A beautiful website is a labour of love. It’s surprisingly difficult to piece together good design elements to create something amazing and functional, so here are a couple of web design tips to help you ensure that your site ticks all the boxes.
Keeping your site free of clutter
Rarely does anyone skim through your entire website, reading every single word across its pages. People simply don’t have the time or patience for it, which is why it’s important to keep your website as brief and concise as possible. There are exceptions to this, such as if you’re writing blog posts and informative content pieces, but overall, the website itself should be rather brief and to the point.
Removing clutter helps keep the flow of your website smooth and means there’s less on screen for your audience to get frustrated looking at. They know what they want and you should lead them in those directions, not throw them into a labyrinth of links and paragraphs that they feel lost in.
Learn the importance of type design
Type design refers to typography designs. In short, it refers to the fonts that you use and where you use them. For instance, headlines are often bolded and you’ll typically pick a sans serif font because they’re easier to read and are nicer to look at when they’re enlarged. On the other hand, a serif font can be used for a more serious or formal appearance.
Font sizes are also an often misunderstood concept as well. Fonts should generally be larger than you think so they’re more easily read, especially on mobile devices, and you should try to avoid long paragraphs of text, instead opting for brief yet informative lines and bullet points.
Keep colour palettes in mind
Another important aspect of web design is to ensure you stick to a colour palette that works. Colours can complement each other, but they can also clash, creating some nasty contrasts that just don’t look nice to the eye.
Make sure there’s a contrast between the colour of your text and your background, but try to keep your overall design at a maximum of around 4 colours. This will prevent the colours from overwhelming your audience yet still give you some creative freedom.
Plan your navigation
Navigating a website should be painless and simple. You should be able to find what you need in just 2 to 3 clicks. Any more and you run the risk of upsetting your audience because it takes too much browsing to find what they need.
You should also have certain links, such as that to your contact information and social media accounts, visible on every page of your site for ease of access.
Responsive websites
Having your website respond to the device it’s being viewed of is important for both design and SEO. Search engines love websites that adapt to the size and orientation of the device it’s being viewed on, and it makes it much more pleasant to browse for your viewers.
A responsive website design relies on a lot of planning, but some website creation tools will automatically do this for you to a certain degree.
