What distinguishes a good website? Is it a good website layout, high-quality photos, an easy-to-use interface, or a combination of all of these things? In the digital age, web design is important to offering an excellent user experience.
A well-designed website not only attracts and engages visitors but also keeps them coming back for more. To deliver a high-quality digital experience, web designers must follow certain guidelines.
In this post, we’ll go over seven key web design elements that will assist you in developing a strong online presence.
The following is an outline of online user behavior, as well as seven fundamental yet useful guidelines for creating a decent and promising web design.
Understanding The Behavior Of Online Users
Essentially, web users’ behaviors aren’t all that different from those of in-store shoppers.
After reviewing the material on each page, visitors tend to click on the first link that catches their attention or appears to correspond with their search. In reality, the majority of the page is frequently overlooked.
Most individuals search for anything exciting (or beneficial) and clickable, and when they come across any possible options, they click.
If a web page does not meet the users’ expectations, they push the Back button, and the search is continued.
7 Web Design Guidelines
1. Don’t Put Site Visitors’ Patience To The Test
Online surfers are impatient and eager. Let’s be honest, we don’t want to waste time registering accounts and filling out forms that aren’t essential. People are more willing to try out your service if it needs less effort.
For example, suppose a visitor arrives on your page for the first time with the intent of exploring and, most likely, using your service, but you need them to fill out a form or create an account that they will never use again.
This can be a disadvantage for your site because the user may seek out alternative sites that do not demand them to submit personal information or fill out superfluous forms.
2. Users Should Not Be Confused
When we say “don’t confuse users,” we imply that your page should not have a confusing or complicated layout.
Your page should be user-friendly in the true sense, and it should not push users to use their thoughts too much, as this can be tiring and lead to them pressing the back button.
3. Target Feature Exposure
Modern internet designs occasionally employ the concept of guiding visitors through visually appealing 1-2-3-done stages, large buttons with visual effects, and so forth.
Such instructions are quite useful because they guide readers through the site’s content in a very simple and user-friendly manner.
4. Attract The Attention Of Users
Reading the text is the most common way for users to find important information on your website. However, given the user’s impatience, it is probable that they will not read through all of the information supplied.
Use imagery and accent methods on crucial words or phrases to effectively attract their attention.
For example, if you are providing a “free service or product,” bold the term “Free” or make it larger than the rest of the material to capture the visitors’ attention.
5. Maintain A Simple And Informative Approach
The “keep it simple” (KIS) approach should be the primary goal of web design. Users rarely visit a site to admire the design; in most cases, they are looking for content regardless of the style.
From the standpoint of visitors, an ideal website design contains educational, entertaining material as well as relevant photographs and videos, all while avoiding any annoying adverts or pop-ups.
This emphasizes the importance of a user-friendly website version in establishing a positive user experience.
6. Don’t Be Afraid Of White Space
Do not be afraid of white or black spaces while developing a website. Most designers believe that white space on the website detracts from the overall appearance of the page, therefore they jam superfluous content and images into that space.
Visitors who arrive at your website typically do a full scan. By leaving some whitespace on your page, white space keeps things from becoming too crowded for site visitors to understand easily.
The whitespace used strategically makes your information much clearer for site visitors to take in.
7. Use High-Quality Content
The material on your website must be distinctive for visitors to remain and read it. Promotional writing will not suffice. Website visitors ignore large text blocks with no images or keywords in bold or italics.
Excessive language will not be tolerated. As a result, avoid names that are humorous or inventive, names that are influenced by marketing, company-specific names, and odd technical phrases.
For example, if you’re explaining a service and want people to sign up for it, “sign up” is preferable to “start now” or “let’s get started.”