Your website is your shop window to the world. With over 4 billion active internet users, your potential reach is phenomenal. That said, if your ‘shop window’ doesn’t look right, you’ll have 4 billion people ignoring it.
The website design options available to you are vast and possibly overwhelming. Whether you use a free theme template or purchase a website, there are many design decisions you’ll need to make in order to attract visitors to your site, and most of all keep them there so they can convert to a sale of some form.
So what’s the secret to a successful website design? Like building your perfect home, you need to get the core elements right first, and then you can personalize as much as you like. In this article, you’ll learn about 7 aspects of website design that deserve your special attention.
1. Build on a Solid Foundation
When people visit your website they are downloading it to their computer through their web browser from a remote server. No matter how good your website looks or how functional it can be, if the webserver is not up to scratch then everything falls like a pack of cards.
Get the foundation right by choosing a reputable and reliable hosting company that will make sure your website is stable and available 24/7. Along with the right server, infrastructure includes your website security and certificates so that other people can have confidence in the safety of your site.
2. Structure and Organization
Your website needs to reflect a measure of organization and structure that web surfers have come to expect. Using a grid system in creating your page layout will help create identity and consistency across your web pages. This will ensure your website looks and feels professional.
Don’t clutter your pages with too much information, and make sure there is plenty of white space to allow your artwork and text to breathe. This approach will allow your readers to quickly scan through your content without feeling overwhelmed. This is also effective on smaller devices where the screen viewing space is limited.
3. Seamless Branding and Color Integration
Your website is a big part of your brand identity. Therefore, you need to coordinate the design palette across your logo, icons, text, and other color usages across your site. You can choose a monochrome approach and vary the color shades across the site, or sometimes contrasting two colors is an effective way to create an eye-catching page.
The typography needs to be consistent with your brand and across your various web pages. Make sure you use font sizes that are big and bold for clarity. These are basic consistencies that you can establish from the beginning when designing your site.
4. Optimized for Mobile
This is beyond debate. Mobile technology is getting faster, better, and more convenient for users all the time. Your website must look super good no matter what platform visitors are using.
Depending on the industry you serve, potential clients may only ever use their mobile phones to surf the internet. Whatever the case, your site needs to be responsive and mobile-friendly. These types of websites tend to rank higher in Google search results because they offer a better user experience.
5. Fast is Non-Negotiable
According to some, you have less than 20 seconds to make an impression on your website visitors. That means your page loading time has to be super fast so that visitors can see what you’re all about without immediately bouncing off your page and onto another link.
Some of this will be related to your server, however, other design aspects will make a huge difference such as the size of your pictures and other files embedded in your web pages. Using website design tools to build your site, from the ground so to speak, always be building with the objective of your pages loading at light speed.
6. Video to Capture
The simple truth is that video is captivating and conveys more than words and text paragraphs can do. It is visually engaging and will transmit a lot of information in a short period of time.
Make sure you use videos on your pages that automatically load and play to capture attention. Think carefully about how long these videos should be and how to draw your potential clients in by clicking through to more information and a clear call to action.
7. Clear Navigation
Internet surfers are demanding, and their thirst for immediate information that satisfies their query is almost unquenchable. That means your website needs to have crystal clear navigation menus so that your visitors can find exactly what they’re looking for in the shortest time possible.
At the same time, you don’t want to overwhelm your visitor with so many menu options that it’s a complete turn-off. Another serious consideration is how the menu options change when users are surfing on their tablet or phone.
Hamburger menus are an excellent tool that is discreet and offers a drop-down menu that you can customize. You may be surprised to know how challenging it can be to get the header menu just right, and yet it’s such an important part of website design.
Start Your Website Design
In this article, you’ve read about 7 aspects of solid website design. Solid is the operative word here because these elements of your website are super important, and will impact so many other aspects of your site.
Make sure you follow these tips and don’t hesitate to get professional help. Designing and building websites like these social network PHP scripts is great fun but to those who lack experience, it can be tremendously frustrating. Check out other informative articles on our site that match your lifestyle and interests.
