7 Tips for Designing an Awesome Website

It takes only 50 milliseconds for users to form an opinion about a website. Thus proving web design is more than just creating a pretty site for viewers - it provides benefits to your business. A well-designed website is crucial for any business in today’s world.

Why Website Design is Important

Listed below are some tips on how you can start creating a well-designed website:

     1. Use grids

Using grids throughout your website pages is crucial to keeping consistency. Using things such as the golden ratio can help when laying out your design. This makes the content on your website look pleasing to the eye. Thus, viewers are more likely to stay on your site, and this will reduce your bounce rate.

As well, you can use a grid already provided by your website host. This will create organization for all the information you have without making your site appear cluttered. Not only that, any images on your website will be aligned perfectly with your content!

     2. Have a colour palette

Pick your colours for your website and stick to them. These can be colours matching or complimenting your logo (assuming your logo will be a header on your site). Having a colour palette creates a sense of uniformity and consistency. This will make your site appear more credible and make users trust your content more.

When picking your colours, another thing to consider is colour psychology. This all plays a part in what colours you pick, based on what you’re offering and who your target is. For instance, if you’re targeting women, they gravitate towards the colours purple, green, and blue. Alternatively, they dislike brown, grey, and orange. Research into your target and use colour psychology to choose the best colours that your target is most likely to gravitate towards.

     3. Use whitespace

When first making your website, you might want to overload with information and cool graphics. However, this is rarely effective for keeping viewers on your site. Using whitespace on your website allows your user to breathe between content consumption.

Whitespace lets your user not think as much! Which is, in fact, what they want. Instead of struggling to figure out what your website is telling them, whitespace gives them the chance to regroup and go after what they really want - your business!

      4. Stick to a font

The maximum number of fonts you should have on your website is two - and that’s more than plenty. Having more fonts than that can begin to mess up the layouts you have on your site. Throughout your site, one consistent font should be used.

If you’re unsure of what font to start with, here’s a list of some reliable, professional, and commonly used fonts for websites:

• Arial: the standard for most, very legible, and is a safe bet if you’re unsure of where to start in the font game.
• Times New Roman: an absolute classic. Extremely popular and is basically the serif version of Arial.
• Verdana: a very simple sans serif to read, and quite large in size. The letters themselves appear elongated, which makes it even easier to read online.

However, if you decide you want to add a font and spice things up, there are some things to consider. The first being, “Do the fonts complement each other?” You can’t just throw two fonts together and hope they look alright - there’s an eye for design that’s needed.

The second to consider would be, “Do I really need another font?” Sometimes, you can adjust the heaviness or lightness of your existing font to create a hierarchy. This saves you going through the hassle of finding a second font.

However, if you don’t have this eye for design and can’t hire a designer, here are some resources that can help! There are tons of great blogs out there about how to start out with choosing fonts. As well, if you’re looking for inspiration, Typ.io gives you what’s trending in the world of fonts on the web. Typ.io is a great resource, especially if you want to see examples of how other sites are implementing fonts and using layouts.

       5. Ensure navigation is simple

Is your site easy to navigate? If I go there looking for a certain product, can I find it right away? These are questions you should be asking yourself as you’re in the first stages of design.

Some simple tips include linking your home page to your logo, or that the footer on your website has all the appropriate links (terms of use, contact page, etc.).

As well, having an anchor menu where users can scroll is super useful. Rather than having to scroll down a very long site, users can preview what they want by just hovering over your navigation menu. This is the norm for websites today and is what users will be expecting when browsing your site.

        6. Have your graphics all match

This is crucial for creating consistency on your website. When you have graphics look one way on the home page, and another on your product page, it makes your site appear disconnected. This could mean hiring someone to create said custom graphics. However, it’s definitely worth the investment. As well, it gives you brand-specific graphics that people will remember and continually associate with you.

         7. Keep it simple

Last, but certainly not least, having a well-designed website means keeping things simple. Keeping it simple might sound simple, but it can actually be one of the hardest things when designing your site. It’s very tempting to overload on information, graphics, and CTA buttons. Overall though, this will do more harm than good. The last thing your user needs is a headache caused by information overload.

Another thing to keep in mind is, “Does my website look like other websites?” You might be thinking that you want a completely different website to “stand out.” However, this can hurt your brand and your business. Users prefer to look at things that are familiar to them. Sticking to a template can help your brand. This doesn’t mean you need to be a cookie-cutter website, but it does mean your site should have some consistency with your competitors.

Conclusion

Creating a well-designed website can seem like a tall feat at first. However, by taking one step at a time, you’re well on your way to a beautiful website that users will love! To ensure your website design is performing optimally, or if you’re torn between some design decisions, perform some A/B testing.

If you have any concerns about your brand’s website or need help building a great website, feel free to contact our team at TechWyse!