#yes i made a post earlier but this one should be readable on mobile

[sewn-with-lilies-fair]

Tolkien Adaptation Directory

I’ve recently returned from a there-and-back journey into watching every Tolkien adaptation I could find- mainly film, tv, and theatre- but I was more surprised to discover a corner of the fandom interested in watching them too! And more than anything, I want to share what I’ve found, and draw some attention to these amazing works. I firmly believe that every adaptation adds something to Middle Earth- whether it’s as big as a different character or plot interpretation, or as small as a new art style, they all make Tolkien’s stories just a little brighter.

This page has everything from the Peter Jacksons to Born of Hope, and from the Hobitit miniseries to the Finrod rock opera, and always room for more! I’ll absolutely keep updating as I find things, or if I’m sent anything!

Good luck on your adventures!

For my own safety and sanity, this list is limited- if loosely in places- to film, television, and theatre. For an extensive music directory, please visit the Tolkien Music List or this wikipedia page. For other adaptations (i.e. radio dramas, video games), this wikipedia page is a good starting point.

Adaptations are listed by story, then country/language, and then year. Titles marked with a star (*) are my personal recommendations.

The Hobbit

USA / English

The Hobbit (1966) - short animated film - [ full ]

*The Hobbit (1977) - animated film - [ clip / wiki ]

The Hobbit (1998) - youth play - [ first act / second act ]

The Hobbit (2009) - youth marionette show - [ first part ]

The Hobbit (2012-2014) - film trilogy - [ trailer / wiki ]

The Hobbit (2014) - theatre production - [ first act / second act ]

*The Hobbit (2018) - single film edit of the film trilogy - [ full ]

*The Hobbit (2023) - stage play - [ trailer ]

Russia / Russian

Hobbit (1985) - film - [ full ]

Ballad of the Glorious Bilbo Baggins (1988) - youth musical - [ full ]

Hobbit (2002) - opera - [ full ]

Germany / German

Der Herr Der Ringe (1998) - circus musical outdoor tent production - [ info ]

Canada-USA / English

The Hobbit (2004) - children’s opera - [ info / clips ]

Canada / English

The Hobbit (2019) - puppet theatre production - [ info / clips ]

Czech Republic / Czech

Hobit (2020) - fan musical - [ full ]

Denmark / Danish

*Hobbitten (2021) - carnival puppet outdoor production [ trailer ]

Finland / Finnish

*Hobitti (2021-2023) - theatre production [ teaser / trailer and opening ]

The Lord of the Rings

USA / English

The Lord of the Rings (1978) - animated film - [ trailer / wiki ]

The Return of the King (1980) - animated film - [ clip / wiki ]

*The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) - film trilogy - [ trailer / wiki ]

The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) - theatre production - [ info ]

The Hunt for Gollum (2009) - short film - [ full ]

Born of Hope (2012) - short film - [ full ]

Canada-UK / English

*Lord of the Rings (2006-2008) - musical - [ clip / act one / wiki ]

Canada / French

Le Seigneur des Anneaux (2018) - puppet theatre production - [ info / clips ]

Sweden / Swedish

Sagan om Ringen (1971) - tv miniseries - [ clip / part one / info / wiki ]

Finland / Finnish

Taru Sormusten Herrasta (1988-1989) - musical - [ music ]

Hobitit (1993) - tv miniseries - [ full / wiki ]

Taru Sormusten Herrasta (2018) - theatrical production - [ info and clip / clip ]

Russia / Russian

Khraniteli (1991) - tv miniseries - [ wiki / part 1 / part 2 ]

The Silmarillion

USA / English

Lay of Leithian Opera (2006) - opera performed in concert - [ info and recordings ]

*Silmarillion Film Project (2015-present) - theoretical tv series - [ info / episodes ]

One of the Seven (2021) - short fanfiction film [ full ]

Rings of Power (2022-present) - tv series - [ info / trailer ]

Russia / Russian

The Star and the Death of Fëanor (1996) - musical fanfiction - [ full audio ]

