Web designing is not an easy task and various elements should be looked into. Many brands would have different requirements when it comes to designing a website.
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Take a look at some of the principles of good web design
- Do not make the users think
A web page should be self-explanatory. When you’re planning to create a site, your job would be to get rid of the issues or queries. Users need to make decisions consciously by considering the pros, cons and alternatives. If the site architecture and navigation are not intuitive, the number of questions would grow and make it tough for the users to comprehend how the system works and the way to get from one page to the other. Clear, moderate and structured visual clues with easily recognisable links could help the users to find their path to their aim.
- Never Squander User’s Patience
In every project when you are going to offer visitors some tool or service, try to keep the user requirements minimal. Less action is required from users to test the service and the more likely is a random visitor to try it out. First-time visitors would go ahead with this service by not filling web forms for an account they would never use in the future. the users could explore the site and discover the services without forcing them to share private data. It is not reasonable to force the users to enter an email address to test the feature.
- Focus on the User’s Attention
The websites provide dynamic and static content. Some of the aspects of the user interface could attract attention more than others do. Images are more eye-catching than the text. The sentences are marked as bold and more attractive than plain text. the human eye is nonlinear and web users could instantly recognise the patterns, edges and motions. This is why video-based advertisements are distracting and annoying but from the marketing perspective, they capture the user’s attention.
- Strive for Feature Exposure
Modern web designs are criticised usually due to their approach of guiding users with visually appealing steps and large buttons with visual effects. Looking from the design perspective, these elements are not a bad thing. Such guidelines could be extremely effective as they lead the visitors through the website content in a simple and user-friendly way.
- Make use of effective writing
The web is entirely different from print. Hence, you need to adjust the writing based on user preferences and browsing habits. Promotional writing will not be read. Long text blocks without images and keywords should be marked in italics and bold would be skipped. Exaggerated language would also be ignored. Talk about business in the content. Avoid clever and cute names, marketing induced names, unfamiliar technical names and company-specific names. If you are describing a service and would like the users to opt for it, you have to write as ‘start now’ or ‘explore through our services’.
- Strive for simplicity
Keep it simple principle (KIS) is the major goal when it comes to website designing. The users are rarely on the website to enjoy the design. In most cases, looking for information other than design. You should keep it simple rather than complex. Looking from the visitor’s point of view, the best website design could be pure text without any advertisements or content blocks that would match the query visitors or the content they have been looking for. This is one of the reasons why a user-friendly print-version of web pages should provide a good user experience.
- Never be afraid of white space
It is very tough to understand how important whitespace could be. It not only helps to reduce the cognitive load for the visitors but also makes it possible to perceive the information that is presented on the screen. When a new visitor considers approaching the design layout, the first thing they would try to do is scan the page and divide the content area into digestible pieces of information. Complex structures are harder to scan, read, analyse and work with. If you have a choice between the two design segments by a visible line or by some whitespace, it is better to use a whitespace solution. Hierarchical structures would reduce the complexity. The better you manage to provide the users with a sense of visual beauty, the easier your content would be to perceive.
- Communicate effectively with the visible language
Three fundamental principles are involved in the use of visible language which is the content that the users see on a screen.
- Organise: You should provide the user with a clear and consistent conceptual structure. Consistency, screen layout and navigability are very important concepts of organisation. The same regulations and rules must be applied to all of the elements.
- Economise: This means to do the most with less amount visual elements. The four major points to be considered here are clarity, distinctiveness, simplicity and emphasis. Simplicity means the elements that are most important for communication. Clarity means all components should be designed to clearly show that their meaning is not ambiguous. Distinctiveness means the important properties of necessary elements that should be distinguishable. Emphasis means the most important elements should be easily perceived.
- Communicate: It means to march the presentation to the capabilities of the user. The user interface should keep in balance typography, readability, legibility, symbolism, multiple views and colour or texture to communicate successfully. You could make use of three typefaces in a maximum of three-point sizes.
- Conventions are our friends
Conventional design of site elements doesn’t result in a boring website. Conventions could be very useful as they reduce the learning curve and need to figure out how things would work. It would be a usability nightmare if all the websites had different visual presentations of RSS feeds. It is not that different from regular life where we tend to get used to basic principles on how to organise data or do shopping. Which conventions you could gain the confidence of the user, reliability, trust and prove the credibility. Follow the expectations of the user and understand what they are expecting from website navigation, search placement, text structure and so on.
