Web Design Best Practices
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Knowing the web design best practices is crucial when creating new websites and making sure it reflects your brand and business goals.
In a world where people have more than 1.8 billion websites they can potentially land on, the design you are creating needs to be more than just pretty. It should be designed for usability, how easy your website is to use, and user experience (UX), how enjoyable it’s to interact together with your website.
The following list will help you get an idea of the main web design best practices for creating a website that is attractive and user-friendly.
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Select a typography that’s easy to read and skim.
Typography refers to how type — meaning letters and characters — are arranged and presented on the page. Since website typography affects not only how we read but how we feel about text on the page, it’s important to select carefully.
Ideally, you want a typeface that is:
- Easy to read
- Easy to skim
- Accessible to all users
- Legible across multiple devices and screen sizes
You also want it to match the design and feel of your brand. The result’s an easier and more modern-looking logo that’s easier to read on any screen — which reflects changes within the company to become more transparent and appeal to a younger generation.
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Choose a color scheme that suits your brand.
Like typography, color can affect not only how we understand and interact with content, but how we feel about it. Your color scheme should therefore check an equivalent boxes as your website typography. It should:
- Reinforce your brand identity
- Make your site easy to read and navigate
- Evoke emotion
- Look good
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Use white space to separate text and other elements.
Whitespace refers to the negative areas in any composition. Whitespace provides users with visual breaks as they process a website’s design or content, which isn’t only aesthetically pleasing. By minimizing distractions, whitespace makes it easier for users to focus, process information, and understand what it’s important.
That means you’ll use whitespace to avoid causing information overload or analysis paralysis — and to stress important elements on the page. This might help persuade users to do a selected action, like check in for a newsletter, shop your latest collection, and more.
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Use texture to feature personality and depth.
Resembling a three-dimensional, tactile surface, web textures aim to duplicate the physical sensation of touch with another sensation — sight. They’re an excellent design alternative to solid color backgrounds, particularly if you would like to feature personality and depth to your site.
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Add images to interact and inform readers.
Striking a balance between text and pictures is important in website design. Incorporating visuals can make your content more informative, engaging, and memorable. You’ve probably heard the statistics that folks remember only 20% of what they read, but 80% of what they see? While the precise percentages are debated, the essential idea isn’t. It’s easier for a few people to find out and process information visually.
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Simplify your navigation.
Navigation is one among the foremost important design elements on a website. It impacts whether visitors arrive on your homepage and browse, or click the “Back” button. That’s why it’s important to make sure it as simple as possible.
Many websites opt for a horizontal navigation bar. This navigation style lists the main pages side by side and is placed within the website header.
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Make your CTAs stand out.
CTAs are elements on an internet page, advertisement, or another piece of content that encourages the audience to try to take some action. The call to action might be to check in, subscribe, start a free trial, or learn more, among many others.
You want your CTAs to pop in your website design. To make that happen, consider how you’re using color also as other elements like background color, surrounding images, and surrounding text.
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Optimize for mobile.
We’ve already discussed how important it’s for your website to be responsive in web design best practices. But since mobile devices accounted for 59% of organic visits in 2021, we’re doubling down on how important it’s to style your website to be mobile-friendly. That might mean altering or removing some elements that might clutter smaller screen sizes or negatively impact load time.
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Limit the options presented to users.
According to Hick’s Law, increasing the amount and complexity of choices will increase the time it takes for an individual to form a choice. This is bad news in website design. If a website visitor is presented with too many options, they might get frustrated and quit — or they might pick an option you don’t want, like abandoning their cart. That’s why it’s important to limit the amount of options presented to a user.
Web Design Best Practices Conclusion
In conclusion, to create a good design for a website that is both engaging and attractive is not the easiest task. However, it is still important to have a basic idea in order to be able to take your first steps and start learning to build great designs.
Knowing the web design best practices is not only helpful to those looking to get into the craft but also those who seek something built for themselves. If you put your trust into someone you should know the key points that are to be looked at. Find out more about Rubicom web design services and get in contact today to get the best design possible for your business goals.
