Creating a user-friendly and intuitive designed website isn’t tough to do. Web designers use the same rules and principles to keep visitors on their pages. With their attractive design, ease of use, and fascinating content, websites can become lucrative opportunities for businesses. To find more details on how you can make a serious difference to the performance of websites that you create and design, here are the five simple hacks that we have for all web designers.
Table of Contents
Understand How People Read Websites
In the world of web design, the “F Pattern” is the way to go. Through eye-tracking studies, researchers have found the people look at their computer screens in a shape that resembles the letter F. They look at the top, down the left side, and the middle.
Instead of forcing people to the right side, web designers should be sure to put the essential items at the top, middle, and left. If the website is appealing to the eye, people will stay on it.
Consider using formats that let readers quickly skim through your site to find what they want. Your website lets you control the message you want your customers and viewers to understand. If you desire to find more productive ways to build a website, you must clearly show what you are about through the words, images, and content. Since so many web designers pick a clean design with similar shapes, fonts, and images, having a pop of difference will make viewers want to know more.
Consider White Space in Your Layout
White space or negative space helps visitors see what is essential. The tendency might be to fill each webpage with as much stuff as possible, but in the world design, less is more. Showcase the things you want your visitors to see by leaving space on each webpage. Using the F pattern, designers leave space where the eye doesn’t go.
White space directs the eye to essential images. It should do more than just be empty. For example, consider the Google homepage, which is white space with the bold word “Google” with the search box below it. Eyes know precisely where to go and what to do because the page isn’t overly crowded with stuff.
White space doesn’t have to be white. It can be any color. The idea is that it is free of content, images, or any other things. White space can serve as dividers for the items you place on the page, and it can show relationships between elements. Less white space can confirm that things are closely related, and more white space shows that items are not closely related.
Choose a Trendy Intrinsic Design
One of the newest trends in designing websites is a technique called intrinsic design. This technique allows designers to have both fixed and flexible aspects, which means that sites have images that can be fixed or adjustable so that they can change in size depending on the size of the screen.
The intrinsic design also allows the website to change from columns and rows based on the size of the screen. With the intrinsic design, the website fluidly changes to fit the screen. Before intrinsic design, webpages were static and looked odd on different monitors.
Once you have an idea of what you want on the website, it’s time to sketch out a layout. Top designers use grid or column layouts instead of randomly placing items on the page. Keep things balanced and use the F pattern. When you create a design, you can use it on every page to keep your webpages consistent.
Prepare the Website for Mobile Use
Your website should look good on a computer, and it should look just as good on a mobile phone. It is the norm for people to use their phones like computers, so your website should translate from the desktop or laptop screen to a much smaller mobile phone screen. All of the necessities for navigation should be available.
You might have to adjust the layout on your website so it can adapt to the different screen sizes. Some websites do not respond well to being responsive. You could create a site just for mobile screens. By planning for both screen types, you can save money and time and have a beautiful website that makes people want to come back for more.
Apply Conversion Optimization to the Design
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a great service to complement your design skills. Half of the process comes down to design anyway but running CRO campaigns gives you great insights into how your design choices impact a brand’s performance in the wild – and it can earn you a nice extra wedge of cash in the same process.
Conversion rate optimization means expanding on your existing skills but with today’s CRO tools, this is well within the reach of you as a web designer. From a financial perspective, the best thing about conversion optimization is it allows you to turn one client into a long-term earner.
It’s also a service that businesses are screaming out for right now – and for good reason. After all, who can resist the promise of better website performance lifting the bottom line of their business?
Final Thoughts
Be smart with your web design. Follow the rule to web design basics, but you should also find more ways to understand how you can attractively break them. Your viewers will reward you by visiting frequently and sharing your website with their friends.
Annah Brooks a passionate young blogger who loves to write about SEO techniques, digital marketing, social media and more. She is currently working for GalaxyMarketing, one of the leading providers of views, likes, followers & real comments for YouTube, Twitter, Instagram & more social media networks.
