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Top 10 Web Design Best Practices for Amazing Websites

Top 10 Web Design Best Practices for Amazing Websites

Today, anyone can make a website and establish a business online. And the competition is more than ever before. As the world adopts a digital lifestyle, website user experience needs to be improved.

Web designing is something you may have heard of as the world has been progressing significantly in the digital marketing of businesses. That's right; its focus is on creating attractive and functional websites.

Visual details make it simple to get sidetracked when creating or revamping a website. However, creating a successful website requires expertise in many fields, including art, programming, and marketing.

Designing a website entails many steps, including conceptualisation, creation, and layout. The evolution of contemporary web design is remarkable. The design of a website increasingly prioritises the user's interaction with the site.

Web design, however, encompasses more than just creating websites. These mediums include mobile apps, online apps, and UI designs.

To stand out from the crowd, there are certain things you need to consider while designing your business website or webpage. This blog will tell you ten best practices you should follow for web designing.

Why are web design best practices essential?

Design Thinking Framework

Your website is the home of your business in the digital world, where people check for the business information, authenticity, etc. Even the smallest of changes in your website can affect your conversion rates.

Your business website's design gives your audience an idea about the nature of your business. It can make or break your business, mainly because design influences people to decide to stay on the website or leave.

75% of people believe a company's reliability is based on its visual presentation. Almost 40% of visitors will leave a website if they perceive the content or design as unappealing.

Trends and upgrades keep coming with each year, setting new standards, adding new features, etc., to websites and their design. This makes web design best practices highly dynamic. It gives the visitor the idea that the website is constantly updated, thereby helping the business website instil trust in the visitor.

Whether or not we are aware of it, we are affected by visuals and are drawn to well-designed things. This is why well-designed websites have a higher success rate than those with poor design. Therefore, ensuring your business is prepared for success in all areas requires a thorough understanding of web design best practices.

Here are some of the benefits of using web design best practices for any business:

Up conversions

To increase sales from your online visitors, or “conversions,” is a term commonly used in the context of businesses that offer goods or services through their websites. A well-designed website can facilitate this aim.

Better growth

Conversion increases lead to higher earnings and corporate growth. Even if you don't sell things on your website, you may still utilise it to engage customers and direct them to your store.

Boost SEO

Search engine optimisation ranks sites based on various metrics, including how long users spend on the site. Bounce rates indicate how many visitors came to your site but did not stay for more than a few seconds before leaving again, which can be detrimental to your search engine rankings.

To improve SEO, you should aim to have visitors stay on your site longer and explore more of its content. This becomes easier when your web page is optimised, and the web design best practices are employed.

Stay competitive

Other brands or businesses probably offer services and products very similar to yours. Consumers may think about the website's aesthetics and usability when comparing options.

One of your potential customers could go with your competitor's business if their website is more polished and simple to use. Employing the web design best practices will help you stand out and have better chances of getting more customers.

Budget marketing

Use your well-designed website across all channels, from social media to blogs, to get the most out of your digital marketing efforts. A well-designed website is an asset that can be used repeatedly, with the initial investment only being made once.

Critical elements of web design

Visual Cues Marketing-Friendly Website

Before we move to the web design best practices, it is essential to know the critical elements of web design. Many fundamental visual aspects, such as: are used in web design, just as they are in all other types of design.

Layout

Text, images, and adverts are laid down in this fashion so the user can quickly and easily locate the data they need.

Colour

The colour scheme should reflect the target audience as well as the function of the website. On the other hand, social media platforms and entertainment businesses may choose a multicoloured design to the muted tones preferred by public domains and government websites.

Content

Cohesive text and images result from collaboration between content creators and designers. Search engine optimisation (SEO) requires strategic use of keywords throughout the text.

Fonts

There are many fonts to pick from, but only a tiny subset works well on screens. For their legibility and modern feel, sans-serif fonts have gained widespread acceptance.

Graphics

Images, photographs, clipart, and icons all fall under this category. Selecting high-quality images that accurately portray the brand's principle is crucial.

Now that we've covered some of web design's essential elements let us walk through some of the industry's best practices for designing websites.

Web design best practices

One Page Web Design Trend 2022 2023

Focus on the target audience

This is the first thing you should do when starting web design. Unless you have a firm grasp of your target audience, you risk creating a site that is stunning to look at but fails to bring in any new business.

A cutting-edge webpage is only one component of a successful website. In reality, it's a medium through which specific individuals can contact one another.

