The Dos & Don’ts of Effective Website Design - Our Guide
Ryan Stack • May 18, 2020
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to guarantee your website’s effectiveness? While it would be difficult to make any promises, there are a few ways you can give your website the best chances of success.
In this guide, we’ve outlined what these are. We’ve arranged everything in an easy do and don’t format to simplify everything for you.
On Wed Design Elements
DO: Make everything look cohesive
An effective website is only possible if all of the elements that comprise it look like they belong together. This means your media files, content, message, and everything else will have to reflect what your brand is all about. You can do this by applying the same post-processing effects for all your images and using the same font faces present in your logo. The goal here is to avoid sending mixed signals to your audience that can confuse them.
DON’T: Introduce too much clutter into your design
Don’t fall into the trap of overly decorating your website’s design. These will not only make your pages come across as unprofessional, but also make all your content load slowly. A few general rules of thumb here is to limit decorative elements to only what’s necessary. You should also restrict your design’s color palette to a maximum of three or four choices, and make sure you don’t use more than three font faces in your text content.
On Usability
DO: Establish an ergonomic design and structure
You should prioritize the user experience to ensure that your website is effective. This means you will need to organize your content in a way that is easily navigated and consumed. You can do this on two levels: site-wide and on individual pages. For the first, make sure you have menus that are accessible and intuitive. For the second, format your pages so that information is sectioned off, with the important parts highlighted.
DONT: Forget about accessibility and language options
You shouldn’t overlook the importance of accessibility and language options. Sometimes, the mere existence of these things will allow your business to penetrate new markets. Besides, you should expect a portion of the people who come to your site to have special needs, and your business has to be sensitive to what those are.
On Advertising and Calls-To-Action
DO: Bring emphasis to your call-to-action buttons
An effective website means that it’s able to convert visitors into customers. This is only possible if you have the appropriate call-to-action buttons and links clearly visible. Place these important elements where they can be immediately seen, and ensure that their function is clear to the user.
DON’T: Sacrifice user experience for advertising opportunities
You might be tempted to further monetize your website by taking every opportunity to display sponsored ads. This might be a good idea to a certain extent, but going overboard could lead to disaster. Too many ads can make it impossible for your content to be seen. It makes your website look cluttered and unprofessional, and most of your visitors will simply take their business elsewhere.
Conclusion
These guidelines are applicable to any type of business website, so keep them in mind so that yours is as effective as it can be.
For More information related to web design, view our latest web design articles
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