*Finrod / Finrod Song (2001-present) - rock opera - [ 2014 concert / 2008 CD / VK page ]

Melkor (2012) - rock opera - [ clip / clip montage ]

Beren and Luthien (2019-present) - equestrian musical - [ clip / VK page ]

*Lay of Leithian (2020-present) - rock opera - [ 2022 libretto / VK page / unofficial website in English ]

Fingon (2021-2022) - fan musical (reworking Finrod rock opera songs) - [ 2021 / 2022 ]

Gondolin (2022) - fan musical - [ VK page ]

Czech Republic / Czech

Fall of Númenor (2009) - fan musical - [ libretto ]

Beren a Lúthien (2016) - fan musical - [ full ]

Aredhel (2017) - fan musical - [ full ]

Fëanor a Jeho Synové / Fëanor and His Sons (2018) - fan musical - [ full ]

*Děti Húrinovy / Children of Húrin (2019) - fan musical - [ full ]

Pád Doriathu / Fall of Doriath (2022) - fan musical - [ full ]

Beren a Lúthien (2023) - fan musical - [ full ]

Czech Republic / English

*Horn of Gondor (2020) - short film - [ full ]

Parodies

USA / English

Fellowship! (2004-2005) - musical - [ info / music ]

Starkid’s Hobbit (2006) and Lord of the Rings (2008) - musical - [ info and clip ]

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Uchitama 1 - 2 | Hatena 1 - 2 | Ankoku Hakaishin 1 - 2 | Infinite Dendrogram 1 | Hanako-kun 2 | In/Spectre 1 | ARP Backstage Pass 1 | A3 1

Rolled out one tag. I got pretty far behind, so I’ll catch up in the next few posts.

Uchitama 1

Ume and Shirai here.

I would assume this kid with the tiger on his shirt is called Tora, because I vaguely remember a “Tora” in the promotional material.

The sakura aesthetic is nice.

This switch between boy and cat forms is a bit…”weird” is the first word that came to mind, but “random” was the next.

Tora = Shirai and Ume is a character called Kuro, who we haven’t seen yet. (Had to google which roles they had.)

LOL, I like Beh already. A sleepyhead like him is perfect!

I just noticed, but Beh sometimes has a cleft palate (that little dent in the mouth).

Ume’s character isn’t too bad-looking, y’know. He’s a clumsy one though, so he doesn’t quite seem like the sort of character I’d gravitate to.

Seeing boys and girls act like cats and dogs makes me LOL.

Huh? Is cat-dog romance like your standard opposites attract romance…?

Hmm…thank goodness the mother cat wasn’t “made human”…

I’m used to Nora being a woman (see Noragami plus the Western general usage of the name “Nora”)…so this one being a guy (with nice eyes, to boot) is a bit disorienting.

Turns out the Tosa is a huge dog with a face like a pitbull.

I find this Momo-Bull romance just a bit weird still.

I got spoilt on this from the reviews, but Waiha = Hawaii.

That flash of Nora’s owner (?) was interesting!

Other notes: The narration seems to be done by the voice of Tama. Ume sounds like Ume, but it doesn’t feel like Ume because he’s playing against his normal type of character. Shirai doesn’t sound like Shirai though…it’s a completely different character to the types I’ve heard him do before (Ramuda and Io don’t sound like Tora, but Vino sounds similar to En because a lot of Ume characters are done in his usual, suave voice…Ramuda is Shirai doing a falsetto though so he’s hard to compare).

Hatena 1

This one got alright reviews, but I get the feeling I’m not going to like it, so lt’s get this over and done with.

Why is Kana the only one with the black hair…?

This OP is rather low budget compared to the others…

I fully expect Kana to go “It’s bitter…” and make a face when drinking the coff-yep. Thought so. Why do people think black coffee is the mark of a distinguished adult anyway? I don’t even like coffee, so I don’t get it at all.