One standard error web designers make losing sight of their intended audience during the latter stages of the design process. Keeping your target audience in mind at all times is crucial to the success of your website.

Keep the design clean

Too many elements on a website can be very flashy and not appealing to the user's view. It is important to have elements in your web design, but you must ensure that the design is clear and meaningful.

Make sure to establish a visual hierarchy and make good use of whitespace. This is because it is crucial that the elements that matter are focused on more.

Whitespace is not only aesthetically beautiful but also serves as a helpful visual break for users while they take in a website's design or content. White space aids users' ability to concentrate, digest information, and grasp its significance by removing unnecessary elements.

As a result, you can use white space to draw attention to critical items on the page and prevent information overload or analysis paralysis. This could encourage readers to subscribe to your newsletter, check out your current collection, and more!

Focus on branding

It's challenging to navigate a website with inconsistent branding. There are a large number of brand websites that are disjointed and confusing. In both B2C and B2B websites, it's essential to have a uniform look and feel across the board.

Everything in a brand's design should tell the story of the business. On every page of the website, utilise just the predetermined brand colours, logos, and words. This holds for all visual media, including photographs, icons, typefaces, and videos.

The goal of your website's design should be to strengthen the user's perception of your brand. Keeping your brand's image in mind when designing your website is crucial. Your website's design, layout, and content should reflect your values as a business.

Website colour scheme

The visual identity of any brand benefits from a consistent colour scheme. The selected colour scheme is determined by the target audience of the website as well as its intended function.

A skilled web designer can advise you on complementary colour schemes that unify your site's aesthetic. Colour combinations that may look bizarre to someone without design training often become harmonious. A colour wheel will give you an idea of how to use them effectively.

Mobile friendly approach

Mobile App Planning Process

With no stats required, it is evident in today's world that mobile phones have become an unavoidable part of our lifestyle. You should utilise a mobile-first design approach to provide the best possible experience for your users.

Related:  Stages of Creating a Design Concept for a Website

Businesses are increasingly being researched on mobile devices. Therefore, you should prioritise mobile navigation and layout in web design.

The first step in creating a mobile-friendly website is to look at everything from a user's perspective on a smartphone or tablet. Making text and service pages more scannable and sizing page elements for more accessible user involvement are some things you can do to improve the user experience.

Use storytelling methods

The way you present your website makes much difference. Storytelling is one way to convey the message interestingly and effectively.

Ultimately, that site visitor's journey ends when they take action in response to a particular call to action (CTA). Storytelling is one technique that can add to this journey by capturing the attention of website visitors and persuading them to keep moving toward the ultimate objective of purchasing a good or service.

Storytelling at its finest arouses strong emotions in those who hear it. Instead of going for a cliche web design, tell a story your clients can relate to while presenting your business or brand. For websites, narrative techniques might be advantageous in generating leads.

Easy navigation

Your users must be able to navigate quickly and access the relevant pages, content, or icons on the website. Simple and easy navigation is one of the most critical aspects when designing a website.

According to Kissmetrics, the most successful websites have shallow navigation or a structure where visitors can reach each page in three clicks or less. Keeping the most important content close to the site's surface ensures that visitors won't have to scroll too far in their search for answers.

You shouldn't just cram as many links as possible into the navigation bar. Depending on the size of your business, a primary menu of only four to seven items is recommended.

Keep your primary navigation bar uncluttered to aid site visitors in finding what they need. However, a footer menu could be helpful if you have more pages that need to be listed.

Using terms like “Home” and “Contact & Support” in your site's navigation is more user-friendly than complex words. It is better to go for simple headlines split while categorising the website.

You may only need a few search features for a website if it has less content. Heavier content may require more complex navigation. Extensive menus help users find what they need if there's much content.

Optimise content

It is important to optimise content in the web design so that it is search engine friendly. Your website is more likely to be seen and used by customers if it is visible online. Incorporating search engine optimisation (SEO) into your web design strategy will help it rank higher in search results and attract more visitors to keep it there.

Using basic SEO techniques in headlines, image captions, subheads, and URL design can improve a site's search ranking signals and potential—Google and Bing track web pages for user-searched terms or specific keywords. The more your content matches users' wants, the more organic traffic you'll get.

Faster loading times

Google Pagespeed Insights Test Speed

Keep an eye on the pace at which your page renders. Website abandonment rates increase when loading times are long. A website that takes too long to load will be a significant issue.

