Listly by April Rose Casiple Semogan
Websites that are well-designed tend to perform better and have optimal Google Analytics metrics compared to others. In as much as websites help businesses to gain positive visibility online, its design should be given top priority. Question is, what makes good web design? Without further ado, here are the top 10 fundamentals of effective web design that you should know.
Before you start building your website, you need to know what its main purpose or objective is. If you are creating a website for a client, not knowing the purpose of the website might leave both you and your client unsatisfied and frustrated with the result.
Online users visit websites to gather information or find solutions for their query. Now, you need to communicate clearly with them. Prioritize how you organise the content in your websites such as organising information using headlines and sub-headlines. Furthermore, instead of boring your visitors to lengthy sentences, cut them down and use bullets. This way, it will be easier for them to understand your content.
You could determine the importance of the elements you have on the page by ranking them. You can do this by finding out how closely they are aligned to the main purpose of the website.
Gestalt is a German term which means "unified whole". In web design, this simply means that people tend to view a website as a whole before seeing individual elements that are included in the entire interface.
This is one of the principles that are often ignored. Keep in mind that colours play an integral role in web design and it’s a key element of the story your website wants to tell. Use colours to support the content of your site and as much as possible, aim for complementary colours. With this, you can use warm colours and cool colours together to provide balance.
Clarity, whitespace, and simplicity are directly related to one another. For example, your user-interface should be simple, user-friendly and uncluttered for you to achieve clarity.
Having a responsive web design gives your users a great viewing experience across a wide range of devices. Since phones and tablets are widely used nowadays, it is important that you also consider responsiveness when designing a website.
You should pay attention to how hard or easy it is to navigate your website for your first-time visitors. Make use of a clear, simple, and easy-to-use navigation to make sure that your users can find what they need to.
Do not let your website be just a pretty page. No matter how beautiful or interactive the design of your website is, it would not do you any good if it is not serving its purpose well. When you are designing a website make sure that the website functions well and that it is user-friendly.
Common Usability Issues:
In as much as your design elements are all coming together beautifully and aesthetically, see to it that your site’s loading speed is fast. Typically, your site’s speed should be in two seconds or less. According to studies, 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in two seconds or less while 40% can wait up to three seconds before leaving the site.
Asking assistance from experts can help you with web design. All you need is ask for professional advice and don't hesitate to do so.