useful data. Now only you would know how much time is enough for pulling data. So, don’t rush into the process, and do not restrict the time in which you’ll be generating the results.

Use A/B testing сalculator

While few marketers calculate results manually, others use calculators to conduct statistical significance tests. The A/B testing calculators will spit out your data insights and save your time from the tedious calculation.

Take actions based on the results

While the A/B tests help marketers study the impact on different variables on a case-by-case basis, they’re also an excellent tool for deciding future moves. A smart marketer is the one who studies which variables worked better than the other and apply the lessons they learned from each test for future efforts.

Illustration by Karolina Kalinowska

Wrapping Up

Yes, email campaigns are the ultimate ingredient for growing your customer base. But if they are not aligned to the right variable, no amount of work can save your prospects from drifting away. It will still fail. For a successful email campaign, you need a great understanding of what’s working and what’s not.

What I mean to say is – don’t just rush into it and assume what will make your email campaigns successful – you could lose customers at this delicate point. Instead, spend adequate time researching, testing, and analyzing your campaigns.

About the Author: that’s the guest article by Vyshnavi Basuthkar is a SaaS Marketing Analyst (who specializes in paid social strategy, social media management, content strategy, and email marketing) at piHappiness, top customer feedback software designed to collect customer feedback on Web, iPad & Android tablets.

Сообщение 7 Essential Variables To A/B Test in Your Email Campaigns появились сначала на Design4Users.

What Is Web Content?

Web content is basically everything that fills the website and is the part of user experience. That’s what people read, hear, see, watch, and manipulate on a website. Based on that, the core types of web content are:

• text (copy)
• images
• video
• animation
• audio (sound)

Today, let’s discuss the images.

Images aren’t just a factor of beauty: in user experience design, pictures play an important part in building up usability. Most web users are visually driven, they perceive pictures faster than words. So, quite often images are the layout elements that are seen and scanned first. What’s more, they are informative and emotionally appealing, they transfer not only a message but also particular aesthetics. Also, images used on the web pages positively influence website SEO ranking.

Depending on the goals behind the website design, creative and marketing teams choose among different types of images. The following ones are the most typical to see on a webpage.

Logo

A logo is a key element of a brand, its symbolic representation. So, it is an obvious visual element of most websites that present companies, brands, services, communities, and organizations. Even personal blogs and portfolio websites often feature original logos these days.

In terms of web design, consider the following tips on logo usage in UI:

• put a logo in the header – it’s one of the highly scanned zones of a web page
• don’t break a well-checked habit: when users click the logo in the header, it takes them to the starting point of the journey. It may be a home page or up to the start of the page if it’s a single-page website
• think of logo animation on hover: motion will add life and will be the prompt that the element is interactive.

Here’s a landing page for a cryptocurrency service with an interactive logo to add some fun and make the experience lively.

Photos

Photos could, probably, be called the classics of web design imagery. They are used for a wide variety of goals such as:

• theme photos
• demonstration photos
• photos of the items (for example, on e-commerce websites)
• title photos for blog articles
• hero banner photos, etc.

The biggest advantage of photos is their ability to connect what users see on the web page with a real world of physical things and live people. Photos have been a part of human reality for many decades, much before the Internet advent, so this kind of visuals is sort of native, close, and clear for us. What’s more, with all those devices that let any of us capture something in a second, photography is really a part of everyday life for many people – so, being used on a website, it sets strong connections and associations.

Dance Academy landing page concept uses the prominent photos of dancers to set the theme.

Museu Landing Page attracts attention and sets the needed atmosphere with beautiful photos

This About Us page for the cleaning company website uses photo content as a part of an engaging scrolling experience.

What’s more, photography is also a kind of art. With them, you can set the balance of realism and aesthetics in your web user interface. You can keep the necessary style appealing to your target audience and creating the necessary emotional background. This is one of the reasons for choosing photos to support articles on blogs and media websites.

News Media Website

No doubt, photos are the main tool of visual presentation of goods on e-commerce websites where the principle “you get what you see” is a vital part of success.

Home Craft Website

Home Decor Website

The website for bartending encyclopedia with custom photo content to share the theme and present the drinks.

Where do designers get photos? There are several ways:

• original photos taken and processed for the particular project: this is the most expensive option but the photos will have the highest level of exclusiveness;
• paid stock photos: you buy a photo you need from a photo stock that offers a variety of shots. This may be cheaper than custom photo shooting but you may spend a lot of time searching for the photos corresponding to your tasks;
• free stock photos: you take the photos from the communities or teams that share them for free. It is the cheapest option but you have to be ready that other people may do the same so you’ll have to think well about how to make your design original under these conditions.

