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For part two of our Hispanic series, we’ll cover the most effective way to design your website for this segment.
According to Nielsen, Hispanics will account for more than half of the population growth in the U.S. by 2020, meaning their current $1.4 trillion spending power will grow even larger. Think about it – catering to this niche could reap huge benefits.
Stick around and get expert recommendations about general guidelines, content, visual design, and data entry for U.S. Hispanic websites.
Video Transcription
The Hispanic segment currently makes up 17% of the U.S. population and is projected to grow at an accelerated rate in the next decade. How do you prevent this segment from bouncing from your website?
Today’s video will provide you with expert best practices and key considerations, for creating more usable websites for the growing Hispanic Community.
1) General Design Guidelines: What Are the Basics?
Consider internationalization issues early on. For example, navigational labels in Spanish will usually require more space for more letters or words to describe the navigational element.
User-centered design is especially important when designers and their target audiences are so different.
2) Content: What Is The Best Way to Address U.S. Hispanics?
Hispanics tend to maintain a strong connection to their country of origin – even third-generation Hispanics. For this reason, we recommend the use of neutral Spanish for general U.S. Hispanics and a more targeted, country-specific Spanish for subsegments.
Plain language – clear and concise – is particularly important for lower literacy audiences who tend to read word-for-word and even more important when working in two languages.
Use of large size and easy to read fonts in “serif” style is recommended as most appropriate for a less acculturated, Spanish preferring audience.
3) Visuals and Multimedia: What Is The Best Way to Engage U.S. Hispanics?
Understanding language preferences is important, however, an even more important consideration for the Hispanic audience is whether or not a site can establish cultural awareness.
For example, we recommend using images focused on family and extended family, traditional food, and holidays.
Also, visual design, such as imagery and color, is more important to Hispanic audiences than non-Hispanic. Latinos like and consume a lot of video content. Use multimedia to reach lower literacy groups.
4) Data Entry: What Are Some Best Practices For a User-Friendly Structure?
Less acculturated users may be unfamiliar with typical data entry requirements, for example, phone numbers, ZIP codes, etc. This means there is a greater need for field-level online help and identification of essential data required.
We recommend you consider allowing different data variants and process them on the backend.
That’s it for today, we hope you’ve learned a lot!
