Going Back To The Basics - Web Design Principles To Improve Usability

When it comes to the basics, it’s better to start from the zero. Many businesses want their websites to look as beautiful as possible and in this quest for more beautiful websites; they often ignore the functionality of it all. People often commit the mistake of hiring a website development company which offers them great visuals and aesthetics. Don’t spend hundreds of bucks to create some fancy-looking website and regret it later. You only focus should be on increasing conversion rates and increasing them is no easy feat.

As Steve Jobs has expressed in his famous words “Design is not just what it looks like. Design is how it works”. So, brush up your knowledge a little and don’t let the glitter of pretty pictures deceive you. Your website should communicate the message effectively, achieve results and solve problems. Experts since the dawn of the age of websites have thought about this and they came up with some basic principles that are still followed. You just need to bring your attention to these basic rules to achieve the purpose of your website successfully. Let’s dive in:

1. The Magic And Psychology Of Visuals - The way in which the content, CTAs, buttons and icons are arranged on your website is a big factor that either discourages or encourages your visitors to stay on your website. Visuals influence everything from the first impression to the final purchase. By visuals, we don’t mean high-definition pictures or pretty-colours. What we’re talking about here is hierarchy of it all. The scanning pattern, which is the pattern in which users scan the layout of your website, is very important to achieve your objectives. Using different font sizes, font styles and colours to create contrast, and also to highlight certain parts more than others is very important in web designing.
   
   
2. Spacing For Clarity - White spaces is very important for increasing the readability of your content and to make it more presentable for your customers. White space guides your visitors in sifting through the content quickly and allows you to attract their attention to the right place. It can also be used to communicate your brand identity. For example, using a lot of white spaces suggests that you believe in the philosophy of minimalism. If your website is content-heavy, you should try using a grid system to improve the legibility of your website. Don’t overwhelm the users by bombarding them with a lot of content at once. White spaces can give it an organized and clean look.
   
   
3. Lose The Excessive Elements - This is a basic principle of web designing. Everything that is not absolutely essential for the homepage or any other page should be dropped without thinking twice. It does two things for you - firstly, it makes the website faster, which counts a lot in the modern digital world because Google puts a lot of emphasis on speed while ranking the websites. Secondly, it improves the efficiency of the website considerably. The philosophy of simplicity and minimalism goes a long way. You should definitely try losing the unnecessary elements.
   
   
4. Make It More Inviting - All the information on your website is there for a reason and if it is not, don’t include it as suggested in the previous point. Therefore, make all the information as easily accessible as it can be. If the user is there on a website to perform a particular task, he or she shouldn’t have to struggle to find the right button or page. It is not practical to put everything on the home page. So, focus on the structure and navigation bar of your site. Nothing should be cluttered or unorganized. Using different kinds of typefaces and attractive colours can help you in guiding your visitors without any difficulty. Images can also help you in presenting the information in a number of ways. Diversity in presentation without tweaking the consistency of the design is an art that web designers should learn.
   
   
5. Mobile - It is absolutely important to make your website mobile-friendly. We just can’t understand why most of the people still choose to ignore this aspect of their website. Just making your homepage mobile-friendly is not enough. Perform a complete inspection and check every single button’s functionality to ensure that your customers get the best experience on mobile. Squeeze the content and use white spaces wisely. This is not a principle but since so many people choose to ignore this point, we decided to highlight in a separate point.
   
   
6. Give Them Options But Not Too Many - This might seem like a paradoxical statement but it is true. Websites like Netflix have showed that you should avoid giving too many choices to your customers. They decided to show the options horizontally instead of presenting them in a vertical layout. This instils a sense of options but doesn’t show much in reality. It is a well-thought design, which encourages the user to make their decision quickly. Giving too many choices can confuse them and delay the moment of conversion. This is particularly true for ecommerce websites as they are moving towards this philosophy of design.
   
   
7. Every Element Should Contribute To Conversion - This is the last point which is also the most important. In a way, this point also summarises the content of this article. Every single element on your website is there for a single purpose which is to encourage the customers to make the purchase. After putting so much effort, don’t forget the reason because of which you decided to make a website for your business. Put the most important buttons, also called CTAs, on the most visible and highlighted areas of the page. Keep in mind that users won’t analyse your website to make their decision. The overall impact matters and every principle is there to heighten that impact.
   

Everybody wants to take the services of the best website designing company. Now, you are aware of the things that can help you identify the best company. So, before hiring a company, look at their previous and look for these basic elements.

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Created on Dec 1st 2018 06:10. Viewed 562 times.

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