Your website represents your business. Not only does it give you an online presence, but it also allows you to successfully target each stage of the sales funnel.
To make this happen, website designers say that every aspect of your website must be thoroughly planned and their explanation doesn’t only refer to including your business objectives. Website designers also include the effective use of web design principles and elements.
If you’re a newbie web designer or a business owner hunting for quality web design companies, knowing a little about creative and effective web design techniques will get you started on the right path.
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Design Essentials for Your Next Website
Here’s a list of the best design tips that you can consider when you’re creating a website.
1. Know Your Business and Your Website’s Goals
It might not exactly have something to do with design, but it’s a must to have a deep understanding of what your business is before creating your website. This includes going deep into your mission, vision, and core values. Knowing what kind of website will work for you. It can be as a blog, a personal website, or if you’ve other purposes for it in mind. A clear grasp of this area would allow you to come up with the appropriate design techniques, principles, and elements to adopt.
To illustrate, consider a brand that treats eco-friendliness as one of its pillars. Most likely, the mere mention of the word eco-friendly would make a designer think about sustainability and nature. The concept of sustainability is related to zero-wastage and simplicity. A web designer in tune with this might come up with a website that employs minimalism.
Also, nature, as another related concept, would be best represented by the colors of green, blue, and brown. Thus, it’s also expected that the colors of this particular website would be playing around this tone, as well.
The application of this tip shall vary depending on your brand’s identity and your business goals. Therefore, getting in touch with the why’s of your business is one of the foundational steps to consider when redesigning your website or creating a new one.
2. Follow or Challenge the Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds is a well-known photography technique. Today, many web designers have adapted this for their website creation.
To execute this, think of your website and have it divided into three by three equally shaped grids. The key thing to remember is that the point where the grids intersect are, is the most eye-catching to your visitors and users.
According to this rule, the uppermost intersection on the left side of the image or your website is the first thing that viewers look at. This is followed by the intersection below it, moving to the top right intersection, and finally, the lowermost intersection on the right.
As a web designer, knowing how the eyes take in visuals is extremely helpful in designing your layout. Using this as a principle, a designer would likely keep the most important features of a company, such as a logo, contact number, and other similar information on the top left of the page. Other details that can be interesting on their own, such as images which can be placed on the bottom right side of the page.
In essence, the rule of third is a standard that most designers adhere to. In the end, though, it also stands as a challenge to the perfection provided by the usual two-part symmetry rule.
3. Be Mindful of the Elements You’ll Put in Your Website
The process of creating a website can be different for each person or organization. For some, they consider it as a simple job or as a representation of their brand while for others, it’s an extension of their art and flow. Whatever reason there is, the key principle to follow is to consider the use and the appearance of elements when creating a website.
There are many design elements to consider when creating your website. The usual elements are the images, typography, and colors. They can also include scrolling techniques, call-to-action-buttons, and other helpful widgets for your viewers to use. Typically, when including additional elements, you need to go back to the reason why the website was created.
Simplicity is one of the aspects that you can use when dealing with your website’s elements. However, the sky’s the limit when it comes to web design and creation, so the decision will ultimately be yours.
4. Think How Your Audience Will View Your Website
Today, the availability of smartphones and other mobile devices makes your website navigation unrestricted to desktops and laptops alone. Thus, this means that another design element you can consider is your website’s mobile-friendliness.
There are two common ways to respond to this concern is either you consider a responsive design or an adaptive design when creating your website. Either way, it can affect your website’s looks, loading speed, and its navigability. You have to make sure that you understand each before deciding on your option. Though their technicalities are different, they both allow your visitors to easily navigate through your site without losing its aesthetics and functionality.
5. Remember the Bottomline Is Your User Experience
If there’s another design tip that you should consider as a foundation for website creation is if it’s putting user experience as a top priority.
User experience (UX) refers to the overall experience of your website visitor or user. It’s important to note that your website user can be different from your customer. Therefore, all your design and creation efforts should be targeted toward guaranteeing your visitors a great experience while going through your website.
This is particularly important for the creation of e-commerce sites. By keeping user experience a priority, you’ll be guided on what matters most to them. This translates to where the check-out button is placed, the inclusion of coupons and deals tab, or having everything properly categorized.
Conclusion
Many believe that in today’s world of marketing, your website can make or break your business. It can be an expensive venture to have a website solely dedicated to the market for you, so going the second path isn’t something you’d want to entertain.
To avoid this, ensure that you have a deep understanding of your business and its objectives so it can be appropriately reflected on your website. Moreover, applying design principles, such as the rule of thirds, or being wary of what elements to include on your website is something that you’ve got to consider. You should also think about your website’s mobile-friendliness, so you can reach a wider audience. All of these contribute to ensuring that your website is targeted to leave an unforgettable user experience.
