Top 8 Web Design Tips For Improving Your Site
What are the first things that come to mind when you look at your website? Is your website enticing, is it up-to-date, does it have an intriguing, eye-catching design? Do you have a future-proof site?
In this article we will be going through 8 design tips that you can and should use to improve your website.
Use Highest Quality Images
According to countless research papers, over 60% of all people are classified as visual learners. With over 90% of all the information that we receive transmitted directly to our brains through visuals. It’s for this reason why you want to have the best equality images in order to properly convey your primary message, instead of relying solely on text.
When visuals are implemented correctly, they can also help provide a much deeper explanation for things, when compared to written information. High quality images also gives your website that air of professionalism and credibility.
Keep Things Simple
The main draw to your site should be that it’s quick to load up and easy to navigate through. Thus, to take advantage of this reality, simplicity should be your primary ethos.
You want all your most useful information to be available to the user from within a few clicks. You want your website to be scan-able, as most users have very short attention spans. This means, breaking your content up, into smaller paragraphs.
When done correctly and effectively, it makes it easier for your eyes to focus in on pockets of information. Thus, if a user is looking for something specific on your article, they can do that.
Optimising For Mobile Is Important
It’s extremely important that any website made today is optimising for mobile users.
If you aren’t already in the know, close to 80% of all users surf the web via their smartphone, with over 60% of all users, less likely to return to a site that was difficult to read on their mobile phone. 40% of said users also highlighted that they’d visit a competitors site instead.
That’s food for through, for you.
Making your website responsive is only the beginning. It’s important that your website is tailored to fit your visitor’s needs and wants. Try putting yourself in their position and looking at the things that would draw you to the site. What are the things you expect your visitors to be looking for? Does your site truly allow them to do the things you’d expect they’d want to do, with little difficulty.
You want your site to be consistent in design, which means, both your desktop and mobile view should be very similar. This way, when an end user visits your site, maybe to order something, they should have no difficulty identifying the site, ensuring they are purchasing from the correct site.
The main things for your site, such as ordering food, for example, should be made as easy as possible. Any buttons needed for making an order should be easily accessible on the site. That way, end users can order without having to go to different pages on the site.
If your site doesn’t perform particular well on mobile devices, there are tons of mobile ready websites that you can look at for tips that you can implement into your own site.
Consider you’re Target Audience When Writing
When writing anything on your website, it’s very important that you’re target audience is kept in mind. A lot of webmasters tend to make the mistake of trying to force feed the users with too much information, but the best approach is to explain things as simply as possible, where appropriate, and if you can, include some kind of glossary for any technical terms that you must use.
If you intend to attract visitors through search engine optimisation then you will need to think about the keywords you are using. These will need to be sprinkled throughout your content, so that the search engine knows where and how to rank the content.
Utilise White Space
Whitespace is a very important design element that when used, effectively breaks up your page, making it more readable. Negative space is another term it goes by, referring to the areas around page elements that have nothing on them.
Whitespace plays a crucial role in the position and design aspects of your sites elements. When more whitespace is used, it dictates to the user’s eye, which sections are separate from what, with less whitespace, indicating to the user, which areas of the page are related to each other.
There are many websites out there that have done an excellent job in this areas. They make sure that each section is properly separated, so that it all fits together nicely. This helps prevent crowding any of your sites sections.
This in turn leads to the user focusing on the various parts of your site, letting them quickly and easily know where the sections start and end. This also helps properly guide the user’s eye to the most important areas of the site, whether it be product sale or call-to-action.
Go with an Easy To Use Design
Visitors have a low attention span, which means they will leave your site very quickly if they have issues with it. Ensuring your navigation is easily identifiable, preferably at the top of the page. With all the correct links on every page, that way the user can navigate through the site with little difficulty. Be sure to adhere to the design standards that people have come to expect. For example, people expect underlined text to be clickable.
Properly Position Your Social Links
It’s always a good idea to have your social media links on your site so that people can easily connect to areas outside of your site. You may want to stay away from listing them on the top of your site, at it can distract the users.
Use a Strong Brand Message
When considering your image, you need to think about what you want to project to the world. This can only be done with the correct web design elements. This means, when it comes to physical design, having your company logo in the correct position (top left hand corner), which is the area of the screen people’s eyes usually drift to.
–AUTHOR INFO—
Uchenna Ani-Okoye is a former IT Manager who now runs his own computer support website https://www.compuchenna.co.uk
