Almost every business needs a website. After all, it acts as your mouthpiece on the internet. Since everything is now digitally optimized, it is necessary that your website is optimized too. If your website is dull & boring, chances are you won’t get as much business as you wish.
But don’t worry, you’ve hit the jackpot!🏆
We’ve got you 11 proven website design principles that will make your website appealing to visitors.
11 Effective Website Design Principles
Know that website designing is both a technical and a creative field. Now, it’s true that each website is different & unique. But, there are certain norms & principles you need to keep in mind when designing your website. This way, you ensure that you don’t make silly mistakes & make yourself an eye-glazing👀 website.
1. Know the Purpose of your Website
When designing your website, you must ask yourself a few questions first. Ask yourself, who is your target audience? Is your website providing solutions to their pain points? Are you guiding your users toward the solution(CTA)?
Your website must fulfill these 3 core purposes:
- Awareness
- Sales
- Information
2. Easy to Navigate
Navigation in website design means how users navigate your web pages to find what they are looking for. Your users should not have difficulty navigating your website. Failing to do so might cause them to bounce back. Hence, you need to keep your user-interface simple, consistent & in tune.
Each web page is unique & you need to sort your content accordingly. Make categories with descriptive titles so users can easily find what they want. This also increases the chances of them finding your CTA button & actually taking action.
3. Utilize the F-Pattern
Many eye-tracking studies concluded that most people see the top & left side areas of a screen. This makes an F-shaped pattern. So, suppose you design your web layout & structure your content based on peoples’ natural pattern of page scanning. In that case, you are more likely to succeed.
4. Avoid Gigantic Font
First impressions matter. This is why you must make your brand’s offering very clear to your visitors. Of course, your body copy matters a lot, but your typography matters too. Don’t fall into the trap of making your text too gigantic, especially on your homepage. This can make your website look cluttered & unappealing to users.
Keep your web designs & texts simple & subtle. Also, think carefully about which font style & colors you want to use. It should mesh with your brand tone & message.
5. Responsive Design
A responsive design means a design that goes well with computers, laptops, smartphones, or any other display device. Today, most people surf the internet on their mobile phones. Hence, it’s equally important that your website is optimized for it.
For maximum conversions, you must design your website for big screens & also smaller ones. Make sure your design fits every smartphone in the market.
A few ways to do that is by optimizing images, making buttons clickable on smaller screens & creating multiple prototypes. Test your designs thoroughly before launching your website.
Have a mobile-first design approach to have better text size & interactive elements.
6. Use White Space
Basically, white spaces are the empty areas of your website. The ones that do not include any visual element such as photos, texts or icons. This is one of the most important website design principles that plays a huge role in website design, creating a seamless user experience.
Also, including white spaces & not cluttering your website helps you to focus users’ attention on the center areas of your webpage. This results in them not getting confused or overwhelmed by the amount of information you provide.
Of course, this does not mean you create a dull website with too much white space. Ensure that you have enough content in the right place on your web pages too.
7. Consistent Design
When it comes to web designing, consistency is key. Consistent branding can increase your brand recall value & give your brand a clear visual identity. Have consistent fonts, colors, icons & layouts across your web pages.
You don’t have to keep your website a hundred percent uniform. But, try to balance it by mixing different design elements. Using a common website template for all pages helps.
8. Use a Complimentary Color Palette
Your color palette sets the mood of your website. Sticking to similar color shades is good, but sometimes you can go for contrasts as well. Just keep in mind that your colors should complement each other.
Remember, colors are the vibe of your website & people will immediately sense that. Check out these 100 color palette ideas for your website design.
9. Keep a Visual Hierarchy
Visual hierarchy is the arrangement of elements & features by a specific order of importance. Setting your website in order by using color, images, contrast, fonts, whitespaces, textures or styles.
A proper visual hierarchy gives your website a focal point where users will focus all their attention. You can use this to highlight the most important information on particular web pages.
10. Be Smart with Images
Visual elements are one of the most important elements of your website design. Choosing your images wisely is an important website design principle you need to follow.
After all, imagery tells a story, evokes emotion & creates an atmosphere about your brand in people’s minds. You must carefully select each image for the right places on your website. Use high-quality images that fit your aesthetics.
11. Have Clear CTAs
A website is useless if it does not contain a call-to-action(CTA). If you don’t have a CTA, how will your website visitors know what to do after browsing your website? Hence, you must have crystal clear CTAs on your website to encourage users to take action.
Popular CTAs include; Subscribe, Book Now, Explore, Get Started, etc.
To Wrap it Up
Follow the mentioned 11 Website Design Principles to get the most out of your website. Get boosted website traffic & convert that traffic to paying customers!💸
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