It is simple to fixate on aesthetics when developing or remodeling a website. Does that blue color seem appropriate? What if we positioned a sizable animated GIF in the page’s center? However, in a world where people have access to more than 1.8 billion websites, you need to ensure that yours is more than simply a friendly face. Usability, or how simple your website is to use; user experience (UX), or how pleasurable it is to interact with your website, should be considered when designing it. Now, you could devote years to learning all there is to know about these fields. However, to give you a place to start, we have compiled a list of the core principles and best practices you may use for your subsequent impressive web design or launch. Then, we’ll review ten characteristics your website will need to implement these suggestions.
Here we discuss ten guidelines and best practices for impressive web design and usability:
Easy to navigate
A person can easily navigate an impressive web design. A primary navigation bar (menu bar) that clearly describes what the user will find when they click on a page, such as “services,” “contact,” or “about,” is the mark of a good website. These waypoints must be obvious, straightforward, and pertinent to your website. They should also be simple to read visually. Additionally, it’s beneficial to have a site map at the bottom, a search bar so visitors can seek particular keywords, and breadcrumbs on each page that monitor users’ movements across the website so they can quickly identify where they are and go back if necessary.
Consistency
In addition to maintaining consistency in your navigation, your site’s pages should have the same general look and feel. Consistency improves usability and user experience in backgrounds, color schemes, typefaces, and writing styles. Not every page needs to have the same layout, though—instead, impressive web designs have distinct layouts for particular page kinds. Visitors will find it simpler to comprehend what kind of content they will see on a specific page if you use those layouts regularly. As seen in the sample below, Airbnb follows a standard procedure using the same design for all of its “Help” pages. Consider what it would be like for visitors if each “Help” page had a different design. Shoulder slapping would be prevalent.
White Space
A lack of color is just as crucial to the impressive web design process as using a consistent color scheme. White space prevents a webpage from appearing crowded or overstuffed. Technically speaking, it refers to the spaces on a page between items or what designers refer to as “negative space.” It’s crucial to use margins, gutters, and in-between graphics.
Design responsively
People will use various devices to view your website, including desktop and laptop computers, tablets, and smartphones. Impressive web design is the most effective technique to ensure everyone can view and navigate your sites.
Your website will adapt to the browsers and screen sizes your visitors use if it uses a responsive design. The browsing experience is the same whether a person uses a desktop computer or a smartphone to browse your website.
Credibility
Your site gains credibility by adhering to web standards. In other words, it makes your website seem more trustworthy. Furthermore, trustworthiness is crucial to create an impressive web design with the best possible user experience. Becoming more credible may be achieved in several ways, one being open and truthful about the good or service you’re offering. Don’t force people to browse dozens of pages to discover what you do. Be upfront on your homepage and allot some space to describe the significance of what you do. Another credibility suggestion is to have a pricing page linked to the homepage. List your costs plainly on your website rather than requiring visitors to contact you to learn more about pricing.
Grid-based planning
Grids support design organization and content organization. The grid-based layout improves an impressive web design appearance, which organizes content into a neat, rigid grid structure with columns and sections that feel balanced and impose order.
Storytelling
A well-designed website employs the guidelines listed above to figuratively take the visitor by hand and guide them through the site. Ideally, that web visitor’s journey concludes with them pursuing a specific CTA. Storytelling can help contribute to this journey, drawing in the web visitor and encouraging them to continue to the final goal (buying a product or service).
Narratives naturally captivate people; incorporating brand storytelling into a website can help engage visitors. This doesn’t mean you must add huge narrative chunks of text to your website.
Your CTAs should be distinctive.
CTAs are components of a website, commercial, or other content that encourage the audience to do a particular action. The call to action could include various options, such as joining, subscribing, beginning a free trial, or learning more. Your website design should make your CTAs stand out. Think about how you’re using color and additional aspects like the backdrop color, surrounding images, and surrounding text to make that happen. Square offers a great call-to-action illustration. Square employs a single image to demonstrate the ease with which their product may be used and bold typography to demonstrate how unique and forward-thinking their product is.
SEO
The design and development of each website must include search engine optimization (SEO). It is simpler for visitors to find your Atlanta web design online when it has strong SEO. Additionally, it will enable your website to rank higher in Google’s search results. Great SEO design takes into account everything, like the titles of images, the information on the page itself, and how the pages are named. SEO for mobile should be considered in addition to SEO for desktop. How well a website performs in Google results now considers its mobile-friendliness.
Mobile Friendly
Your website’s responsiveness is crucial, as we’ve already covered. We’re stressing again how crucial it is to design your website to be mobile-friendly, as 59% of organic search engine visitors in 2021 will come from mobile devices. To do so, some items that might clog up smaller screens or adversely affect load times may need to be changed or eliminated. Compare the homepage of Etsy on a desktop computer and on a mobile phone to see an example of one of the best web designs. A navbar with categories is visible on the desktop.
Conclusion
Your website’s appearance and user experience won’t appeal to everyone because web design is subjective. Amazon Web Services says that after a bad experience on a website, 88% of visitors are less likely to go back. How could you possibly blame them? Indeed, we’ve all been there. So start caring more as a final piece of usability/UX advice! Consider your visitors as you would if they were in your shoes (or, more precisely, their browser windows), and keep them in mind as you design.