The sentence in Japanese went something like “Makoto’s always been good”, so I don’t get why the word “egg” had to be introduced into the subs.

There’s an onigiri sale in the back, LOL.

The gates were fairly CGId…

The butler’s name is literally Jeeves Wodehouse, LOL.

Oh, Yumemi is blonde because of Maeve and Kana is brunette/black (?) haired because of Mamoru. Yumemi = dream seeing and Mamoru = protect.

Kana’s voice is annoying! That’s why I thought I wouldn’t like this.

Kana’s such a tsundere now that she knows Makoto is a boy, it’s annoying. I already knew such a detail from the reviews, so I’m not miffed at all.

I find it vaguely amusing that there were 3 different types of animation of a person popping their head into the attic.

Ema’s just a bit evil…Update: Nup, she just ships Kana x Makoto, that’s all.

The hardsubs weren’t encoded correctly on this episode, so they’re all blurry now. Still readable but blurry.

The pun is that the ka in Kana can be read hate in other cases.

More CG doors.

Why is Kana wearing the scarf, even after her bath in a towel???

This reminds me of Hayate the Combat Butler…

Maeve is foreign...that’s why she’s blonde. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh. (<- partially sarcastic)

Hmm…the fact you can’t tell what is and isn’t real is an interesting factor. However, the production values and the bog-standard romance being set up undercut that.

Magical girl transformation, eh? Reminds me of DN Angel or Magic Kaito, but also Phantom Thief Jeanne or something of the sort.

Hatena 2

I’m still trying to see if this is something to kick out…

This “scarf punches guy” business is getting old…I never got used to it in the old-school harems. I don’t know why it’s become a “classic” thing in anime.

This is meant to be for a boy’s perspective, so…I don’t get it. Okay, I’m dropping this.

Infinite Dendrogram 1

An isekai…oh, goody. (sarcastic) Then again, if I liked this I could try a new publisher out, so it’s win-win for me and the companies I go through to get there.

*the exposition rolls in about virtual reality* Oh great (sarcastic)…this is SAO all over again, isn’t it???

I saw HOTZIPANG in the credits list…now I’m really wary. HOTZIPANG were in the credits for Africa Salaryman and their animation production isn’t the best.

1st person cam…you suck, you know that?!

No. 13 (unlucky number)…Cheshire (Alice in Wonderland)…

Ray for Reiji makes sense, but…(consults Google-sensei) mukudori does mean “starling”, after all.

Yo…does Ray have to be blonde…? Is this some commentary on how having blonde hair is better than black hair, or am I thinking about this too much? (It’s my belief that Asians want to look European and vice versa – just look at their beauty standards! - so that’s where that comes from.)

Box? Looks like a bag to me.

Welp, just grabbing the kanji for mukudori via Wikipedia revealed the Embryo is a sword to me…*shrugs* No surprise there – as TV Tropes would say, heroes love swords (and redheads!).

So you can commit murder in Infinite Dendrogram??? (I’m joking partially, but Cheshire did say “you can do anything”…right?)

…and of course Ray drops into Altea from the sky. It’s been a cliché since No Game No Life.

“This is a game?” – Actually, I thought the same thing when I entered the website and game of TERA. Then again, this is basically trying to be SAO through and through, so I guess spouting that line is a prerequisite here.

How does anyone break both arms from running into someone…?

Well, at least this show looks nice. It’s doing its job on that front.

I was going to ask what a tian was, but the show answered it for me. Good job, show!

*Googles “dendrogram”* - “a tree diagram, especially one showing taxonomic relationships.” – Oh, so that’s why it’s called Infinite Dendrogram! (Y’know, it reminds me of studying about dendrites, which have the same appearance as a dendrogram...hence the shared origins of the words.)

Normally characters don’t jump into virtual worlds with thir brother…they’d do it with their cousin or crush or something…Hmm.

I was about to think you die in real life if you die in the game, but thank goodness this one is nowhere near as bad.

