Since the first commercial website emerged in 1991, the Internet has become an essential part of any company’s branding, as well as their marketing plan. When it comes to your company’s website, the design of the site is just as important as the message you are trying to convey. In order to ensure your message is reaching your customer base, the key is to keep your design simple and user-friendly. This is even more important if you’re in the business of running an online gambling website. Online gaming has exploded since the first site came online in 1994. With an estimated $4 to $6 billion in annual revenues, according to the American Gaming Association, you want to make sure your site stands out from the crowd.
Keeping up With Current Trends
Since Apple introduced the first smartphone in 2007, mobile betting through online gaming sites has been experiencing a huge increase. According to William Hill, the largest bookmaker in the United Kingdom, 2012 saw a 260 percent increase in mobile betting revenue with the numbers expected to continue to increase. It is in your best interest to keep this in mind when designing your online gaming site. When designing your site, you want your design and content to translate to any screen, whether it is a PC, tablet, or smartphone. The best way to ensure your site’s content will be able to be adapted to a variety of screens, is to create a responsive design. Unlike most company websites, a responsive site focuses specifically on the site’s performance, customer interaction, and user experience prioritization.
Maximizing Your Site’s Performance
Unless your customers are using a wireless network to utilize their phone’s data capabilities, their connection speeds will be significantly slower than that of a computer. In order to keep your customers from becoming frustrated at slow download times on their phones, keep your website images light, and your content simple. If you want your customers to be able to learn how to play poker online, be sure to highlight this information on your site.
Keeping User Interaction Simple
One of the most important aspects of your web design is how well your customers are able to interact with your site. This is especially true for gaming sites. With responsive design, this means your site controls will need to be properly designed so that their behavior doesn’t change if the site is being viewed on a different platform. The best way to test this out is to check the site on your smartphone as you design, so you can ensure consistency across the platforms.
Prioritizing Your User’s Experience
Your company’s call to action, or CTA, is its most important component. It is the thing that gets your site visitors to turn into loyal customers. This should be kept in mind when designing your online gambling site. If you follow the responsive design recommendations, your design will have properly sized and scaled images and controls, allowing your CTA to be displayed prominently no matter what size screen your customers are accessing your site from.
A responsive design will not only allow your site to be supported on a variety of screen sizes, but it will also save your company both time and money. Responsive design uses only one source code that can be seen across multiple platforms, reducing the amount of time your company will have to spend updating your site. With the ability to access your site from anywhere, your customers will be able to have fun placing their bets from home or on the go.
