There are hundreds of millions of websites on the internet today. This puts pressure on businesses to make their websites appealing and effective if they want to succeed. Website appeal does not only refer to visual design but also the user experience. User experience centered website design is crucial because it affects how users interact with your website and whether they’ll stick around. A website that looks good but has terrible navigation cannot be considered effective because it falls short of accommodating the needs of the user.
Keep reading to find out the best ways to make sure your website achieved its goals and well-designed. These website design Dos and Don’ts will ensure your website looks amazing and is effective in achieving its goals.
Website Design Do’s
The following are things you should do to make your website more appealing.
#1 Include Images And Videos
Websites with just plain text content are no longer relevant today; they look dull and very unappealing. There is no better way to bring the spark of life to a website than adding beautiful graphics, images and videos. Videos especially are becoming extremely popular and can greatly enhance user experience. Without visuals, content appears long and uninteresting. Besides adding appeal to your web pages, these tools are known to drive engagement and high conversion rates. Remember to keep things minimal, it turns out one can get too much of a good thing.
#2 Pay Attention To Feedback
This is one of the best ways to determine user experience on a website. Website visitors should be given room to give useful feedback regarding their experience on the website. A website owner can do this through carrying out surveys, adding a rating feature on their website, adding comment boxes for each post, and so on. This system will help give useful feedback about the website, which can be used to make the improvement. Note that not all feedback is positive, be prepared to deal with anything that may come up.
#3 Pay Attention To Analytics
Analytics is a vital part of any website because it helps to understand everything we need to know about the users, web traffic, and everything else related to website use. The use of analytic tools on the website is necessary to monitor the behavior of visitors on the website and see how they behave. The reports generated from this can be very useful in revealing the areas that the website might be failing to meet the needs of the users. Although people cannot predict the future, they can learn from past mistakes to avoid repeating them. Analytics offers the perfect tool for website owners to make useful adjustments to suit the needs of their users.
#4 Simplicity
Are you familiar with the KISS principle of 1960? Many components of a website follow the less is more principle. Most times complicating things on the website only makes the user experience less enjoyable. For example, replacing the search button with buttons for scrolling through topics might come with a certain visual appeal but it makes things more difficult for users to find (compared to the search button). Try to keep everything simple, from the layout to contents. Get rid of elements that distract users from navigating the site. When users begin to complain about the complexity of the site or that they can’t find things on your website, it might be time to simplify things.
#5 Be Creative and Organized
Don’t be creative just for the sake of being creative. Creativity should be grounded in design principles. Take a look at 10 rules of composition all designers live by.
Be creative when designing the website and when developing content but keep in mind design rules. Be deliberate. Limit the number of things on the website and give breathing room to elements. Remember to incorporate white space into your designs. There is a certain appeal that comes with order and patterns. Find a suitable pattern and stick to it.
#6 Hire a web design professional
Is it possible that your existing website was not properly developed? There are professionals on website design who have built a reputation and sufficient experience to fix the issues on your website. When selecting companies or professionals for web design ensure they have the required experience you need.
Website Design Don’ts
As a rule, there are things you should avoid because they generally do not support a positive user experience. To make your website more appealing, do not…
#1 Don’t Use Excessive Advertising
Have you seen websites where a single click anywhere on the website opens a new browser window or advertisement popup? Having excessive ads on the websites is highly annoying and results poor user experience. Besides the fact that it is unappealing to have ads littered everywhere on the website, most of these ads may not even be related to your content. Ads are good, but they should be kept to the bare minimum.
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#2 Don’t Use Excessive Colors
Do not use clashing colors, especially those that conflict with each other. Choose a palette of colors that provide the feeling you want to associate with your brand (most times a few colors from your brand colors will do the trick).
#3 Don’t Use Excessive Graphics
When things become excessive, they are difficult to look. Excessive graphics are not just hard on the eyes but can affect the loading time of the website. Visitors will certainly not enjoy the browsing experience of a slow website full of excessive graphics.
#4 Don’t Use Homepage Sliders
The idea of carousels may be appealing, but they are not practical. These sliders get very little engagement due to the speed of the slides and the fact that they are very distracting. Carousels are also discovered to affect loading time due to large image sizes. They do not just seem to be suitable for mobile devices – there are too many red flags, its best to avoid them altogether.
#5 Don’t Ignore SEO
Search Engine Optimization has fast become a necessary tool for websites. Having all the appeal in the world and no traffic or conversion is like a defeat of purpose. SEO offers websites the chance to rank high for targeted keywords. SEO increases appeal by placing a website in the position to be seen and engaged.
#6 Don’t Ignore Responsive Design
Responsiveness for websites takes into consideration all screen sizes. A website with a responsive design can be viewed with any screen device and the web page would readjust to fit the screen suitable. This ensures a good user experience across all devices and screen sizes. Ignoring responsive design is like limiting your website’s appeal to users with smaller screen sizes.
