Interactivity in digital solutions has become the norm today. The more opportunities end users have to get feedback on their actions, the more pleasant it is for them to interact with a product, and the higher their involvement is. Below we will tell you what elements you can use to make a really cool interactive website.
Interactive Content: What Is It?
So what is interactive content? In fact, these are the types of content that ensure active interaction with the user interface from the end users. Unlike static content, this content requires some actions from these users to move toward their target actions, instead of switching pages to change from one of them to another.
Thus, any content can be interactive if it involves performing any actions with the interface, in addition to those that allow you to navigate through the pages of the website. From a strategic point of view, such content, compared to static content, holds the attention of users better, evokes more emotions in them, and contributes to higher conversion rates.
Interactive Content That Your Users Like
So what types of content are responsible for interactivity? Let’s find out right now.
Videos
Is there anything special about videos that makes them more enticing than images? Better ask the regulars of websites with 18+ videos about this. Indeed, while branded videos don’t add much variety to end-user interactions, they still involve far more environmental receptors than standard 2D pages with basic website navigation. In particular, they combine sound, visual, and motor channels, evoking new, stronger emotions and experiences in end users, and also causing more stable associations than static visual objects.
As for the types of video content, it can be product presentation videos, welcome videos, reviews, background videos, tutorials, entertainment videos, educational videos, etc.
Product demonstration
We have already discussed above that product presentations can be implemented in video format, but this is not the only way to make the user experience even more exciting. For example, you can try to integrate a zoom option into a gallery with standard product images from different angles so that they can take a closer look at the details. You may also benefit from a 360-degree view and live streams allowing users to interact directly and ask questions about the product, etc.
Games
Gamification of digital solutions has been one of the main trends for 7–8 years now, and this trend will probably not give up its position for a very long time. The fact is that to keep the attention of the target audience when performing targeted actions, now it is not enough just to reduce the number of manipulations by the end user — you need to figure out how to make them want to move on. Gamification is a great example of this.
Indeed, unlike user scenarios that exclude it, it can stimulate further actions of users, causing them to feel the adrenaline and be interested in what will happen next. It is also likely that you will be able to present the completion of a target action as an achievement for a specific user, which also embodies the best practices of a game-like interface.
Calculators
With interactive calculators, you can make life easier for your visitors by automating the calculations they may need to complete a specific target action within your website. Moreover, they contribute to more productive decision-making, since the more information your visitors have about potential results, the more likely it is that they will do so.
Polls and questionnaires
This is a fairly old and time-tested approach to providing interactivity, which will allow the most active members of your target audience to “spend their energy” correctly. Thanks to this, you can provide your visitors with a personalized user experience and remotely reproduce the “live” interaction of the brand with the end user.
Whitepapers, manuals, and guides
Instead of cluttering up your website pages with lengthy descriptions of projects and/or products, you can invite your visitors to download a whitepaper for a more in-depth look at them. The same goes for reports, analytics, guides, forecasts, and other content formats that involve large amounts of typed text, which can look too cumbersome on your website pages.
In this way, you will save your “lazy” users from having to read and watch what they do not need on the main pages of the website, and at the same time allow those who are looking for more information to get it in the most readable form.
Timelines
Timelines can show users the history of their interaction with your website, as well as other time-dependent events. The introduction of such interactive elements contributes to the personalization of user interfaces and at the same time looks unhackneyed.
Tags and checklists
Tags and checklists will allow your visitors to customize your website to their specific preferences without overloading their memory and perception receptors with redundant and uninteresting information. This is especially useful for multi-page websites where content can be typed into multiple categories.
Maps
Interactive maps help you bridge the gap between virtual and real user experience when interacting with a particular brand. For example, during the process of placing an order on the website or after it is completed, your users will be able to find out about the points of delivery of goods in their familiar web map services without leaving the website itself.
Maps can also help them track the movement of their goods in real time. And finally, interactive maps can be used as an extraordinary interactive way to demonstrate specific data for publishing news, analytical articles, and other static textual content.
Infographics
Infographics are not always interactive, but it is interactive infographics that ensure the maximum involvement of users in the process of interacting with your website. In particular, you can use animation, as well as place buttons, links, and other clickable elements that will literally “ask” your visitors to do something with them.
Final Thoughts
We hope that our list of ten basic types of interactive elements has helped you to choose the most correct ones that will be most appropriate for the website you are working on. At the same time, note that the main thing when making a decision in favor of one or another type is to remember the relevance and that the final decision should be concise and not overloaded.
Originally published at https://www.flowmapp.com.
