Increase credibility and/or persuasion to the website

In term 2, we learned how to build the website more credible, accessible and persuasive.These three components are necessary and you should think about it first, when you create the website.For the final project, I designed the website called "COOPER BOATING" which rents the boat in Vancouver area. Also we are assigned to add 10 different elements we will incorporate on our website to help add credibility and/or persuasion to our project.  This is the website design that I created.

The elements that I added on this website is the following:

01. PROFESSIONAL DESIGN

The new design for COOPER BOATING has professional, friendly and consistent design by using clear layout, readable font size and limited color scheme. The slide show banner is effective to show their special offers since users eyes tend to follow the big image when they first visit the website. Color scheme is mainly limited into 3 colours, which express summer and positive image: blue, orange and gray. Because of these limited color, users will be able to scan the whole website easily and reach the information quickly. The orange colour is only used in interactive modules such as button and links, so that once users have learned the design and they quickly can perform tasks by only seeing colours. The simple icons increase the readability of your content as well.

02. EASY TO CONTACT

Stanford Guidelines says to show the contact information to boost the site’s credibility. There are two ways to reach the information on this website, one is from “About” area and another is from contact link from global navigation on header and footer. Also, adding the company photo on the contact page is important to make COOPER BOATING reliable.

03. UPDATE YOUR SITE’S CONTENT OFTEN

Regarding SEO and credibility, it is also effective way to add the news blog on the homepage. This will keep customers and prospects coming back. The website’s news blog has information about current service status. Adding the photos to each content is also good way to convey their great services.

04. EASY TO USE AND USEFUL

The majority of users will look for the information of boat rental service, course, clubs and events. The new website is easy to use because there are several ways t o look for that information: searching bar, search by fleet and search by calendar. If the users want to search in those specific ways, these searching systems are very useful for users.

05. TESTIMONIALS, INTERACTIVITIES

Reviewing system gives opportunity to users to participate in t he website’s interactivity. Also reviews that users wrote will show potential customers that the website is trustworthy, reliable and an expert in the field.

06. SOCIAL MEDIA ICONS

Adding social media icons is successful way not only for SEO, but also to add in user’s social network and make users to remember to return at another time, even if users won’t make any action at the moment. Word of mouth is a great form of advertising, and it can also be a reliable way to bring much needed traffic to the website.

07. ABILITY TO CHANGE THE FONT SIZE

This function allows users to change the text size they see online to suit their preference on every devices, regardless of what text display options are built-in to a website. The icon is located in header area as users often scan from the header, and the function should to be seen at the first moment.

08. NO ADVERTISEMENTS

Unnecessary advertisements and pop-ups decrease users motivation to stay on the website. The new website doesn’t have any ads other than their own ads for specialty offers so that users can only focus on their great deals.

09. SIMPLE STRUCTURE AND NAVIGATION

Structure and navigation are very straightforward on this website. The information is all divided into the block element so that users will be easy to follow the site structure. “About” and “News Blog” content can be read on the homepage without going to another page. Also, “Book Now” button is made to stand out since some of the users just want to book their service straight away.

10. HIGH CONTRAST

There is a high contrast between text and background on this website to increase legibility. Using blue and orange colour is also an effective way to emphasize the contrast as well, since these are complementary colours. The limited font size (h1, h2, p) increase efficiency in order to make users to learn the website structure easily.