BASIC WEB DESIGN PRINCIPLES : FOR BEGINNERS

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE WEB DESIGN

Let’s begin by making a statement to strip down all the existing perspective on web design.

A good website design is not the one that just looks beautiful, but the one which also feels beautiful and interact beautifully, and makes users behave the way the owner wants.

The form of a website (how good it looks), is only one factor which decide its effectiveness. The function of a website (how easy is it to use) and Architecture of a website (information architecture ) are also important in determining the effectiveness of a website

If a website lacks it’s functional and architectural aspect, it will reflect in the behavior and traffic metrics that can be pulled out from web analytics tools like Google analytics (e.g. high bounce rates, session durations, low pages per visit and reduced conversions).

So what makes good web design?

Below we explore the top 10 web design principles that will make your website aesthetically pleasing, easy to use, engaging, and effective.

1. PURPOSE

Great web design always obliges the requirements of the client. Are your audience searching for data, excitement, some sort of interaction, or transaction with your business? Each page of your website needs to be clear, and to satisfy a particular requirement for your audience in the best way possible.

2. COMMUNICATION

Users on the internet usually desire information immediately, therefore it is vital that you communicate clearly, and make your data effortless to scan and consume. A few useful strategies to incorporate in your website design consist of arranging information with headlines and sub headlines , making use of bullet points rather than long challenging sentences , and cutting the waffle .

3. TYPEFACES 
 Normally, Sans Serif fonts like Arial and Verdana are simpler to read online ( Sans Serif fonts are fashionable looking fonts without decorative finishes ) . The perfect font size for reading effortlessly online is 16px and adheres to a maximum of 3 typefaces in a maximum of 3 point sizes to maintain your design sleek.

4. COLOURS

A nicely planned out color palette would go a long way to improve the consumer experience. Matching colors generate balance and harmony. Working with contrasting colors for the words and background can make reading less difficult on the eye. Lively colors produce feeling and should be applied cautiously ( e .g . for push buttons and call to actions ) . Finally, white space/ negative space is extremely good at providing your website a fashionable and uncluttered appearance.

5. IMAGES 
 An image can speak a thousand words, and selecting the most appropriate pictures for your website will help with brand establishing and communicating with your audience . If you don’t possess top quality professional images at hand , think about buying stock photos to boost the appearance of your website . Also think about utilizing infographics , videos and graphics because these could be a lot more helpful for communicating than even the most nicely written bit of text.

6. NAVIGATION 
 Navigation is all about just how effortless it is for anyone to do something and maneuver around your website. Certain tactics for successful navigation consist of a logical page hierarchy , making use of bread crumbs , making clickable buttons , and following the ‘three click rule’ meaning consumers can easily find the data they really are searching for within 3 clicks.

7. GRID BASED LAYOUTS 
 Positioning content randomly on your website page could end up with a haphazard look which is unpleasant. Grid based layouts organize content into segments , columns and display boxes that line up and feel well balanced , which produces a much better looking web design.

8. “F” PATTERN DESIGN 
 Eyeball tracking studies have found that individuals skim through computer screens in an “F” pattern. The majority of what exactly people observe is within the top and left of the screen but in fact the right side of the screen is seldom seen. Instead of attempting to force the viewer’s visual flow, efficiently designed websites works with a reader’s normal behavior and display information in order of importance (left to right, and top to bottom) .

9. LOAD TIME 
 Everyone dislikes a website that requires years to load up. Suggestions to render page load times more efficient consist of optimizing image sizes ( size and scale ) , blending code into an essential CSS or JavaScript file ( this decreases HTTP requirements ) and minify HTML , CSS , JavaScript ( compressed to accelerate their load time ).

10. MOBILE FRIENDLY 
 It is nowadays very common to access websites from several devices with multiple screen sizes, therefore it is imperative that you think about if a website is mobile friendly . If your site is not mobile friendly, you may either build up it in a responsive or perhaps you can develop a devoted mobile site ( a separate website optimized especially for mobile phone users ).

 You can easily build an attractive and useful website, by simply maintaining these design elements in your mind . Have you got a website design that requires checking or optimizing? Or maybe, you may be planning a website and you would like to secure the design right from the ground up. In either case , all these concepts of efficient web design will help your website become more appealing , convenient , and unforgettable for visitors.