Using video in website design: Best practices and examples

It’s 2023, and websites are still punching it out in the heavyweight category of online communication. So it comes as no surprise that it’s as alive as ever. It seems to have adapted well to the fluctuating rhythm of the commercial landscape and could well survive long into the future. But what is keeping this scene alive? The quick answer is content, the lifeblood of the internet itself, and as time moves forward, we become more connected than ever. The need for immersive stories and engaging content is essential when it comes to attracting big audiences, and one medium that appears at the top of the content list is rich video content. In this riveting read, we will immerse ourselves into the world of video, uncovering its importance to breaking point, so much so you may find yourself becoming a video producer yourself!

Why is video so relevant to web design?

The function of a website is to inform the visitor of a product, service or simply entertain. One thing all websites have in common is the need to attract an audience and keep them hooked for as long as possible for them to get the most out of the experience, and one way to do that is by using the most impactful medium of all. Video is today’s theater, it excites us with emotion, engaging stories, and explosive visuals, and when it’s targeted specifically at a website’s target audience, you may have connected enough to turn that visitor into a consumer, a subscriber, or even a fan! Therefore, video can be the ultimate tool to create those essential conversions that make a website the ultimate success story.

Video content and storytelling

When it comes to creating compelling video content for commercial purposes, they need to be short, snappy, and to the point. Why? Because visitors to your website may not necessarily have a reason to watch it in the first place. So providing a direct and engaging experience quickly and effectively is the key to capturing a visitor’s attention, turning them into potential customers.

Footage and graphic assets

In the case of many website development projects, you can find yourself becoming your very own movie producer, temporarily. Luckily for you, help is at hand. And in fact, it’s never been so easy. With stock footage available at the touch of a button and vast amounts of icons and graphic assets at your fingertips, you can combine all these elements into an immersive experience without the need for today’s top Hollywood directors.

• Freepik videos: To find the right footage, you can browse through Freepik’s brand new video library, which will provide you with 4K and HD resolution footage, all quality checked and ready to edit to your liking. All videos are available in MOV, offering a higher quality resolution that is great for a professional result, or MP4 that is widely supported across most platforms that can be useful for social media, presentations, or web content where the video display size is smaller. Premium users will benefit from no need for attribution, a higher download cap, and access to premium content.
• Icons: Elements such as these are vital to creating a functional video for a website, especially for commercial purposes that need to communicate in various ways through visual language. Icons such as shopping carts, animated icons, or a call to action can be easily integrated into your video, helping bring a functional aspect to the project.
• Graphic assets: Vector graphics and images are also highly sought after when creating video content. Vector illustrations have proven their worth to many commercial videos, especially when simplifying something as complex as finance or science in the form of iconography. They also bring a pleasant aesthetic to the whole experience, making your video more likable across the board.

The story

Perhaps there is a mission statement, a brand ideology that can be translated through the use of a powerful narrative, making a deeper connection with your audience. Storytelling techniques, when done correctly, can infuse the power of emotion into your website, evoking feelings of happiness and satisfaction thanks to a product or service. Or perhaps the inspiration and encouragement felt from a narrative that seeks to help others help themselves. Strong stories, no matter how complex, will help create affiliation between the brand and its audience.

Length of the video

For maximum effect in a world where attention span is getting smaller and smaller, videos need to be short, straight to the point, and highly entertaining. It might sound crazy, but limiting your video to a minute or less is more than enough before visitors have no more patience left in the tank. It also means that your video does its job and lets viewers move on to other key points of interest on the website. The goal is to have the video elevate interest in the website and nothing more than that.

Types of video content

Videos will support all kinds of businesses with a culmination of different purposes that all function in different ways. Check out these most common types of videos that are populating successful websites:

• Homepage video background
• About us
• Advertising a product or service
• Product and service review
• Testimonial
• Support and customer care
• Video blog
• How to video
• Employee or team video

How to showcase videos on a website

To get the most out of your video and website, it’s good practice to blend in a few tried and tested methods that will help fulfill the expectation of visitors while also serving the framework of your site.

Embed or link from a host website

Depending on the level of control over the website, the budget, and the space available, you may want to consider how you air your video.

When you choose to embed the video into the website, you are essentially hosting your own which gives you a few performance benefits.

