Website design is the process of planning, conceptualizing, and then arranging content which is intended for the internet. Modern website design goes well beyond how things appear aesthetically, to also include how they function. Website design is not limited to websites as it also includes various other uses for instance web applications, mobile applications, and the user interface design.
Website Design Elements
While designing a website, it is important to consider both how the website looks and how it functions. Integrating both these elements into the design is going to help maximize the performance of the website irrespective of how the performance is measured. For instance, did you know that due to SEO, website design can have a big impact on your performance in search engines such as Google?
Visual Elements
Following is a quick overview of all the different elements you must consider in your website design to ensure that everything looks picture perfect.
Written Copy
Essentially, the overall look of the site and the words present on it go hand in hand. The two must never be considered as separate entities. It is important to have your writers and designers work alongside each other instead of in sequence to lead to a more powerful design.
Fonts
While designing any website, it is important to choose an easy to read font that complements the overall design as well. There are numerous tools which can be used to decide the font pairings as well if multiple fonts are to be used on your website.
Colors
Colors play a huge role when it comes to designing the perfect website. Bear in mind that there are several misconceptions regarding the psychology behind different colors. While choosing colors for the site it is crucial to focus on aligning the colors with the overall bran and the message you want to convey to your target audience.
Layout
How you choose to arrange the content on your website is going to have a drastic impact on both the functionality as well as appearance of your website. Even though there are no specific rules when it comes to site layouts, there are some principles you must follow. If you do not know how to write proper codes, it becomes important to understand the limitations you may face through different website design tools so that you do not get stuck halfway through your design.
Shapes
Over the past few years, the use of graphic elements has escalated when it comes to website design. Combining stunning shapes and colors can be used in order to accomplish numerous things, for instance directing the attention of your website visitors. The significant challenge that accompanies this trend however is that you cannot implement this without having to rely on codes.
Spacing
There is space that exists between every single element within the design for instance, the images, the paragraphs, the lines, and even the letters. As a rule of the thumb, too much space is much better that having all elements crammed together. The concept regarding whitespace is definitely on top of the list when it comes to professional web design.
Images and Icons
Beautiful website designs can communicate a lot of important information in simply a matter of few seconds. One of the ways through which you can accomplish this is by using powerful images and icons. A quick search on Google for stock images and icons is going to produce hundreds and thousands of options for you to choose from.
Videos
Videos too have emerged as a latest trend when it comes to website design. When they are used properly, videos can help your site visitors experience something which simply cannot be described through images and words. It is important to remember that eye catching video content can sometimes become distracting and must never compete with your website content.
Functional Elements
Navigation
Navigation can be termed as one of the main elements that determine if your site actually works or not. As per your target audience, your navigation can serve numerous different purposes. It is the navigation that helps a first time visitor discover what your website has to offer while guiding the returning visitors to all the specific section within your website.
Speed
Nobody likes websites that are too slow to load. Irrespective of how great your website design is, if it does not load quickly it is not going to perform in search, and it will also not accomplish all the goals you have set for yourself. Even though some top website builders mostly compress the content to maximize the load times there are simply no guarantees. It is critical to do your homework to make sure the tool you choose offers optimum performance.
Animations
There are several website animation techniques that can help your website design accomplish a huge range of tasks. Right from grabbing the user?s attention to providing proper feedback on interactions with content such as buttons or forms. If you are new in the field of website design we would recommend that you stick to simple animations in the beginning. Complex animations will require professional developer intervention.
User Interactions
Your website visitors have numerous different way through which they can interact with your website depending on the device they are navigating the website on. The best website design always simplifies all these interactions offering the user the impression that they are in complete control. Following are a few examples:
- Avoid scroll jacking
- Never auto play audio
- Avoid popups
- Do not underline text unless it is clickable
- Make all forms mobile friendly
Website Structure
The site?s structure plays a crucial role in both the user experience alongside SEO. If visitors get lost while navigating your website chances are that the crawlers too might get lost. Even though there are some free to use sitemap builders available, for smaller websites the best approach is to layout all your pages on a whiteboard or on a piece of paper.
Cross Browser and Cross Device Compatibility
An amazing website design is going to look good on almost all devices as well as browsers. If you are building your website from scratch we would recommend using a cross browser testing tool in order to make this tedious process a lot faster and a lot more efficient. Alternatively, if you are using a site building platform, the cross browser testing is typically taken care of by the business?s development team which helps you focus on the website design.
We hope these website designing tips will help you out if you are thinking about designing your own website for business. If you want expert help, feel free to contact us at Pop Web and Print and let us help you out on your website designing journey. Our team of professionals is ever ready to help you out, we will become your partners in this journey and help you build your digital empire from the ground up!
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