The Principles of Website Design

As the saying goes, ‘you only get one chance to make a first impression.’ It is apt in the world of websites where a visitor may take a few seconds to close the page, or share it ahead, or spend time on it. First impressions are crucial for any webpage to create an impact, besides other things. Designing a great webpage is certainly an art that is developing and essential for a brand to get success.

With cut-throat competition today, where the socially connected world has less attention span to spend time on a badly designed website, smart designing procedures backed by technology and time-tested web design principles are imperative to use.

This article highlights the basic principles of web designing.

First Impressions – To Fit Psychologically

Any action we take is driven by emotions. And emotions are a core part of our psychology. We make a mental image of everything when encountered the first time. Why? Because we remember the first impression that often lasts long (Read as Halo Effect in Psychology). The same goes for the websites. It is imperative to make a good first impression with a webpage, and it should be visually appealing.

Elements of First Impressions

Fonts : There are many types of fonts available today. For any webpage designer, it is essential to choose typography that is easy to the eyes, clean, sufficiently big (wherever needed), and simple to make the first blush. Another aspect worth noting is the usage of different fonts, which should be a maximum of 3 on the overall website for better mental attention.

Colours and theme : This one is vital. Choosing a colour palette that also echoes the brand image and logo can be great at first glance. Consistently using this colour palette in every communication touch point creates a balanced theme and brings trust amongst your prospects. With time, it is easier for them to recognize the brand easily.

White space or ‘Negative Space’ is another phenomenon that needs consideration. It is a space between the text, images, graphics, etc. It helps maintain a balance and breathing space for the reader to comprehend the content more easily.

Navigation : With fonts and colours sorted, the next crucial thing is navigation. Over 70% of consumers say that an easily approachable navigation bar that quickly finds them whatever they are looking for is the best aspect of a good website. Good web designers make sure it stands out by giving a contrasting colour to the bar. It will make a user journey easy and help in converting a lead.

More than half of consumers visit a webpage and go empty-handed because they couldn’t find what they are looking for.

Images : As they say, ‘A Picture Speaks Thousand Words’, and rightly so for the webpage. Good web designers ensure purposeful imagery with high resolution, aesthetics, and a clear aim behind pictures to build an interesting story. It certainly makes a power punch for the first time for an onlooker.

Content – ‘Talk’ To the Visitor

We have created a punch with our first impression. But, it will be of no use if the content is bland. Words have the power to entice emotions. Carefully using words that speak with webpage visitors and answering the questions arising in their minds can be impactful enough to convert them into your customers. Understandably, entrepreneurs may want to write their hearts out for their website visitors to read, but that’s not how things will work.

Every one of us remembers over one movie dialogue we watched a long time ago. Why? Because the words weaved in a manner that it itched a memory in us. The same goes for the content of a webpage. The approach should be to deliver a message right into the heart and mind of the reader. Every time you need to work on that. That is how the brand stands apart from the rest.

Hiring a good copywriter is an undervalued investment for this. They are well-learned with persuasive writing skills that are needed. Plus, as a small grammar mistake is a big turnoff for anyone reading, a copywriter would certainly avoid it. Hiring them will also help create a balanced Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy in line with the search crawlers, targeted keywords that people search, and gets a good web page ranking as well.

Every webpage is trying to solve a problem. And right communication lies at the center. A brief statement that propels the reader to perform the desired action and a quick button to do so. Call-To-Action (CTA) is the heart of content marketing. The more effective CTAs on the webpage, the more chances for lead conversion. Thus, the content remains a king for every website and is an integral part of web design.

Responsive Design – All Device-Friendly

In today’s digital era, where over 5 billion devices are equipped with web browsers that include tablets, smart TVs, music players, or even watch. It is imperative to build your webpage device friendly. Also, e-commerce sites are accessed by a whopping 60% through mobile browsers. Thus, one of the crucial principles of web design is creating a page that is compatible with different screen sizes.

The load time of a webpage act as a good differentiator here. We have seen that e-commerce sites that take more load time lose a good number of consumers in the first 10 seconds only. The web designers should take this into account and minimize page load time by putting light images and graphics while still keeping them of high quality.

To Sum Up

Creating web pages is certainly easier today than it was a few years ago. However, designing them competently requires skill, expertise, a flexible approach, intelligence, and collaborations. From making a powerful first impression by giving a pleasant visual appeal, better navigation, to talking with the readers through webpage content and offering it for diverse-sized devices are some excellent and proven principles to design a webpage.

As consistency is the key to brand recognition, changing your web pages frequently should always be avoided. It is best to take time, create a well-established plan, and hire good web designers and copywriters to sail successfully in the cut-throat competition of the web world.