What to Consider When Designing a Website
There are a few things to consider when designing a website. The first step is to determine the purpose of your website. What do you want to offer visitors and what results do you expect in return? Next, the website should be easy to use and visually pleasing. And, last but not least, you have to take care of visibility on search engines. These are just some of the design principles on which we’ll expand further.
8 Key Website Design Principles:
1. Purpose
This is the starting point of the design. Websites can have many purposes, and by determining the purpose of your website, you determine its design. That way you will know which elements will be featured on the website and which elements won’t.
As mentioned before, it’s also good to know your audience. Who are you aiming for? Is it a broad population or do you have content intended for a niche audience?
2. Ease of use
One of the key functions of UX/UI design is making the website user-friendly. The rule of the thumb is the simpler, the better. Navigation should be logical with a clear hierarchy. Poor navigation drives users away. Consistent layouts and visual cues for functionality across the site help visitors feel at home.
Another useful feature is an onsite search tool, which can help visitors get to the desired content quickly. To keep them engaged, you can also suggest related content and minimize dead ends.
3. Load time
47% of customers expect a webpage to load in 2 seconds or less
Hubspot
Pages have to load quick enough to keep visitors engaged. If pages on your website are loading slowly, visitors will most likely try to find something faster. Compressing JavaScript / CSS files and optimizing image sizes can help you avoid issues with slow-loading pages.
4. Visual identity
Visual identity is conveyed through a combination of color, type, and imagery. Color can communicate messages and evoke emotional responses. Bear in mind that color selection should be limited to less than 5 colors.
Typography is primarily used to relay information, but it can also influence the overall feel of the website. Aim to use legible typefaces and a maximum of 3 different fonts on the website.
Alongside color and typography, you should also pay attention to the imagery on your site (photography, illustration, video, etc.). With the right combination of visual design elements, you will not only make a great first impression but also keep users engaged.
5. Grid-based layout
There is little use for the disorganized website with elements all over the place. Structure your design and keep your content organized with grids. Elements on the page will be aligned and this will provide a clean look.
6. Content
Just like visual design, good content plays a role in capturing the visitor’s interest. Content can be in the form of blog posts, articles, etc. Besides offering additional information to your visitors, good content can help you be recognized by search engines.
7. SEO
A nice-looking, functional, easy-to-use website is just half of the process. All of that isn’t worth much if there is no traffic on your website.
To get traffic, you have to take care of SEO (search engine optimization). Some of the things that can help are page titles and meta tags, optimized content, and appropriate use of keywords.
The option to share your content is also very useful to have. It can drive large volumes of traffic and positively impact your search ranking.
8. Mobile friendly
Most people nowadays are surfing the web on their phones. Always have that in mind when designing your website. To cover both desktop and mobile device users, you should use a responsive layout for your design.
Hopefully, this quick overview will give you a better understanding of the website-making process. All of the aforementioned topics are essential for creating a good website. Still, they are just good starting points that can be expanded further. Learning about website design is a process that will require time and effort. However, you will surely see the results of your hard work. A good website will bring you more traffic, more conversions, and more clients.
