Web design is one of the things that I’ve done for years and, do best. But rest assured, it’s taken me a lot of trial and error, and furthermore, years of experience to get my game to the level it is now. And for this article, I thought I’d share with you some of the most important rules of web design, that I’ve learned over the years.
So how do you create a good website?
1. Keep it clean.
One of the biggest mistakes we see in beginner web designers is they try to cram a lot of visuals and a lot of information in a very small amount of space. And that’s just bad web design. It suggests that you, the brand, are indecisive, and implicitly unreliable.
People don’t want to buy from a brand that can’t even decide on website font, so uses twelve different types. So, the number one rule of web design is keep it clean. So that if a visitor only has ten seconds to spend on your page, they still walk away with a good idea of what you do.
2. Keep it simple.
Not everyone has the same level of skill when it comes to using the computer. And what you don’t want to do is make a website that only caters to IT experts. On the contrary. You want to make sure your business’s website is easy to understand and navigate for everyone, otherwise you will lose customers.
Put yourself in their shoes. If you go on a website and spend five minutes trying to figure out where the page you need is, chances are you won’t like the experience very much. What’s even worse, when people can’t find what they need within the first 30 seconds of their visit, they usually just click out. We live in a fast-paced society, and no one has the time to figure your website out for you.
3. Mobile friendliness is next to godliness.
Statistics show that the majority of Internet users are now coming from mobile devices, as smartphones and tablets are becoming ever more popular. That means your website needs to be mobile-friendly and just as easy to understand from a mobile device. When a website won’t load properly on your phone, how often do you take the time to check if it loads on computer? Especially when you have other options to choose from…
Don’t let your visitors consider other options.
4. Pictures, not words.
It’s tempting to cram a lot of information in your website, in view of being as transparent and descriptive as possible. In itself, that’s not a bad thing. However, we live in a world where people have a very short attention span and are much more visually driven than before.
This means that the most appealing website to them is going to be the one that uses a lot of pictures and visual incentives, not the one that’s the wordiest. So, focus on strong images, rather than strong words.