Adding photos, videos, and other heavy media files can slow your site's loading times. In this way, HTTP queries can be slowed down as a result.

If your audience has trouble accessing your page, they won't stick around for long. Therefore, if you want to acquire your visitors' trust and keep them coming back to your site, you should work on improving your page load times.

High-quality images

People are generally more moved by what they see than what they read. Thus visuals might be more convincing. Therefore, images are crucial to a website because they keep the user interested and provide a visual break from the content.

Furthermore, some individuals benefit more from processing visual imagery than text. Lastly, you don't want your website to look dull and lifeless. Therefore it is a best practice to make good use of quality images.

Websites with fluid pictures are easier to navigate and provide a better overall experience for visitors. By inserting some code into your HTML, you can make any image you use movable.

Simply including the line “max-width: 100%” in the image's HTML code instructs browsers to scale the image to the viewing window regardless of the viewer's device. Refer to the structure of the code shown below:

<img src=”image-name.jpg” style=”max-width:100″ alt=”your image alt text”>

Formatting

Many local businesses' websites fail to attract customers because the page material is poorly designed. On many websites, the text is all crammed into one massive block. However, individuals are more likely to skim over a lengthy piece of text if it is presented in one continuous block with no images or other visuals to break it up.

It's crucial to make your website content scannable, whether it's a services page or a blog article. The first step is to divide the lengthy passage into smaller, more manageable pieces of text.

Paragraph breaks are a low-hanging fruit that can significantly improve the readability of your material. As a byproduct, there is more blank space on the page, which is visually pleasing and helps alleviate the page's overall density.

Use bullet points and numbers to organise a series of similar concepts you wish to show in a list format. You should include headings throughout your website to further direct your readers and make it easier for them to find what they're looking for as they scan your content.

Use CTAs

To engage with your customers more, you have to use multiple Call-to-actions or CTAs. If a website doesn't ask visitors to take action, the users will likely leave and not engage further.

Signing up for newsletters, adding products to the cart, booking a meeting, accessing product demos, and so on are all examples of CTAs that you can use. If your website has multiple pages, you might want to add CTA to each page as it's easier to track conversions.

Use simple language to make your offer through the CTA clear and easy to understand. You'll get better results if you use CTAs that are straightforward.

Link to social media

Social media may be your best bet for reaching your target audience in the modern digital age. Your website's potential customers can quickly increase by including share buttons for popular social networking platforms.

These social media buttons are simple to add to any website and easily recognised. They are highly flexible in terms of placement on the site.

You may increase traffic to your site and foster connections with users by adding these buttons. Your target customers may then keep up with your social media pages and be reminded to visit your site.

A/B testing

What Is Ab Testing

Using A/B testing, you may see which webpage version achieves a specific goal better than the others. A CTA, a headline, or visual content that captures positive responses could all be evaluated here, as well as how successfully it works.

Optimising a website becomes much easier when the appropriate information is gathered. Data-driven design is usually an excellent practice in the field of visual communication.

Encourage user inclusivity

There is a large number of people who experience colour blindness, total blindness, motor impairments, etc. And in a world that is shifting rapidly into digital platforms, it is crucial to adopt a user-inclusive approach to web design.

For example, when your web design includes forms to be filled, the errors are highlighted in red. This might be a problem for people with colour blindness, so adopting the best practice of showing informational messages or icons will be beneficial.

Assistive technology like screen readers helps blind users to interpret websites. Adding descriptive texts can help visitors understand the information portrayed on the website. However, it is to be noted that textual descriptions are not required for decorative images, and it is required only for meaningful images and relevant information.

Wrapping up

You can't expect everyone to love the look and feel of your website because web design is highly subjective. But there are well-established UX concepts that make visitors feel more at ease when carefully researched and implemented.

The way your website is designed affects how it appears to visitors. A successful online presence depends critically on your ability to pull this off. Taking advantage of these web design best practices and making the necessary adjustments is essential. Fast, inventive, and visually beautiful design are the most important considerations.

We hope this blog was able to help you understand the importance of web design best practices and identify the best practices you need to keep in mind while designing a website. Make sure you follow them to create fantastic web designs.

Photo of author

Stuart Crawford

Stuart Crawford is an award-winning creative director and brand strategist with over 15 years of experience building memorable and influential brands. As Creative Director at Inkbot Design, a leading branding agency, Stuart oversees all creative projects and ensures each client receives a customised brand strategy and visual identity.

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