CGI bugs…of course…

That one still shot revealed a crack in this show’s visuals. I almost thought I could select it on the basis of the excellent visuals alone, but nope.

“…that…leaves a bad taste in my mouth!” – Not again, Ray…stop saying that line…

Again? I just told you in the last note not to!

Of course Ray gets the girl. I should’ve known…well she’s a sword but also a girl…?

The sentence ending -grizz is –kuma in Japanese.

I felt something special in my gut when the sword appeared, even though I’m complaining about this being like SAO, so I think it’s worth continuing.

A3 1

A3 is based on a mobile game so it looks a lot like those idol games, but it’s actually about acting according to the full name of Act! Addict! Actors!.

This kid’s eyes freak me out!

Considering this involves – according to the synopsis – a Mankai (full bloom) Company and this is called “spring and summer”, plus the metaphors from earlier, it makes sense the kiddo’s jumper says “spring” on it.

I thought the kid was singing, but turns out he’s reciting Shakespeare. I don’t know how popular the ol’ Shakie is in Japan, but I’ll take it.

Veludo Way = Broadway, apparently.

It should be Biro-do or Verodo, but not “Vedulo” like the subs say.

*sees a woman* - Oh great, so now this turns into an otome game…or, like i7’s Tsumugi, she’s an audience insert.

Someone encoded the video funny again…*sigh*

I bet the demolition guy is going to join the theatre, based on his looks. Update: According to the wiki, yes he does (as part of the Autumn troupe)! One of his hobbies is bubble wrap, which I can relate to immensely…and apparently he’s a yakuza…?

Masumi’s voice…is that Kaito Ishikawa? Update: No! It’s Shirai! I’m so surprised…it’s a very Io-sounding voice, though, so I guess I shouldn’t.

Masumi is one of those needy types who could easily fall into yandere territory…I don’t like him. I don’t like Sakuya either, though…

I know this from my recent experience, but hard work hardly works, Sakuya. Staying somewhere one year or ten years does diddly squat if you don’t have what other people are looking for. *tries not to cry*

I’m sorry guys, but even with the attack to the heart, I don’t give a s*** about you all. The troupe was just arguing to delay their deadlines and Furuichi (the demolition guy) has a point – the guys didn’t really prove themselves outside a brief but unimpressive stint from Sakuya.

ARP Backstage Pass 1

Hopefully this show is actually good, y’know? A3 just bombed…

Okayyyyyyyyyyy…from the one minute or so that I’ve seen, it looks like a Coldplay concert but with bishonen (good) and bad music (which is…uh, bad). That does not bode well for this show…also, the stage names are pretty obviously that. I mean, who cals their kid “Rage”? It’s probably Reiji (again, considring Infinite Dendrogram).

The cars from above almost look like Frogger…LOL.

Oh f*** me and my on-the-ball instincts! I guessed correctly again (Rage = Reiji)…and that’s bad news.

Wait, why is Shinji staring into space…?

There’s a kettle noisily going on in the background, so I can’t really tell what’s so awesome about this show without the music…I guess I’ll have to abort this mission until later…

Okay, so I listened to the piano bit thrice and couldn’t tell if there was a piano noise…That’s bad news. Update: Yep, listened to it again and there is no piano sound during the piano scene.

The rock music was…unexpected.

Wait, you mean the dude’s name is actually Daiya??? What???

Oh my gosh, these guys are hilarious! I know that’s dark considering they’re starving, but…LOL.

Idolmaster Side M taught me that career changes are actually pretty interesting when combined with idol anime and…this may be a band or something, but it sure works the same way.

That transition to Leon was terrible.

This appears to be Yokohama (Chinatown) and Hakone (the pirate ship).

Well, the show’s case would be helped if they had music in the right places, rather than music videos interspersed throughout.

Geesh this one is tough…some of the music is actually pretty good and the episode does get better when Rebel Cross appear (but Shinji is kinda boring, even though I thought I’d like him the most, and Leon’s singing was downright terrible), but the animation is terrible and I found myself going “But why should I care?!” multiple times in my head during the first half. The group do seem to have quite good synergy at the end and are generally entertaining, too.

