Top 7 website design tips

When it comes to website design, there are so many different styles and directions in which your website can go: it can be anywhere from classy to minimalistic, from playful and vibrant to sleek and modern.

While your final look-and-feel should exude your personal style, line of work, and brand identity, there are a few ground rules that are always applicable.

Great web design feeds into your user experience and functionality, while being easy to understand at first glance. Below we’ve gathered seven simple website design tips to help make your site effective and compelling:

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1. Be careful about Typography

Typography is a tool for conveying a message in a project. In certain situations, this tool will have a significant influence on your ongoing project. You have to keep the particular thing in mind while using this tool. Such as what fonts will appear in your design will be determined by their size, color, and weight because it may provide structure to your layout in several ways.

So, all you have to do is ensure that the font matches the prominent images in your design. This validates the goal of any website. For instance, suppose a website specializes in handcrafted, beautiful items. Then you must close the same view of the typefaces with it. Frequently, you will be required to utilize multiple fonts for each design at some phase.

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2. Design with visual hierarchy in mind

Hierarchy is an important principle of design that helps display your content in a clear and effective manner. Through the correct use of hierarchy, you’ll be able to lead site visitors’ attention to certain page elements in order of priority, starting with the most significant piece.

The main components of visual hierarchy are:

• Size and weight: Highlight your top assets, such as your business name and logo, by making them larger and more visually prominent. Readers tend to naturally gravitate towards large and bold titles first, and only then move on to smaller paragraph text.

• Element placement: Use the right website layout to steer your visitors’ eyes in the right direction. For instance, you can place an important call-to-action button at the very center of the screen, or position your logo at the header.

Once you establish a clear hierarchy for your information, readers can’t help but unconsciously follow the breadcrumbs you have left for them. Then, apply color, contrast, and spacing for further accentuation, remaining mindful of what is drawing the most attention and making sure that it’s always intentional.

03. Create easy to read website content“Readability” measures how easy it is for people to recognize words, sentences, and phrases. When your site’s readability is high, users will be able to effortlessly scan, or skim-read, through it. This way, taking in the information becomes effortless.

3. Create easy to read website content

“Readability” measures how easy it is for people to recognize words, sentences, and phrases. When your site’s readability is high, users will be able to effortlessly scan, or skim-read, through it. This way, taking in the information becomes effortless.

Achieving website readability is relatively easy; try these key rules:

• Contrast is key: Sufficient contrast between your text color and background color is important for readability, as well as for website accessibility. While your website color scheme is likely to be representative of your brand colors, make sure that there’s sufficient contrast between your elements. To do so, try using an online tool, such as Contrast Checker.
• Large letter size: Most people will struggle to see smaller fonts. A typical rule of thumb for web design is to keep your body text at least 16pt. That’s a good place to start, but keep in mind that this number completely depends on the fonts you choose for your website.
• Type of fonts: The world of typography offers many types of fonts at our disposal. You can choose between serif fonts (that have little projecting lines on the ends of  letters, like Times New Roman) to sans serifs, which literally means “without serif.” Sans serif fonts are typically the best choice for lengthy online texts – like the one you’re currently reading. You can also create interesting font pairings by mixing these different types together. There are also many display fonts that are more on the decorative side, such as script fonts that look handwritten. If you’re going for one of those, make sure not to over use it, so as to avoid an overwhelming effect.
• Limit the number of fonts: Don’t use more than three different typefaces throughout a single website. Some projects may call for more elaborate font combinations, but too many varied typefaces usually appear cluttered, distracting from your brand identity.
• Utilize text themes: To establish a clear hierarchy, make sure that your written website content is varied in size and weight - from a large title, to smaller subheadings, to the even smaller paragraph or body text. This handy website design tip can ensure that there’s always something drawing readers’ attention.

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4. Avoid Carousels, Sliders, Tabs and Accordions

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Website owners love carousels. It’s probably one of the most client-requested features. Unfortunately, the research says that they are pretty useless.

One of the most mind-blowing data comes from Notre Dame University. The webmaster there noticed that the first slide on a carousel received almost 90 percent of the clicks while the rest were largely ignored.

Ninety percent! Doesn’t sound like the other slides are even worth being there, does it? Seems like web designers who talk their clients out of using a slider had it right to begin with.

Tabs and accordions have the same problem as sliders and carousels – they often go ignored. This is compounded by the fact that few visitors actually read the entire page. Most people merely scan and are therefore not very likely to make extra clicks to see your content.

However, what if you need to include the information placed in those areas somehow? We are getting to exactly that right now.

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5. Prioritize Scrolling Over Clicking

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So, if you don’t compress information into sliders and/or accordions, how do you present it? The answer: just put everything in one long page, including the stuff usually tucked away. Seriously, it works.

There is a fascinating case study by Crazy Egg to prove this point. They went from having a simple, short sales page to one that was 20 times longer than the original.

The result: conversions went up 30 percent! That’s certainly nothing to scoff at.

Seems like users like scrolling a lot more than they like clicking. Therefore, if you are currently spreading the information about your product across many different pages, it’s time to reconsider.

6. Organized navigation

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When designing your website, navigation is key. It's essentially the map that displays the core places users can visit. It's how users can easily dive deeper into areas such as your services, products, blog, etc.

There's nothing worse than a site with a disorganized or confusing navigation interface. Poor design practices such as overstuffing your navigation, using vague or confusing hypertext, and lack or organization can make it hard for your visitors to find where they want to go.

If users cannot find what they're looking for, they have no reason to stay on your site. Instead, they will certainly bounce and find a competitor that offers a better user experience.

When improving your website's navigation, it's important to ensure that your visitors can easily find what they're looking for. This would include streamlined content, navigation hierarchy, and responsive design, so the experience doesn't drastically change on mobile.

7. Stay mobile friendly

All of your site visitors should be able to enjoy your professional website at its very best, no matter the device they’re browsing. When designing a website, Wix automatically creates a mobile-friendly version of your site, so that you can keep pace with the increasingly mobile world.

Go over your site’s mobile version while putting yourself in the position of the user, and test out every page, user action and button.

Your mobile website should be cleaner and less cluttered than your desktop version, so consider minimizing page elements and scaling down some assets, like the menu. There are also unique mobile features that you can use to boost your mobile design.

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