No matter what your level is with website design, there is always something new you can learn. The year 2019 doesn’t have to be a tall order if you keep up with the latest trends. Putting out good content is only half of the battle when it comes to keeping eyeballs on your page. For one of the easier ways to make your creation profitable, check out webpage design by Third Angle. They already use many of the tips described below.
Visual Design Should Be Your Foundation
The first impression of your website comes down to how it looks once the user loads the page. That is why you want the design to grab the imagination of the visitor. In order to gauge the value of content, your design needs to get the visitor interested enough to browse. High quality images can help, but the placement of the content will also be a determining factor. For websites that are heavy with media, this is especially important when pushing a service or product. The last thing you want is for the visitor to judge the entirety of your business on a low-quality image.
How Mobile Friendly Is Your Website?
There will be days where your mobile view numbers will be higher than desktop visits. You should always go into website design expecting to make a mobile alternative for users. The more support you have for different sized screens, the easier it is for consumers to see your website on different devices. Optimization is an important factor for mobile devices since there is a chance they will be running off of limited data. Compress where possible, and don’t change up the design of the website too much from the original vision. You want the mobile version to look like the little sister to the full design, and nothing less.
An Interactive Design Keeps Visitors Engaged
Not every website design can pull this off, but when it makes sense, an interactive design will enhance the user experience. It doesn’t have to be media rich, but it does help when the content is engaging enough on its own. An interactive website requires a lot of upkeep but is worth it when done correctly. You want the experience to be unique enough that it gets the user to come back multiple times due to the appreciation for the design. Interactivity doesn’t get stale, and is a great marketing tool that inspires word of mouth. Top tier movies often incorporate interactive websites into their original marketing campaign.
Don’t Make It Hard To Navigate
Trying to cram as much as possible onto a single page will turn away visitors. Your website design should be easy to navigate on multiple devices. This can get trick if you don’t factor in touch inputs that use a stylus, fingers, pens and even touchpads. All of these will behave differently, so optimizing your website design for mice only will put you at a disadvantage. Once a user realizes it is difficult to get around your website, they become less interested in hearing its message. There isn’t a product or service in the world that can overcome an overbearing design.
What Is The Main Content Of Your Website?
Every industry uses a timed interval to determine when an interested party should understand its message. For screenplays, the first few minutes determines whether it ends up in the trash can or getting read further. Although there is no guarantee that it will be successful, that first impression makes all the difference in the world. The same can be said for the design of your website and whether the main content reaches its audience correctly. What you’re about should be front and center when someone browses your website. If they have to search for the answer beyond the home page, then chances are the visitor may decide to go elsewhere. Whether a user arrives through keyword search or through random browsing, keep the main content of your website clear so that they can find it. Any interest beyond the home page allows you to expand the content without losing potential views.
Using White Space Efficiently
This tip is similar to the one given for navigation. White space is all about creating balance by using an attractive layout, good spacing and making your vision clear. Squeezing as much information as possible on the website makes words hard to read, and can even garble the design on some devices. This leads to media content and words overlapping, creating an unprofessional look across multiple pages. Space out your content and make cuts where appropriate. The design is not a canvas that needs every color possible on it at once. Use the design to keep the visitor’s attention so they can find the information they want the most.
Minimalism Works In Mysterious Ways
Clutter prevents users from getting the best experience from a design. Sometimes this is caused by ads. Other times it is caused by bad media placement. If ads are necessary, make sure that they are compatible with your design. Ads should blend in well with whatever color scheme, template and sizing you choose. Annoying ads are hated for a reason, but very few people complain about ads that are properly placed. Keep ads that stop navigation to a minimum, and try to be mindful of users with older hardware. Setting up a design that asks a user’s permission before loading the ‘high resolution’ website is always appreciated. It also gets past the problem of a garbled design from users that automatically disable scripts and media from running. If your website looks like swiss cheese in their browsers, then the design is not optimized for minimalism. You don’t have to cut out your best work from the design, but the compromise is making it optional for visitors.
Have You Checked The Page For Grammatical Errors?
The easiest way to take a hit to professionalism is by not proofing your webpage. You should not be satisfied by going over the design one time. It takes multiple passes to get everything right so that grammatical errors are nonexistent. Spending hours on a design and its content only to get ridiculed for wording seems unfair, but is very much a reality. Don’t let your hard work go down the drain by rushing out a design that hasn’t been triple checked. You’re making a decision to settle for mediocre work when you decide to take it easy with proofing.
Balance The Design For SEO
Don’t keyword stuff, but be mindful of current SEO standards. There are several ways to implement keywords into a website design. By using correct spacing and depending on interactive media to tell some of the story, you can get a lot of SEO on a single page. This takes skill, and is not something that can be done without looking superfluous. From the ground up, your page has to be optimized for SEO. Deciding you want to go the SEO route after finishing your design will lessen the impact of the final product. You’ll make it harder to use media to lessen the text, and the balance will lean to a text heavy exposition that turns off visitors.
Stay Aware Of Security Flaws And Limitations
There are a few well known web browsers that make up the majority of the market; Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Internet Explorer, Safari and Apple. If you want to go by the numbers, Safari, Chrome and Firefox are the big three. Pay close attention to the big browsers when designing a website. They have protocols in place to protect from dangerous elements online, and it isn’t uncommon for a webpage to get a false positive. A lot of this goes beyond the website design aesthetic, but still falls within your hands by just being aware. Always test on the big three browsers before deploying your website live. Chrome in particular is notorious for blocking pop ups, scripts and other ads it sees as harmful. If your new design gets caught in its crosshairs, adjust so that it displays properly. Support for all of the main browsers remains high when you need to ask specific questions.
Sometimes The Standard Is All You Need
No one wants to hear it, but less is more for some services and products. Sticking to a specific script doesn’t mean your vision won’t get to a lot of potential consumers. Take a look at other companies in a similar industry to get a grasp of where the market is. Before you roll out a high-tech website that is meant to dazzle, you may be surprised about what little the market leader had to do. Website design is not a race to see who can make the biggest and the best. In the end, the most important thing is a balanced experience for everyone visiting your webpage.
Wrap Up
Once you get the hang of the basics, the rest of the design becomes a piece of cake. Effective website design is all about bringing a potential consumer closer to your vision. When they can see it from your point of view, then you know the design did its job.
