An effective website design should fulfil its intended function by conveying its particular message whilst simultaneously engaging the visitor and convert visitors into sales. Several factors such as colours, consistency, typography, imagery, simplicity, and functionality contribute to good website design.
takes time and patience to get right. Whether you are creating a website for services or an ecommerce website for products, there are some web design elements that remain the same. The key is in knowing how to create a memorable user experience that keeps them coming back for more.
Every website visitor is different, so taking the time to build a website that engages each one differently while using modern web design to keep those connections is crucial.
Want to have a look how an ugly Website looks like? go and check our article of ” 20 Bad Websites with Terrible Web Designs“
Below are some guidelines that will help you when considering your next web project.
1. Purpose of the Website
One of the key elements of modern and well designed, and good website design is purpose. Just as you must know and understand your brand purpose, you must also be clear about the purpose of your website. Web designers can’t do their job if they don’t know what they need to accomplish.
Your website needs to accommodate the needs of the user. Having a simple clear intention on all pages will help the user interact with what you have to offer, therefore the end product will be a good website design that convert visitors into sales.
What is the purpose of your website? Are you imparting practical information like a ‘Where to guide’? Is it an subscription website or are you selling a product to the user? There are many different purposes that websites may have but there are core purposes common to all websites, and keys for a good website design:
- Describing Expertise
- Building Your Reputation
- Generating Leads
- Sales and After Care
2. Simplicity or Usability
Simplicity is the best way to go when considering the user experience and the usability of your website. Below are ways to achieve simplicity through design.
One of the next key elements of a website is its usability. From the home page to every other page on the site, you must address the needs and pain points of your users. If they can’t navigate your site or are confused in any way, they will leave, decreasing the conversion rate of your business. If your site has multiple products, they should be able to search the catalogue and have a seamless checkout experience.
Tips: That’s why is important to hire a company with a good and proven good website design process, check out our winning formula to a success web design for a high conversion Website.
Your site should also be responsive and welcoming, regardless the type of device is being used. Your wireframe should start mobile-first to ensure you don’t let the mobile users lose out on a robust experience (nowadays more than 80% of searches are done n mobile first). Try to avoid having too much information, keep your language simple, have a quick and easy layout, and don’t make your paragraphs too long.
Looking for an agency to build your Website with a good design?
Lardis Digital creates stunning Websites that drives traffic and convert visitors into clients.
3. Navigation
Navigation is the wayfinding system used on a good designed websites where visitors interact and find what they came for. Website navigation is key to retaining visitors and convert visitors into sales. If the website navigation is confusing or Weick visitors will give up and find what they need elsewhere (literally, you sent your potential clients onto your competitors). Keeping navigation simple, intuitive and consistent on every page is key.
Your website should be easy to navigate and easy to load. Your users should know where they are and what page they need to get to from the first interaction. Developing a site map and having clear directional navigation make sense. Don’t waste time having too many animations and other elements that will confuse your users.
Again; an agency with a reliable and proven method to build a web design can handle it.
4. Visual Hierarchy
Visual hierarchy is the arrangement of elements in order of importance on each page of the website. This is done either by size, colour, imagery, contrast, typography, whitespace, texture and style. One of the most important functions of visual hierarchy is to establish a focal point; this shows visitors where the most important information is.
When it comes to reading words, most cultures generally read top to button and left to right. Of course, there are exceptions but if you’re reading this now, it’s a safe bet that you didn’t start at the bottom.
Reading visual information works in a similar, yet a slightly different way, and thanks to eye tracking, we know this to be true. Below are the two main ways—known as patterns—we process visual information.
-
F Patterns.
This is most common for text-heavy designs (see image above). It follows the shape of the ‘F’, starting at the top left and moving horizontally across to the top right. Viewers then scan down the left-hand side of the page in search of short headlines or subheads to quickly scan right.
-
Z Patterns.
Less dense designs follow a ‘Z’ shape. Viewers start at the top left and move horizontally across to the top right, then cast their eye downward on a backward diagonal slope to the lower-left corner, and finally across to the right-hand corner.
Depending on what you’re designing, these patterns give a good indication where your most important elements should be placed
5. Content Management
The meat of your website comes from the content, best sites with good website design are relied on quality content. This is what draws your customers audience in and keeps them engaged and coming back for more. It supports your purpose and directs them to take action. This can be displayed in a variety of ways. You may have a blog, videos, and other elements that take them through your brand story, show them what your products and services do, or make them think.
