Making the Best Online News Portal: Design Tips

Print media has given way to a novel medium to deliver news to the masses: News websites. And no matter the type of story they may be covering, the fact remains that they have taken off very well over the past decade and their popularity continues to grow every day. However, even though they are a hit among readers, many news websites struggle with garnering a better readership. That, in part, can be chalked up to users’ lack of trust in the portal; in fact, research suggests that a majority of people who use news websites blamed the design for their inability to place trust in their content. If you want numbers — it is about 94 percent. We will admit that perfecting a news website’s design is quite challenging. The design is an intricate facet of the business, and it demands careful thought and strategizing to successfully put together a portal that will pull in readers and keep them amply engaged. If you get this wrong, you lose readers; but if you ace this, you stand to gain immensely and that too much more than users’ trust and a better readership. So, no matter if you are already in the business and want to make improvements or are a new entity bracing to jump into the world of news websites, here are some tips that will help you get the design right. 1. Navigation should be fuss-free: Different users means different interests. And that means they may want to find their way to a different story that caters to their benefit while they are on your website. That is why simple and stable navigation is critical to the process. In addition to that, make sure that the navigation bar and menu is placed in an easy to find a spot, i.e., it is not hard to find. It will ensure the users are not frustrated and leave. 2. Security should be top priority: In this day and age, it seems nearly redundant to talk about safety. And yet, here we are. The truth is that many websites may be able to ace their design, but may not do as well in security. And that’s a no-go, i.e., the protection of the website must be of the best possible levels. 3. Optimized use of white space: Great design doesn’t mean that every inch of the portal has to be filled with content or some such thing. Even for news portals, whitespace has a vital role to play, and one must ensure that it is utilized in a planned and coherent manner. It will not only enhance the design’s appeal but will also contribute to the legibility of the text. There is no denying that designing a news website is challenging and intriguing in equal measure. And if you genuinely wish to get this right, we recommend getting in touch with a reliable vendor for news portal website development using Drupal, for they will be able to offer just the kind of expert assistance you need.