Ankoku Hakaishin 1

I’ve ben calling this “Destructive God” or “Ankoku Haishin”, so this is A Destructive God Sits Next to Me. Update: It should be Hakaishin…actually.

Ooh, Natsuko Takahashi. This show’s in good hands.

Very Seki-kun.

Black Mouse Land, LOL.

“This is war!” – The word here is shoubu, which literally means “victory or defeat”, so it makes sense to change it to a more commonly used phrase.

“RIP Koyuki” – The grave said “Koyuki’s grave”…which isn’t that funny to be honest, so again, I get the decision to change it.

Hanadori still had the dog…?

“Things I Want to Forget” – Literally, the words on the page mean “black history”, which I think is funnier.

Oh, I bet Koyuki will plan the class trip…

“[T]he jerk in the next class over” – Does he have a name…?

I bet Koyuki has the worst grades in math of the trio.

Koyuki is deliberately designed like a cat, it seems.

You can see the broken window from earlier…LOL.

It’s Animal Crossing! On DS! (But what’s up with that rabbit with the fishnet stockings…?) Update: Do Japanese kids even use DSs these days? DSs must be cheap in comparison to their newfangled gaming laptops and Switches…

Is Tsukimiya Mamoru Miyano or something…? Update: Nup, Kimura. I seem to get those two confused quite a bit.

The “Muney” (sic) thing is because he (Hanadori) wrote the hyou in mokuhyou (aim, goal) wrong. By the way, Hanadori put an eyepatch on one of his banknotes.

That ending was actually kind of cute. I always prefer heartwarming comedies like these over mean-spirited ones (Osomatsu-san, Konosuba), so…yep, it’s in my wheelhouse!

I predicted the ending but the galactic reaction I got was…awesome!

In/Spectre 1

Why does this have so many names? In/Spectre, Kyokou Suiri , Inverted Reasoning (or was it Inverted Interface)…? Update: Inverted Inference. That’s the name on the manga covers.

Ooh, Saki is pretty classy-looking.

This is being framed like a romance, huh? I know this series is supernatural, but I’m not really here for the romance.

What’s the age gap? 17 (Kotoko) – 23 (Kuro)?

Lel, Harlequin novels. Those seem to be exclusive to the Western world (specifically the USA and its English-speaking country buddies), so it’s probably just romance novels in the original words. Update: I found Harlequin novels for Japan, but still, they’d be nowhere near as ubiquitous as they are elsewhere. Update 2: I kept thinking about it, so now I have an entire post with my findings. Turns out Japan does have and know about Harlequin novels (which do look like the one the samurai was holding), but they probably couldn’t state the name because of potential lawsuits or something. 

Oh gosh, Potato-kun (Kuro) – yes, I think of him much like a normal harem lead – getting your hand chomped off to the arm is a bit stupid, y’know?

Whoa! Wht a crazy cliffhanger!

Whoo! This OP (? Or is this an ED?) is crazy cool. Kinda like low-budget Kekkai Sensen.

Well, this show is kinda losing me with the romance elements, but the supernatural part is great.

Hanako-kun 2

What’s Hakujoudai? Those will o wisps? Update: Seems so.

The explanation of Yousei-san has a voice like it’s coming across a radio…interesting.

The towel…I bet it’s the one from Senpai one of the students mntioned earlier.

The subbers spelt “brooch” wrong.

This new boy – which I thought was Minamoto at first (LOL?)…he has a traffic omamori as an earring and a staff/umbrella, so he’s probably an exorcist. Either that or a massive chuunibyou.

LOL, Castle in the Sky much? (Or is that Nausicaa?)

Nene is reading from a magazine called G Cinema.

The comedy is this is slowly getting better. That’s a good sign for this, but bad for Ankoku Hakaishin…

Seagull High????? (Kamome = seagull.)

