Top Ten Web Design Tips For Beginners

Did you know there are over 100 million active websites in the digital world? Standing out amongst them is getting increasingly difficult, meaning the design of your website and its ease of use is imperative to attracting new customers, and then keeping them there. A professional web design firm has years of experience in designing and creating engaging sites, but even they had to start somewhere!

Here are our top ten tips for getting your website design right first time:

Image Source: Pixabay

1. Keep it simple

The term ‘less is more’ is very relevant when designing for the web. Whilst fancy programs like Photoshop and Corel can produce amazing graphics, there is no need to add them to every single page on your site.
Remember the main focus of the website is to encourage a visitor to take a particular action. Your web design should help them easily achieve this.

2. Publish quality content

What you write on the website is equally as important as what it looks like. Check and double check text for spelling and grammatical errors and make sure it’s in line with any branding guidelines you’ve been provided.
Keep text short and to the point.

3. Keep graphics small

The graphics you use should never be too large as they’ll reduce the amount of space you have available for other content. In addition, lots of large images over 1MB will affect the speed of connection, which is the number one cause of site abandonment.
Instead, use images to enhance the content without overwhelming the user.

4. Use whitespace effectively

Clean, clear white space on your website is very important, although confusingly it doesn’t actually have to be white, any color will do. It means space without any images, content, or any other media.
Whitespace enhances the content of the page and emphasizes certain sections

5. Keep navigation intuitive

Most websites use JavaScript or CSS, which provide users with a great navigation experience. You should also make sure the search facility works well as users often use this to go directly to a page, rather than menus.

6. Incorporate responsive design

A responsive site is one that adapts to different screen sizes and mean that users viewing the site from a mobile or tablet won’t need to keep zooming and scrolling.

7. Keep the theme consistent

Do not use a different theme for each different page. Keep it consistent and in line with the brand, and visitors will not get confused while navigating around the site.

8. Avoid pop up windows

No-one likes pop-ups and they rarely convert. Put yourself in the user’s shoes and remember how frustrating it is to be presented with a pop up on every page.

9. Avoid text over images

The use of text over an image or background looks amateur, and if you’re trying to design a slick professional website this will give completely the wrong impression.

10. Update it regularly

Just like the internet, your website will be constantly evolving. Update it regularly to ensure you’re taking advantage of new technology and features that will improve usability. Also, remember to test your website software for bugs by using an alm tool.