So, it’s easy to see that the way you choose depends on a specific project, it’s budget and goals.

Anyway, even if you are the one who runs a blog or charity with no budget on visuals or if you are creating a design concept for your portfolio, free photo stock websites offer a lot of high-quality content now. Among them, the following resources are often used for good photo content:

• Unsplash: it’s a community of photographers from all over the world sharing their photos for free. Photos are featured under thorough curation, so you won’t find trash there
• Pexels: big bank of free stock photos on a variety of topics
• Moose Photos: professional production of stock photos that work together and are very flexible for a broad content strategy
• Pixabay: a huge stock of free images, not only photos but also illustrations and vector graphics.

The Gourmet website, an e-commerce store selling herbs, oils, and spices, applies photo content for goods presentation.

Using photos in web design, consider the following tips:

• download high-resolution photos
• optimize them for the web so that too big images didn’t overload the page – loading speed is a crucial factor of positive user experience
• give the images enough air to breathe – keep the balance of negative space
• remember about responsiveness and test how the images look on different screens and devices
• don’t use photos as just a decor – let them speak to users, transfer a message and support all the other layout.

One of the popular design trends of a recent couple of years is using photos as a background image. This approach makes the screens visually and emotionally appealing. Also, it supports the feeling of the integrity of all the layout elements. On the other hand, it demands deep attention to contrast and legibility of all the elements which may be harder to achieve thaт in the case of monochrome background.

Big City Guide Landing Page

Illustrations

Another big web design trend this year is using custom illustrations for a variety of website needs. Made in various styles, custom graphics effectively support the quick perception of the information on the page or screen. They also set the solid foundation of visual originality. It adds aesthetics and beauty to blogs and websites we often read as well as broadens the creative horizons for artists.

That’s the landing page for a conference where illustrators and digital artists share their experience. Custom hero illustration and it’s animation make the web design catchy and original.

You may often see illustrations in

• hero images
• theme images
• characters communicating with users
• blog article images
• rewards and other gamification graphics
• notifications and system messages
• stickers (these are especially popular for messenger apps)
• storytelling
• infographics
• marketing stuff and advertising banners
• visual markers of content categories.

Let’s check some examples.

Here’s a concept of a portfolio website for a designer that specializes in projects for celebrities, entertainment, music, and film production. Dark background in combination with the custom hero illustration looks more vivid and sets the association with the atmosphere of a concert stage.

Here’s the example of the website design for an ecotourism company, featuring impressive and atmospheric illustrations setting the theme and strong emotional appeal.

Here’s the landing page of a digital agency that positions itself ready for the highest business challenges and goals. That message is quickly transferred by the strong link between the tagline and the bright hero illustration showing a basketball player.

Here’s the set of illustrations designed for Florence, an online marketplace where self-employed nurses can find high-paying shifts across the UK. The original characters quickly catch the user’s attention, show the story, set the atmosphere, send the message and present the benefits in a way that corresponds to the tone and voice of the platform.

This is a landing page for the company that offers a full cycle of services for marketing and promotion. Custom digital illustrations enable storytelling with quick visual prompts about the nature of the offered services, set the mood with a vibrant color palette and support the integrity of all the parts of a page.

Mascots

A mascot is a character, a personified image that becomes a symbolic representation of a brand, company, service, or even a public figure.

In web user interfaces, mascots can serve as an effective element of communication and interaction. Changing its appearance (for example, mood, outfit, activities, etc.), you can quickly deliver a clear message to the user. Mascots can communicate directly with the speech bubbles, provide visual prompts with various facial expressions, reflect the mood of the user with different graphic variations, give helpful instructions in tutorials, and congratulate with the achievements. All the mentioned makes the interaction with the system more human-like enhancing the general user experience.

Funny and super positive mascot animation integrated into the website design for ShipDaddy

Cute and friendly mascot used as a hero image for an e-commerce website selling books for children.

Originally created characters used as mascots for a babysitting service

3D Graphics

One more type of web visuals growing its presence this year is 3D renders. These are computer graphics created by turning 3D wireframe models into 2D images. Many of the images have photorealistic effects which is their big advantage for web design. 3D graphics may serve well in cases when photo content you need is impossible to get or highly expensive.

Web page design with catchy and impressive animated 3D graphics

Keep in mind that this kind of graphics demands specific skills as well as an artistic eye and taste. In addition, it is quite costly and time-consuming. Yet, well-done 3D graphics are highly attractive and convincing so they can have a great impact on web design looks and conversion rates.

