Your website is your shop front. You want it to look nice enough to attract new buyers, which is what makes website design so important.
But there’s a lot more to website design than just making it look pretty.
From customer usability to good copywriting, it takes a lot to encourage a user to stay on your website and buy from you.
Website design agencies have the experience and understanding of what makes a website work. If you’re looking to get yours redesigned, or you’re a new company looking for good designers, search web design Essex, or your local area, to find a company close to you.
So, what are the top priorities for good web design? We will look into the must-do’s, so you know what to look for in a website agency.
Easy-To-Use Navigation
To encourage users to stay on your website, it must be easy to use. The navigation of a website is one of the most important parts of retaining users, so if it’s confusing, you’ll lose a potential sale. Keeping it simple is the way to go. Here are some tips:
- Use familiar and clear words for the navigation bar to help users easily understand what each page is about, such as ‘menu’, ‘contact us’, ‘home’.
- Design in a way that it takes as little clicks as possible to get to a destination. Use the three-click rule.
- Use navigation options in your website’s footer.
- Change the colour of visited links to help the user.
Simplistic Design with White Space
Having a simple design is the best way to implement an easy-to-use website. And when a user is looking for something specific, they’re more likely to scan the pages to find what they’re after. Plenty of white space allows the user to scan your pages with more ease. Tips to help the user scan the page are as follows:
- Don’t have bulks and bulks of text. Space it out.
- Add visuals to the more important parts of your website.
- Follow the usual reading pattern, for example Western cultures read from left to right and top to bottom.
Follow a Grid Layout
Using a grid layout on your website allows for users to read the information on the page much easier. It will give your website structure with the use of columns to make the page look balanced and easy to digest by the user.
Quick Loading Time
If your website takes more than 3 seconds to load, you can say goodbye to the majority of your visitors. Users expect things to work quickly, and when they don’t, they will simply look elsewhere. Decreasing the size of images can help the load speed of your website.
Mobile Friendly
Websites are being visited on mobiles more and more, so if yours isn’t optimised to suit mobile devices, you’re excluding a big chunk of your customers. You need to have a responsive mobile layout which can adjust to different screen sizes.
Effective Content
All website users are on the hunt for something specific, but if your website is full of jargon and big bulks of text, users won’t spend the time looking for it. That’s why clear, great content is so important.
Without good quality content, your website won’t be seen as an authority on Google which will make your search engine rankings suffer.
Don’t Overkill on Colours and Typefaces
Simplicity is key when it comes to websites, so stick to a set colour palette and use a maximum of three fonts. Overusing different colours and typefaces is incredibly confusing for the visitor, making them more likely to exit your website.
Speak To a Professional
For a website that attracts your audience, is fast and works for all types of screens, speak to a professional web designer. There are specific agencies that specialise in this type of design, you can find ones local to you by searching web design Essex, or your local area. This makes it easier to organise meetings and they may understand the local area if you are a small business.
