How to Design a Great Website
Introduction
Crafting beautifully designed and well structured websites that convert is not just about creativity, but rules.
And within those rules, a hierarchy of best practices can be determined in order to deliver a website that not only has optimal functionality, but also looks great — and you know what that means. Sales.
Check out my demo site here: Applify Demo Site
You need a consistent layout
No user wants to visit your site and struggle to find exactly what they’re looking for. A consistent layout across the site ensures this is not a problem.
Define a colour scheme that is consistent across the site. Choose a primary colour for the background, a secondary colour for your content and other elements and if necessary, a tertiary colour that fits your brand.
White is an obvious (and probably the default) choice for the background, however a pure white may be problematic as the high brightness, particularly noticeable with ever improving screens, can strain your visitors’ eyes. It is generally best practice to use an off white colour that takes the edge off the sharp tone that a pure white holds.
Ensure that there is a clear contrast between your colours. Any secondary or tertiary colour that is similar to the primary can blend in with the background and be difficult to read.
Another element to creating a consistent layout is Typography. Typography is the arrangement of text so it is clearly visible and legible. It is important to choose a font that not only suits the character of your brand, but is clearly distinguishable.
One example of such font is “Inter”, which is extremely versatile — and extremely popular.
Take control of the readers attention
You must be able to control the attention of the reader in order to keep them engaged, which is a make or break factor when it comes to converting visitors to customers.
Use Visual Hierarchy to direct the visitors attention to the important content first. Visual Hierarchy is the arrangement of elements that reflect their order of importance.
Text such as the name of your brand and a short description of what your brand does should be of upmost importance and should be extremely visible and pronounced. This can be achieved with a hybrid of font size and boldness.
Other important content include the call to action, which is your prompt to visitors encouraging them to take action.
Keep it simple
To strip it down and keep it simple, its likely your brand or business exists as a solution to a problem. Don’t let your visitors forget that.
In can be easy to get carried away by providing vast amounts of content to appease visitors, however this may have the opposite effect. Providing too much, un-necessary content is a sure fire way to completely clutter your site.
Keep the focus on including only essential elements, such as your problem statement, call to action and all other key marketing principles. Your visitors want to be able to process the information piece by piece, so it can be easily understood.
You don’t savour a good steak and glass of red by ramming it down your throat, do you?
Give feedback to your visitors
Well designed sites are not monotonous by design. They show life. Be transparent with your visitors and provide them with some information or effects. Let them know they are in control.
Visitors could hover over a link and it functions as normal, or it could light up. Boom, your link is alive and your visitors are made aware of this. They feel at one with the site, as such effects enforce the feeling of them being directly responsible for the actions the site takes.
Furthermore, generally nothing happens instantly when requests are made. Provide the user with loading spinners or validation messages to inform them of the sites action.
Make your site unique and creative
Although rules and principles make up a great portion of good web design, it is also important to be creative. This is your chance to showcase your brands identity.
Ensure your creative elements suit the identity of your brand. You wouldn’t associate bubbles and rainbows with a cyber security company — unless children were running it perhaps. It is these elements that distinguish your brand from others.
Make your site visually appealing and engaging. Focus on what you think your key demographics would enjoy and infuse creative elements wherever applicable.
Find a good balance
Too much of one thing is never good. Create a good balance between principles and creativity that ensures visitors can extract the key information from your site while still getting a solid understanding and appreciation for your brand through creative elements.
You need solid foundations to build a Skyscraper
Think of the rules as the foundations of a skyscraper. If there is no foundation in the ground, no structure for the floors and walls, then there is no place for the sleek, glass panels that shine in the sunlight, or the super-fast elevators that shoot up and down.
Rules and principles define a solid framework and structure for your website, while creativity makes it unique and engaging. They both work in tandem and are of equal importance when it comes to great web design.
Conclusion
The best web designers know how to blend rules and creativity in order to create a user experience that is seamless, functional and accessible. Use these principles in your website today and get converting visitors to customers!
I made a demo site using these principles. Please have a look! Applify Demo Site