When it comes to web design, there many different directions you can take your website design: it can either be an elegant and minimalistic design or a more vibrant feel or you can take it in a sleek and modern direction. The direction you choose to go is open to your creativity. With that being said, there are still some ground rules you need to follow in order to create an outstanding website.
A great website is not only about the look and feel but also functionality and this is something you need to take into consideration when designing your site. Here are 3 tips to help you with your designs:
1. A minimal and clutter-free homepage.
The homepage of your website needs to communicate the core message of your site to the user. Most users will quickly scan the homepage of a site to pick out key sentences and images. With this user behaviour in mind, it’s best to appeal to your users’ emotions rather than give them a wall of text to read through.
The less a visitor has to read or remember the better so when designing a home page it’s best practice to keep your important content above the fold so that users understand what your site is about as soon as they visit, without having to scroll.
Employing white space between elements is also very important it creates a balanced feel and helps reduce clutter. Use high res imagery as an alternative way of communicating your message. Lastly include a call to action, i.e. sign up functions or purchase buttons. These will guide the user to the actions you want them to take on your website.
2. Create easy to read website content.
Readability is defined as how easy it is for a user to recognise words, sentences and phrases. If your site’s readability is good, it makes it easy for the user to skim-read or scan through the content effortlessly and still understand the core message your website is trying to get across.
In order to improve your site’s readability try employing these rules.
- Contrast: ensure there is enough contrast between your background colour and the colour of your text.
- Large letter size: Users will struggle to read your content if your font size is too small. Try to keep your text around 14px to ensure easy readability of the font.
- Limit the number of fonts you use: Try not to use more than 2 different fonts on a single website. Too many typefaces will appear cluttered and will ruin the flow of the website.
3. Ensure your site is easy to navigate:
Your users need to be able to easily navigate through the website and easily utilize any functionality on the site. Having a site with great navigation improves user experience greatly so try and keep it simple.
Ensure your menu is a prominent feature of the website so that a user can easily find the tab they want to navigate to. Another important factor of good navigation is the footer. Ensure that your footer has clickable links and a bold sitemap as this will be the last thing users see on your website and it allows the user to easily find the part of the site they want to see.
Remember when it comes to designing a website it’s not just about how nice the site looks. Remember to design with the user in mind. Think about how you would like to experience using a website and incorporate that into your design.