That’s a website of a company that designs and builds sustainable homes using solar power to get all the needed energy. 3D rendered model of a house allows users to see the photorealistic image of the offered service and even manipulate it to see the view in day and night mode.

Here’s a web design concept for the health blog with stylish and trendy 3D animation.

Here’s the website for the design studio specializing in exterior and interior design visualizations. The high-quality 3D graphics rendered for the page take the whole background area: this way the image immediately sets the theme and presents the company services.

This website of a booking service uses 3D graphics as a big theme image that takes the left part of the page and catches the user’s attention at once. Not only does the artwork set the theme but also makes the interface beautiful.

Why Images Should Be a Part of Your Web Content

Here’s a bunch of convincing facts:

• the research shared by web archive Wayback Machine shows that people perceive images 60,000 times faster than text
• psychologists claim that people need about 1/10 of a second to get a general perception of a visual scene or element (that speed is indeed impossible for textual items)
• important pieces of information are often fixed by the brain as visual images even if they were obtained via text perception
• images are less vulnerable in combination with the background and surrounding elements while the text is highly dependent on the aspect of readability
• images have a tendency to stick better in long-term memory which means that dealing with the interface users will not need to process and remember more data than it’s really necessary, so interactions get faster
• visuals in the interface can make it more universal in cases when an app or a website is used by people from different countries
• pictures push the limits of perception for users who have natural problems with text recognition such as, for instance, the dyslexic or non-reading preschoolers.

Useful Reading

Here are some handy articles to continue plunging into the theme of web design and graphics for user experience.

Web Design: 16 Basic Types of Web Pages

How to Improve Web Scannability

How to Create Original Flat Illustrations

The Role of Branding in UI Design

How To Use the Power of Mascots in UI Design and Branding

Negative Space in Design: Tips and Best Practices

Web Design: The Big Guide into Different Types of Websites

Originally written for Tubik Blog

Сообщение 5 Basic Types of Images in Web Design появились сначала на Design4Users.

Words are a powerful weapon. They can bring both success and failure depending on how you put them together. They can motivate or confuse, strengthen or weaken, call or push away. That’s why designing a digital product, it’s vital to remember that high-quality copy is as essential as the details of visual performance.

In one of our previous articles, we’ve already considered the big role of textual content in UI design, covering the definition of copy and its functions in graphic user interfaces. The important point to remember from it here is the words cannot be fully replaced with the graphics whatever amazing, high-quality and professional they are going to be. Efficient and engaging copy content in user interfaces is defined by two equally significant basic criteria: the quality of writing and the appropriate look. Words and visual elements should mutually support each other, exist in harmony, and provide organic consistency. So, every single piece of copy should be thoughtfully analyzed and created in a way corresponding to the general design concept and enhancing positive user experience via successful interaction.

Could you imagine an interface containing badly-written copy with the same type sizes, fonts, and colors? The chances are big that it would cost users a great effort to solve their problems or get needed information with the product, so they would simply choose another product that is more user-friendly and less time-consuming. Let’s check what types of copy content designers and copywriters deal with creating websites or mobile applications, and think over the points needing special attention.

Visual hierarchy

To organize content in interfaces clearly for users, designers apply a well-known technique called visual hierarchy. It is initially based on Gestalt psychological theory and its main goal is to present the content on the carrier, be it a book page or poster, web page or mobile screen, in such a way that users can understand the level of importance for each element. It activates the ability of the brain to distinguish objects on the basis of their physical differences, such as size, color, contrast, alignment, etc. In the aspect of creating copy content for web pages and mobile app screens, there are two aspects important to consider: page scanning patterns and typographic hierarchy.

Understanding the importance of visual performance and readability of copy in digital products and its impact on user experience, numerous usability experts explore this issue comprehensively and collect statistics providing valuable data for designers. Lots of studies have shown that before reading a web page people scan it to get a sense of whether they are interested. According to different studies, including the publications by Nielsen Norman Group as one of the pioneers of this field, UXPin team, and others, there are several popular scanning patterns for web pages, among which “F” and “Z” patterns.

F-pattern is referred to as the most common eye-scanning pattern, especially for web pages with a big amount of content. A user first scans a horizontal line on the top of the screen, then moves down the page a bit and reads across the horizontal line which usually covers a shorter area. And the last one is a vertical line down on the left side of the copy where they look for keywords in the paragraphs’ initial sentences. It usually occurs on text-heavy pages like blogs, news platforms, thematic editorials, etc. How could designers employ this knowledge? First of all, placing the information of key importance or core interest on the most scanned spots and trying to use short catching headlines and bold headers to draw users’ attention.