Web content is at the core of your website design. Most people don’t realize that while content is at the core, design, and content are different elements of the overall structure of your website, the good combination of both make your website a powerful tool for your business. Content is the material being consumed and takes many different shapes, but the design is the presentation of that content. It influences how users feel. To be honest, when building the wireframe, it should begin with the content that will be used on the site. While aesthetics play a huge role in the user experience, users want to know what you can do for them.
Content and search engine optimization work hand in hand to give your site relevance and help with ranking. Content-first and mobile-first work together to create a better user experience. Your content management is important. Knowing how often you plan to update that content is important. Having a content management system (CMS) on the site can also help in effective management. The structure of the CMS is very important. You should be able to edit content from anywhere, on any device. It should be secure to avoid hacking, and your content should help, not hinder the speed of your site. Good content is useful and engaging. That’s your goal.
Need a new Website?
Lardis Digital creates stunning Websites that drives traffic and convert visitors into clients.
6. Grid Based Layout
Grids help to structure your design and keep your content organised. The grid helps to align elements on the page and keep it clean. The grid-based layout arranges content into a clean rigid grid structure with columns, sections that line up and feel balanced and impose order and results in an aesthetically pleasing website.
Grids help to ensure web designs are responsive. A grid-based layout allows designs to easily adjust to fit on different screen sizes. Grid theory helps your designs to appear well thought-out and professional as opposed to something that you’ve just thrown together.
7. SEO and Analytics
SEO is a very important step in your web design, because it helps direct users to your site to get the information they are looking for. It helps you with building a strong and organic online presence and adds value to your design. If your website isn’t friendly to search engines, it won’t be as accessible as you want it to be.
That means it won’t rank highly on Google or any other search engine, and you’ll miss out on valuable customers who need the information you have shared. There are a few components to SEO – the content, keywords, and links. Your content should have strategic keywords to help cut down on the time the search engines have to look for your page.
Your title tags and meta tags are all vital to enhancing your SEO and should be ingrained in the process from the very beginning. You can have a great website but if you don’t have visitors, what’s the point? Make sure you keep up with changes Google makes to ensure your site is always present when doing searches in your field.
A site with a good website design always take into account SEO when building it, be sure the digital agency or developer you hire develop the website a SEO understanding in mind.
8. Loading Time
Waiting for a website to load will lose visitors. Nearly half of web visitors expect a site to load in 3.5 seconds or less and they will potentially leave a site that isn’t loaded within 7 seconds. Optimising image sizes will help load your site faster.
That’s why it’s so important to optimize your site in various ways. You want to reduce the time users have between clicking and getting to your content. Your images are key in this aspect. PNG images are better quality but are also larger than JPEG files. JPEGs offer a balance between quality and speed, so it’s a good idea to consider using JPEG files when building the site.
The hosting of your site is also key. Check to see if your site is using shared hosting or dedicated hosting which could have a direct impact on your site. When selecting the images and other items for your site, ask yourself, “Is this going to slow down my website?” If the answer is yes, or even maybe, don’t use it.
Looking for redesign your website?
Lardis Digital creates stunning Websites that drives traffic and convert visitors into clients.
9. Mobile
More people are using their phones or other devices to browse the web. It is important to consider building your website with a responsive layout where your website can adjust to different screens.
In this century it’s difficult to imagine the digital space without mobile devices – I can say is impossible. Most people visit websites from their mobile devices instead of desktop computers. That means you must adapt to the era and keep up with the competition. Designing your website for mobile-first may be the way to go.
Using responsive web design to achieve this will help you in the search engines because they check how mobile-friendly your website is for mobile devices. The screen size of the devices accessing your site matters. That’s why the design of your website should have the right design element plan in place where your buttons are accessible and not too small, the type is legible and easy to read, and they can find the menu without problems.
Good Website Design - Conclusions
Knowing these elements is key to good website design, but you won’t be able to put it all together if you don’t find a good web design agency. You have to bear in mind all those aspects when hiring your web designer.
Lardis Digital is a web design agency with more than 20 years of experience and more than 100 clients worldwide. In our Web Design process we take care of all the details above to deliver seamless Websites that convert visitors into sales.
Our end-to-end custom website design agency features in-house top-rated designers, developers, project managers, digital marketers, content specialists and more.
Services we are experts on, but aren’t limited, are:
- WordPress Web Design
- Custom Website Design
- eCommerce Solutions
- SEO Services
- WordPress Maintenance packages
- WordPress Hosting
Contact us today and start increasing sales now.