Top 10 for Effective Web Design

Effective web design is judged not judged by website owners but by the users. There are many factors that affect the usability of a website, and it is not just about the looks, but also function (how easy is it to use). 

Websites that are not well designed tend to perform poorly and have sub-optimal Google Analytics metrics, like high bounce rates, low time spent on site, low pages per visit and low conversions.

So what makes good web design? Have a look at the top 10 web design principles that will make your website aesthetically pleasing, easy to use, engaging, and effective.

1. Purpose

Good web design always caters to the needs of the user. Are your web visitors looking for information, entertainment, some type of interaction, or to transact with your business? Each page of your website needs to have a clear goal or purpose, for the specific need for your website users in the most effective way possible.

2. Communication

People on the web tend to want information quickly, so it is important to communicate clearly, and make your information easy to read and digest. Some effective tactics to include in your web design include: organising information using headlines and sub headlines, using bullet points instead of long windy sentences, and cutting the waffle.

3. Fonts

Sans Serif fonts such as Arial and Verdana are easier to read online The ideal font size for reading easily online is 16px and stick to a maximum of 3 typefaces in a maximum of 3 point sizes to keep your design streamlined. 

4. Colours

Complementary colours create balance and harmony. Using contrasting colours for the text and background will make reading easier on the eye. Use orange or yellow to draw attention to “Call to Action” buttons. Use blue to gain “Trus”. Vibrant colours create emotion and should be used sparingly White space or negative space is also effective at giving your website a modern and uncluttered look.

5. Images

Images helps explain the content. “A picture can speak a thousand words” Choosing the right images for your website does help with brand positioning and connecting with your target audience. If you don’t have high quality professional photos on hand by them online or go to sites like pexels.com, to lift the look of your website. Infographics, videos and graphics can be much more effective at communicating than even the most well written piece of text.

6. Navigation

Three clicks is the golden rule. Within Three clicks your visitor needs to be able to find what they need. Navigation is about how easy it is for people to take action and move around your website. Some tactics for effective navigation include a logical page hierarchy, using bread crumbs, designing clickable buttons. This technique is also used for creating “Funnels” a guided path for visitors for odering products or finding information.

7. Grid based layouts

Table like set up, columns, bullet points, small list, summarize. All techniques to structure info an cluster the content in such a way that is is eassier to read and understand.

8. “F” Pattern

Rather than trying to force the viewer’s visual flow, effectively designed websites will work with a reader’s natural behaviour and display information in order of importance (left to right, and top to bottom). 
Eye tracking studies have identified that people scan computer screens in an “F” pattern. Most of what people see is in the top and left of the screen and the right side of the screen is rarely seen.

9. Load time

Waiting….people are not realy good at being patient, and a slow website is very annoying. The competitor is just one click away. So make sure that you have a fast loading website. There are many free tests available online to test your website speed. Tips to make page load times more effective include optimising image sizes (size and scale), combining code into a central CSS or JavaScript file (this reduces HTTP requests) and minify HTML, CSS, JavaScript compressed, to speed up load time.

10: Responsive

A no brainer but there are still many website that are not responsive, and thus not able to scale up and down depending on the device . Nowadays websites visitors use up to 80 % their mobile to visit websites. So key is “Mobile first” for the design, this also means a fast website as bandwith is not everywhere unlimited.