Z-pattern is applied to pages that are not so heavily concentrated on a copy. A user first scans across the top of the page starting from the top left corner, looking for important information, and then goes down to the opposite corner at a diagonal, finishing with the horizontal line at the bottom of the page, again from left to right. This is a typical model of scanning for landing pages or websites not loaded with copy and not requiring scrolling down the page, which means that all the core data is visible in the pre-scroll area. In this case, designers place core information in the spots of highest attention, such as top corners, and put the other points requiring attention along the top and bottom lines.

The Big Landscape

Here we can see the design concept for a website that presents the online magazine “The Big Landscape”. The interface is minimalist following the principles of clear visual hierarchy, good readability, intuitive navigation, and aesthetic pleasure from visual perception. The designer followed Z-scanning-pattern placing vital elements such as the logo and CTA button in the corners of the top line while the bottom line informs users about the website creators and provides the ability to contact via social networks instantly.

Typographic hierarchy

Typographic hierarchy is a system that organizes copy content in the best way for users’ perception first of all via modifications and the combination of types and fonts. It is aimed at creating a contrast between the most meaningful and prominent copy elements which should be noticed first and ordinary text information. The contrast is created by regulating type fonts, sizes, and colors as well as their placement and alignment. Typographic hierarchy is presented with common types of copy content used in UI design.

Headlines

A headline is the first thing that users should see in any interface. It is a large, bold word or phrase which transfers and emphasizes the core informative message on the page. It’s essential for headlines to be catchy and short so that they could draw users’ attention and meaningful in order to inform users about the theme and benefits of the content of the page or screen. According to the research published by one of the popular social media sharing platforms Buffer, the ideal length of the headline is 6 words; Jacob Nielsen provides the study at which shows that headlines of 5-6 work effectively, not less than extensive headlines presenting a full sentence.

Another point to remember: it’s good when the headline is visually supported by other elements on the page or screen, still, it also should be understandable and meaningful without such context.

Photography Workshops 

Here is the landing page for a company organizing photo tours and workshops for photographers. Functional and stylish minimalism is the basic approach behind the web interface. The bold headline is placed on the left which makes it noticeable but the major accent still remains on the head picture.

Website on cooking seafood

Vinny’s Bakery

These are two examples of the websites concentrated on providing content around the same theme – food. They both have the minimalist design with centrally located headlines. However, the headlines differ with the message they send to the users as well as the nature of the websites differs in its core: one of them stimulates uniting users around the action (cooking seafood) while the other is focused on presenting the goods (bread and bakery). The first example presents a website collecting recipes of meals with seafood from all over the world, so its headline contains a CTA with a key element – action verb in imperative form “Let’s cook!”, which dynamically tunes users into the activity. On the other hand, we can see another concept – a website for a small bakery selling homemade bread. The lyrical headline makes users feel warm, sets strong positive emotional connection and lets them instantly imagine the smell of bakery products which are sold via the website.

Subheaders

It’s impossible to put all the significant information in a headline, that’s why you need subheaders. These are brief, concise, and catchy phrases that are similar to headlines, although they typically mark out the key points in separate sections while headlines summarize the theme or message of the whole page. Following the principles of visual hierarchy, fonts chosen for subheaders are usually smaller than for headlines but bigger than the rest of the copy. Traditionally, they are also bold and short.

Organic — landing page

Travel Gear Landing Page

Subheaders play a big role in landing page design. These two concepts for landing pages above are good examples of how subheaders inform users about the data provided in different sections. Bold subheaders point out the main idea of body copy helping users find the information they need easily and quickly.

Body copy

Body copy is usually a part of text presenting the description or some essential information placed in a compact block, usually under a subheader or a headline. Fonts are thinner and smaller than in headlines and subheaders, sometimes they are presented in italic for even more prominent visual contrast.

There is no unified opinion about the best length of body copy. Some content creators support the approach that long copy is more informative and serious-looking, while others claim that only short copy is effective because Internet users never want to read too much. Here in Tubik, we support the approach that the length of the effective and user-friendly copy depends directly on the target audience: users, as well as products, are incredibly different, they have diverse preferences, goals, and wishes when search for web resources or mobile apps. Both long and short copy have their own pros and cons, and each of them can be appropriate than depending on the target audience of the product and its conversion goals.

Short copy is often effective for mobile interfaces and landing pages: their users are usually keen to see concise and highly informative copy content. Moreover, mobile interfaces have limited amount of space, so too much copy won’t look nice and will demand additional effort for reading, which can be the reason for poor user experience. Long copy is good for web resources that provide users with complex information on specific topics as well as the presentation of the products which aren’t well-known for users and need additional informative support.

