5 Tips to Consider When Designing a Website

Design and content layout

is arguably the most important part of your website. Fail here, and no one will read what you have to say. 

A well-thought-out web design will stand out to visitors on your site and will help move people through the spectrum of interest to action (i.e., sending you a message, buying a product or service, etc.).

An interactive web design that is simple, unique and easy to navigate, while accurately representing your business will greatly increase traffic to your website. 

If you’re wondering how to improve your website design, below you will find five of the most important components to consider while in the developmental stage of creating your website.

1.Keep‌ ‌Visual‌ ‌Design‌ ‌in‌ ‌Mind‌

The right photographs, colours and patterns (balanced appropriately with ample white space) will help you tell the story of your brand to visitors of your website. Your visual design should complement and support the message you wish to convey through your written text.

Photographs are also a great way to humanize your business, a way for people to see your products in high definition, or you and your team in action. Including visual and written testimonials from past product users or past clients is also a strong means of proving your company’s value to visitors of your site. 

A good story goes a long way in securing a valued customer, and a well-planned visual design helps convey the emotion behind your brand. This will ultimately help bring in customers or clients who are aligned with your vision and message.

2.Ensure Quick Page Loading Times‌

When designing a website, it is essential to think about the elements you are using and how they will impact your website’s loading time. Users want information to be readily available, and loading times are a big part of that.

Using simple elements that add value to your website and to your overall message is the way to go. You can easily get caught up in eye catching, fancy visuals that do not necessarily add value but will slow down the load time and affect readability.

Using white space instead is a great way to add elegance and clarity to your webpage. Oftentimes, a good rule to follow is: less is more!

3.Make Important Content Stand Out

When designing your website, you must ensure that the most important content is readily available to the user. Users should not have to scroll through long-winded text and endless visuals to get to the crux of the message.

Taglines, mission statements, and product or service information should visibly stand out through font size, colour and positioning. The user should be led intuitively to a call-to-action (i.e., a sale, subscription or contact form).

4.Create a Clear Website Navigation Menu

The reality is that most internet “scrollers” today have about the attention span of a goldfish. They want to get to the information they are seeking quickly and efficiently. This is why a clear, concise and short navigation menu going through your website is so vital.

When a user lands on your site, you want it to be clear to them where they need to go next to answer whatever question brought them there in the first place. If they have to make guesses, or scroll too long to find their answer, they will exit your page and move on to the next one.

This is why, when developing the design of your website, narrow down your messaging and vision statement to clear and concise points, and have that reflected in your navigation menu (which should be easy to find, either horizontally at the top of your webpage or vertically going down the left side of the page).

If you have large amounts of information on your webpage, having a search tool will greatly improve the user’s experience as they will be able to find what they are looking for without having to browse through the content.

5.Stay Mobile Friendly

The vast majority of users who will land on your website will be doing so through their mobile device. For this reason, it is imperative that your website be optimized for mobile phones.

For all the reasons listed above, when a user is on your webpage through their mobile device, they need to be able to see the visual design, the written content and the navigation menu clearly. This means sizing and positioning has to be changed and adapted to a much smaller screen.

Therefore, an important step to take during the development of your web design is to create a separate design for mobile phone. Test out every page by viewing it from a mobile device or use platforms which offer a “device view” option that can guide you through your mobile designing process.

Final Thoughts

As more and more people go online seeking for products and services, a business’ online presence is becoming crucial to their survival in the digital age. Keeping the above points in mind while in the planning stage of your web design will help you optimize your website for a rapidly changing world.