Wait, Minamoto??? You mean Nene’s former love is an exorcist??? Update: Oops, that’s (Nene’s crush is) Kou’s older bro…but that’s spoilers.

“Kou” is written with the character for hikari, or in this case “Yorimitsu”.

The action scenes are pretty good in this…I guess I kind of took them for granted in ep. 1.

Oh, I guess I should’ve known that seal on Hanako’s face…there were more of them in his possession. Also, there’s an extra V in the subs for some reason.

The stairs remind me of Muzan’s “universe” near the end of Demon Slayer’s first season.

Oh, the events of this episode tell you why Nene does the next episode stuff.

The ED visuals remind me of Ranpo Kitan’s, and I love Ranpo Kitan’s.

Ankoku Hakaishin 2

Why is Koyuki eating with his teacher anyway? I thought he was the guy from the class next door until he started talking about kids.

“Miguel Whatever” makes me laugh every time.

The cat ears on Koyuki’s phone are cute.

Sumiso reminds me of Aikatsu girls…

Uchitama 2

Bull is an “ore-sama”, huh?

I didn’t think they would continue with the “Solitary King of Destruction” thing.

Bull as a chuunibyou ham is so entertaining, but when they try to play the Momo romance hand again…I start to lose my patience...

LOL, Petstagram…

…and now it’s a (reverse) HAREM!

“[M]ad dog”, LOL, what a turn of phrase.

Okayyyyyyyyy subbers, own up! Who put a dog pun in Bull’s talk?! (I’m referring to the “doggone it!”.)

*points at dog puns*- You didn’t, subbers! You’re still adding dog puns!

Wait, Bull’s singing?! This I didn’t expect!

Well…this decision is hard. Bull’s become greater than ever…but only in relation to his romance with Momo!

Aww…seeing Bull dejected makes me sad inside too.

Oh yeah! There we go! That intro landed its gag purrfectly…to use an intentional cat pun.

Why did I take to Bull so much? Well, if he weren’t a dog, I’d find him completely romanceable, even if he were a massive chuuni.

Oh, the pun is ippai (full). Then you unintentionally switch it to oppai (boobs).

What? Wow, I never thought I’d get Ume talking about cat and dog nipples. (That’s not a sentence I’m going to be able to match any time soon.)

Okayyyyyyyyy…that one segment was a massive weird non-sequitur. I have no idea how they’d represent that with cat and dog forms.

Oh, Petstagram! We actually get to see it!

This series is more prone to “mood swings” than Ankoku Hakaishin or even Hanako-kun…yikes.

No, no, no! Who is this guy??? Haven’t you heard of “stranger danger”?!

…Oh, so the guy was Tome, huh?

The ED! This aesthetic is too good!

ARGH! Okay, okay, Uchitama! You win! I was going to pick Ankoku Hakaishin because that’s more consistent in landing its laughs and Hanako-kun would’ve been a better choice because its aesthetic is more consistently there plus it has interesting ideas with its apparitions, but Ankoku Hakaishin is fairly interchangeable with Iruma-kun…basically, if Eizouken or Magia Record don’t work out, I can loo forward to switching in one or the other, but I’m going to stick with Uchitama because *gestures wildly at screen* just look at this manservice! Even if it’s actually for a dog, I cannot deny the manservice!

[digitalmark18-blog]

How UX Can Optimize Your Website For Profits

New Post has been published on https://britishdigitalmarketingnews.com/how-ux-can-optimize-your-website-for-profits/

How UX Can Optimize Your Website For Profits

I had the good fortune to participate in a closed-door meeting on the future of government websites. Nothing secret, of course, but very useful. Here are some valuable lessons from that meeting.

As with all such gatherings, be they government or industry, there is a buzzword. And the buzzword at this event was “optimization”.

Forget everything you’ve ever heard about optimization. This has nothing to do with the search engines. Well…almost nothing. I’ll get to that later. This is about “user experience” optimization, or UX for short.

