Today, when there are billions of websites out there, having a website that is clearly distinguished from others is essential. Most of the time, when starting the web design process, people focus on having more aesthetically pleasing websites, which is understandable but not enough. There are a lot of other factors that have a big role in making a web design successful.
Let’s first understand what it is about web design that makes it so important and takes a considerable amount of time to pay attention to every detail and to create the best one.
Why is Web Design Important?
When users (who are possibly your potential customers) land on your website, it’s the first thing they notice, and they form their first impression of what you do. Of course, you don’t want to mess up your first chance to leave a good impression on your potential customers and want to keep them on your website longer so they can fully understand what value you have for them.
Creating a good impression goes along with gaining users’ trust. Poor design will make users think that you are not professional in your business category. If we add low site speed, messy pages, and outdated content to this list, we can be sure that losing the user will be a matter of seconds. Talk to your marketers and they will surely tell you that user acquisition is one of the hardest parts of their job. So, after all the efforts to bring those users to your website, you want them to spend time on your website as long as possible.
The other reason for having a good and eye-catching website design is more technical. It’s because it’s good for your SEO efforts. Design elements can affect how content is published and how users digest that content on your website and shape their behavior accordingly. For example, if your website is messy and users can’t find what they need immediately, they will quickly leave your website, increasing its bounce rate, which will affect your website’s rank. This was only one example so that you get the gist of how poor design can make your SEO efforts go in vain.
Now that we know why web design is important, let’s see what website design elements make it efficient.
Decide Your Website’s Purpose And Site Structure
This one is not an actual design element, but knowing why you create a website and what its purpose is will help you a great deal before beginning the actual design process. This is a good starting point. Next, you’ll want to decide on the structure of your website, how many pages it will have, and what content you’ll need to be on those pages. If you’re hesitant about what the structure should be, you can start by researching your competitors’ websites and, after that, reading some best practices about best website layout designs. This will give you a good idea of how to figure things out. After you have done this part of the job, you can start thinking about the design.
Have a Smooth Site Navigation
It will be difficult to state which item is the most important for a successful website design, but not including site navigation in that list would be the greatest mistake. How users navigate through your website and how easily they find the information they look for is one of the most important things in your website design. Remember, we talked about how difficult it is to acquire users and how important it is to keep them on the website longer? Easy site navigation is one of the design assets that will help you engage users and hold their attention longer.
Imagine landing on a website and feeling confused about how to find things or not knowing where to click next. You will get irritated and look for the thing you wanted on other websites. So, put yourself in the shoes of a user and it will become much easier to create easy and simple navigation.
Make Your Website Intuitive
Easy navigation actually helps your website to be intuitive. The best website design caters to the needs of the users and has everything arranged in a way that helps them intuitively find what they look for without spending a lot of time figuring things out. Help your visitors to access the information they need in the fastest time possible without giving much thought to it and they will not only stay on your website but also perform the desired actions.
Create a Good Visual Hierarchy
Wonder what else makes a good website design? To start, arrange all the elements on a webpage according to their importance. Use different colors, sizes, styles, icons, etc. to highlight the important pieces on a page. This will influence the order in which users will consume the content and help them quickly pay attention to what’s important to see on the page.
Make Your Website Responsive
Think about all the devices that people use – smartphones, tablets, laptops. Depending on how different website elements will be displayed on those devices, users will either stay or leave the site. To provide a unique and good user experience, your website must be compatible with all those devices. So, no matter what device the visitor uses when landing on your website, all the elements on web pages must be resized automatically to fit the dimensions of the device.
Make Your Website Mobile Friendly
People use their mobile phones to browse the Internet more than any other device. This means that your website must be mobile-friendly so that it adjusts to different screens. As a designer, you should understand how the users’ needs change when they are on the phone and make adjustments in your design according to their needs.
These are not all the elements of a good website design, but they are definitely the important ones. So, make sure to pay enough attention to each of them. And if you wonder how to evaluate a website design after you’ve created it, you can ask yourself the following questions. Does the design accomplish the purpose of the website? Does the website help the users to take the desired action? Is it easy to find information? and so on. With the help of the right questions, you can create great website layouts.
Want to have a proper design for your website to accurately represent your business? Feel free to reach us. We are here to help.