Architecture Firm

Here is the example of a web page where a long copy is useful. It’s a design concept featuring a website for the architectural bureau following minimalistic and functional approach in creative practice and demonstrating it via website visual performance. The aim of such websites is to tell the company’s story, present professional level, and achievements, so detailed copy works efficiently in this case.

Birds of Paradise Encyclopedia

This design concept also presents a website deeply based on the copy: it’s an educational project setting the online encyclopedia about the specific family of birds. Although it contains a great amount of information presented in text, this type of content is logically divided into many brief and concentrated copy blocks supported with prominent headlines as well as bright and catchy illustrations. This approach makes interaction with the website more dynamic which is especially effective for a teenage part of target readers that presumably often perceive encyclopedias as boring stuff.

Toonie Alarm tutorial

As we mentioned above, short copy is useful for mobile interfaces since they are limited in space. The interface of a brief tutorial for the Toonie Alarm app demonstrates how copy is divided into short blocks in order to leave enough “air” on the screen and make copy readable.

Call-to-action elements with copy

The core elements that make UI interactive are those which contain a call-to-action (CTA). Some call-to-action elements may be represented with icons that don’t require copy using widely and instantly recognized icons such as a telephone receiver for a phone call or the envelope for mail. However, in cases when the image of an icon is not so obvious or can be misleading, it is more effective to use the double scheme, when the icon, button, or link is supported with the copy.

The copy for call-to-action elements consists of one or two words or a linked phrase in a body copy. Verbs in the imperative form are one of the frequently applied mechanisms of engaging users.  Designers are recommended to use various techniques of creating contrast, first of all via color, in CTA elements, so that they could stand out in the layout and draw the user’s attention quickly.

Landing page for SwiftyBeaver

Travel Agency Website

The CTA buttons on these two landing pages are both centrally located, although they employ different types of copy. The first one consists of the four-word-phrase, while the other applies only one word. However, both look good and work effectively since they both contain the verb in the imperative form and inform the target audience about appropriate action solving their potential task on this website.

Good Sign App Concept 

This is a concept for an unusual Good Sign app that gives you a new sign to look for, and you make your wish every time you see it in real life. Such an extraordinary app has also unusual CTA buttons like “Make a wish”.

Book Swap App

There’s no need to create CTA buttons exceptionally in bright colors – their main task is to be easily noticeable in the general layout. If the interface is bright and colorful, why don’t you make the contrast with a light background which will make the bright copy even more prominent, like in a concept for the Book Swap app above?

Captions

Caption is the short text under a picture describing its content. In web interfaces fonts are usually small and often italic, and in mobile interfaces, the sizes of fonts depend on the size of a picture.

Gym Landing Page

Here is a concept for the landing page of a gym. The captions here have bold fonts that make them easy to read. They are shown only when the picture is hovered which makes interaction more engaging for the users.

Points to consider

All in all, creating a quality copy content isn’t that hard if you keep in mind the typographic hierarchy principles. And here are some basic tips on presenting the copy:

• Create catchy headlines. They draw users’ attention and often become the point of the decision whether the user continues interaction with the page or bounces it.
• Make headlines short, but keep them highly informative.
• Subheaders relate to separate sections, so they guide users through the content in the interface.
• Use brief concise copy for mobile interfaces and landing pages.
• Consider using the long copy of web resources aimed at providing informative content.
• Use verbs in the imperative form to encourage people to actions.
• Use contrast colors for call-to-action elements, so that they could draw the user’s attention more effectively. However, don’t forget to test the readability of the text on the CTA elements: it has a crucial impact on usability and conversion rates.
• A caption should preferably describe or add the data that isn’t obvious from the image.
• Give a strong preference to present tenses in captions.
• Always ground your solutions on preliminary user research and don’t neglect testing different options.

Recommended reading

Here is the collection of recommended articles for further reading in case you would like to read more about the theme.

The 5 pillars of visual hierarchy in Web design
6 principles of visual hierarchy for designers
F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content
3 Design Layouts: Gutenberg Diagram, Z-Pattern, And F-Pattern
Effective Writing For Your UI: Things to Avoid
The Ideal Length of Everything Online, Backed by Research
Copywriting in UI. Words that Make Design Go Round

Our next publication will continue the comprehensive theme of visual hierarchy and its effective practices in web and mobile interfaces. Don’t miss!

Originally written for Tubik Blog

Сообщение Copy Content in User Interfaces: Tips and Practices появились сначала на Design4Users.