What is UX? It is helping your website visitors do what they want to do. Yes, it’s about service. It is described by another buzzword in the air at that meeting: “user-centric.” You achieve UX when users:

find what they came for

understand what they read

do this quickly and without frustration

It’s what every business or organization should be doing when they interact with customers, online or offline.

As Shannon Thompson points out, UX takes good website design and even better web development. Actually, she goes further than that, pointing to the sweet spot where design, development, and performance are in balance. Kumbaya!

I have distilled UX to six points, applying what I heard at the closed-door meeting to small business. The one aspect each point has in common is service to your customer.

Speed

Have you noticed how impatient people are these days? A few seconds delay will push some visitors to abandon your website or your shopping cart. Test everything, then optimize for speed. Use this tool to check page load time. I like how it shows exactly what files slow down a page. When I began revamping my websites, those insights made it easy to optimize for speed.

Security

The government is big on privacy, so I was not surprised to hear about protecting visitors’ privacy at the meeting.

Search engines and browsers have begun displaying each website’s security status. So it pays to switch to https. Government websites are all switching over. Do you need that government-level security? If 10% of potential customers avoid your website because Google or Firefox label it “unsecure,” you need https. I don’t process transactions on my websites. But I switched them all to https a few months ago. That way, my users can feel safe filling in my query form.

Many web hosts are heading in the direction of offering free https, so check with yours.

Devices

More people now surf the Web on mobile than on desktop. If you have not already made your website fully responsive, do so now! A fully-responsive site changes the location and size of elements (such as images) based on screen size. If you are on the phone, you don’t want to have to scroll sideways. You don’t want images wider than the screen. You don’t want the entire screen taken up with navigation.

With Google’s mobile-first algorithm, it’s not just that you’ll lose frustrated visitors. Your website will also start performing worse in Google’s desktop results.

Navigation

You have a navigation bar. That means people can find what they want, right? Wrong. People don’t necessarily go to the navigation bar. To optimize for your visitors, you need to analyze each page’s search data to understand the user’s intent. Then tweak the content to make it easy for them to take their next step.

The government is big and does lots of user testing. You can’t. But you can access analytics and other available data. Lead users where they want to go.

Understanding

Your customers are not stupid, but we all tend to read at a grade eight level or lower. Plus, people scan more than read on the Web. If it takes work to read something, you’ve already lost customers. Here are a few quick tips to follow:

Use simpler words.

Break up long sentences.

Make lists look like lists (like this one).

Use the active voice (subject-verb-object).

Then measure readability to see how you’re doing.

Easy action

Some visitors are just doing research. Their visit is informational. Others are on a mission. They want to do something:

subscribe

get a call-back

ask a question

make a purchase

Whatever it is, make it easy for them. If it takes work to find the “buy” button, you’ll lose some of them. Especially on tiny mobile screens, searching for a small button on a page is a big pain.

This might sound elementary, but so many websites still frustrate. Figure out what transaction a user might want on a given page. If your website template doesn’t accommodate that action, add something into the page content itself.

On my website, a red button linked to my query form follows users down the page. No need to search. No need to scroll.

Search engines

Now we come back to what I said earlier about this having something to do with search engines. Gone are the days when they ranked pages based only on content and links. They now focus just as much on UX.

They look for mobile-friendly websites.

They look for https security validation.

They watch user behaviors, such as bounce-backs to their search results.

As Lee Fuller explains, SEO and UX are converging. If even the government realizes that it has to optimize its websites with user-centric design and plain language, it’s about time you do, too.

Henry Ford once said, “A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.” If you can optimize your site for service to the customer, you’ll have the competitive edge you need.

Author: David Leonhardt

David Leonhardt is a writer and a promoter, a strategist and a dreamer, a social media addict and a lover of nature.  He runs a team of writers at The Happy Guy Marketing, and is happy to help you write your blog, book, screenplay, press release, speech or brochure.… View full profile ›

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Source: https://www.business2community.com/web-design/how-ux-can-optimize-your-website-for-profits-02107588