Effective web design involves creating a practical and aesthetically pleasing site. You must deliver information and reinforce your brand while making it easy and simple for visitors to navigate your site.
You can achieve this if your web design is easy to understand and visually appealing. Here are 7 tips to create a website that will impress and be useful to visitors.
1. Stay on top of best practices
Keep up with new methods and best practices to improve your web design. There are no definite rules. It is up to you to know what kind of web design (e.g., webpage layout, content, and graphic design) works for your brand and what features your visitors need.
2. Improve website navigation
Online visitors should not have trouble navigating your site. It should be clear where to go. Simply navigation and create an ideal website navigation system. A user-friendly website has properly structured content and a layout that helps users find what they need easily. As Kissmetrics explains, “Everything important about your website is connected to the navigation, from content to the URLs.”
3. Use balance in web design
“[B]alance in web design makes sure that you […] hit that sweet spot of moderation. Not too much, but not too little. Not too noisy, but not too subtle. It keeps your entire design in harmony while still hitting all of the usability goals…” according to Web Designer Depot.
Learn how much visual weight different parts of your design need to guide a user through your site. Keep it easy on the eyes. A website loaded with vibrant colors or one with very dark hues can turn off visitors in seconds.
4. Leverage whitespace
Space between design elements improve the clarity and readability of your site. Use grids and columns to set text apart. Make everything easier on the eyes. Leave some empty space to give text breathing room. Most visitors dislike reading overly crowded web pages, especially if they view your site from a mobile device.
5. Be selective with font
Web typography is complicated because of a lack of control over the appearance of text on the web. Smashing Magazine agrees, “While we cannot change which browser and OS our website visitors use, understanding why fonts look the way they do helps us make websites that are successful and comfortable to read in every scenario.”
Font rendering may differ due to missing fonts, varied computer languages, or use of browser and platform. Meanwhile, consider factors like font type, size, color, space, and paragraph length or width to improve typography.
Make sure text styles are consistent throughout your website. Use them same formatting for headings, subheadings, body, and other types of text respectively for a professional look.
6. Add value and be useful
Provide relevant information and a way for visitors to interact on your website. Follow web standards to avoid confusion. Consider the user journey of your site and the different tasks people might complete.
7. Consistency is key
Create a consistent and unified website. A harmonious website demonstrates professionalism and quality. A design that has consistent elements will keep a visitor for longer and decrease bounce rates. Your site may have beautiful web pages, but without unity, they may fail to engage users.
This article has been edited.
Umar Bajwa is a blogger and freelance content writer. He’s an expert in blogging outreach and guest posting. Umar enjoys writing about business, lifestyle branding and technology.
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