• Control: You will have total freedom to customize your video to how you like it, and depending on your level of skill, you can achieve some advanced playback capabilities such as scroll triggering or using a parallax effect.
• Copyright: Since content is not hosted by a third party, copyright infringement and the use of intellectual property is your responsibility alone. This does not mean that you are free to do whatever you like since copyright law is there to protect intellectual property rights. However, some video hosts tend to restrict creativity by introducing harsh quality control restrictions that you may want to avoid.
• Searchability: Embedding your video directly to your web page will give it its very own unique footprint across the internet and with strong SEO, through searching relevant keywords, you may achieve high ranking on search engines.

The other option is to link content from a video host website like Youtube or from a social media platform. This can make complete sense if you have an expanding social media following that you’d like to channel to your product or service website. Additionally, linking videos from host sites means heavy, high-resolution videos aren’t slowing down and taking up vital space on your website, quickening video loading times. This could certainly help out those who are working on a limited budget or a basic website hosting plan that restricts video hosting capability.

Video placement

The first thing to consider when implementing a video on your website is placement. Video content is typically the most dominant feature of your web page. Therefore, showcasing it at the very top of your page and giving it headline act status could open up its potential, thus providing more reason for fleeting visitors to stick around. However, depending on the content and its function, you may want to position it strategically in line with other competing elements on the page.

Using video backgrounds has also become quite fashionable. When implemented correctly, they bode well to elevate and excite passersby. However, this method comes with its own risks with functionality, as other vital elements on the page can get lost, such as body text, icons, and other visual elements that need to inform the viewer. This issue of contrast can be resolved through various methods that are not too dissimilar to applying text and icons to backgrounds, from using filters to choosing footage that restores the balance of contrast between other elements on the page.

Looping

Especially in cases where your video is short and carries a vital message, looping the video further enhances the experience of your visitors, and when trying to make the experience as effortless and fluid as possible, we don’t want them rummaging around trying to find the repeat button. Furthermore, if the video audio plays a major role in creating an atmosphere, then this also supports the idea of looping.

Presentation

Video content needs to maintain a polished appearance. By keeping things streamlined, you can achieve a clean and contemporary look that showcases your brand in the best light possible. You can achieve this by stripping away unnecessary elements, such as superfluous titles, descriptions, and time tracking. Focus on only the essential components to create a more engaging and distraction-free viewing experience for your audience.

Audio

Sound plays a huge role in many videos as it can create an atmosphere that further enhances the experience and elevates brand identity. This is all very well. However, when it comes to websites, you might find yourself at a crossroads whether to have it or perhaps display a visible mute button for viewers to make the choice for themselves. This all very much depends on the kind of impact you want to deliver. If your video plays straight away with audio blaring, it could turn people away. Alternatively, it might be expected, especially if your target audience welcomes it.

Incorporating dialogue into a video to convey important information demands proper audio quality. However, if you want to cater to visitors who prefer to have their devices muted, it’s worth considering the use of subtitles. This strategy can bring convenience to people who are on-the-go while still keeping them informed. By doing so, you are prioritizing the needs of your users and giving them a sense of care and attention to detail.

Inspiring examples

Tavalo

Tavalo is a website promoting a healthy lifestyle for all its inhabitants through its communal renting program; its homepage video plays straight off the get-go, providing us with many answers to questions we haven’t even thought up yet. With no audio, it relies on its clean and tidy look to keep us entertained, leaving us with just the right amount of enthusiasm to explore the rest of the page.

Quango Inc

Quango Inc, this creative design agency has created a compelling video narrative to sell its services to visitors. The video is just one scroll away from the top, filling the screen with its rough-around-the-edges design style. The video itself is based around a narrative that supports the studio’s brand ideology with grungy music that may or may not be to the viewer’s taste but clearly gives us a glimpse into the personality of this creative group.

Manaf Al Nakib

This gifted designer Manal Al Nakib has created a stunning website that promotes their ability to create functional interactive designs. The website itself is developed around the parallax effect. Videos will play and pause as you scroll past, and with no audio, it keeps the experience pleasant and in control, as it focuses more on the strength of its visuals.

Videos play a major role in keeping the internet alive, providing motion and deep narratives that, in turn, help convey strong messages for businesses to stay competitive and at the top of their game. In this highly competitive landscape, the need for it is ever so apparent, and learning of its necessity may well be the thing that drives you to understand it in more detail. It is hoped that with this introduction to website videos, you will gain insight into helping create impactful websites that serve their function and bring color and motion to your next project.