Hosting a website isn't a big deal anymore. Everyone from SMBs to MNCs has a dedicated business website. What distinguishes a "good" website from "just another" website is the web design.
Users form an opinion about your website in about 0.5 seconds. If any aspect of your site is out of order, you'll experience a high bounce rate and minimal one-page time.
The right web design practices help you secure more conversions, enhance users' on-page experience, and improve your brand's credibility.
Here are some of the best practices for web design to achieve an optimized website:
1. Branding Consistency
Websites with uneven branding look a total mess. You need to follow a consistent branding approach. Design a logo, decide its color, and use it evenly on all web pages without imposing it frequently on the user's face.
Don't mix up colors and utilize your brand colors only. According to Sweor, 38% of users stop engaging with a website when they don't like the web layout or content.
Your web design should reflect your purpose. Keep it direct and clean without going overboard with the designs.
2. Fast Loading Time
A website's loading time follows a simple mantra – "the quicker the better." Visitors won't wait for your web page to open because you're not their only option.
Research by Pingdom suggests that pages that load within 2 seconds have a bounce rate of 9%. It goes up to 38% when the page loads in 5 seconds.
To quicken the website's loading time, filter all the unnecessary plugins, use compressed media and utilize minimalist web design service.
The standard page load time is around 3 seconds. Ensure that your website never breaches this benchmark.
3. Multi-Device Compatibility
People today use mobile phones to visit websites and check emails. If your website rocks on the desktop but looks cluttered when opened on a smartphone or tablet, you'll lose several potential leads.
As per Ironpaper, nearly 8 out of 10 users would exit a website if its content doesn't display correctly on their device. Collaborate with a professional web design company to develop a responsive web design that automatically adapts to the device and browser.
You can check your website's performance on mobile devices using Google's mobile-friendly test. Go for manual testing along with the tools to be dead sure of your website's performance on various devices.
4. Smooth Navigation
How would you feel if the scroll bar on any website moves too fast or too slow? Or how about a complex web design structure that makes you wonder, "Where do I go now?"
These are classic examples of poor website navigation. According to Toptal, 88% of visitors are less likely to return to a website after having a terrible user experience.
Your consumer retention goals go crashing down when you don't offer smooth navigation. Use the "back-to-top" button to facilitate convenient navigation and breadcrumbs to inform the users about their current web page location.
5. Optimized Media Files (Audio, Video, Images)
Many webmasters avoid images and media in their web pages to protect their page load time. However, they miss out on a lot.
A survey by Brain Rules informs that images improve your remembrance power by a whopping 55%. You can create easy-to-remember web content with the perfect combo of text and images.
Compress the media files to reduce their size while retaining their quality. This improves loading time and keeps the user hooked to your content.
Use alt text for images. In case the browser fails to load any image, you can deliver some valuable information via the alt text.
To Conclude
These were some of the best practices for web design. Maintaining branding consistency gives a nice look and feel to your website. You should also ensure that your website loads super-fast to avoid bounces.
Web traffic comes from various devices and not just computer systems. So, develop a website that's compatible with all the access devices. To increase visitor's on-page time and conversions, offer flawless navigation.
Optimize the media files used in your website and attribute all the images with appropriate alt text or improve user convenience. A website design company can help you craft an elegant website that ticks all the critical web design elements.
Which aspect of web design is your website's strong point? Let us know in the comments section. Click here to contribute to our Guest Post section.
