Without good web design, your site is likely doomed to the back pages of the internet. If that sounds a bit bleak, well, that's because the market is fairly saturated, and your competition is a bit stiff. But that's not to say that all is ...
Rachel Begg
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3 min read
Without good web design, your site is likely doomed to the back pages of the internet. If that sounds a bit bleak, well, that's because the market is fairly saturated, and your competition is a bit stiff. But that's not to say that all is lost. Here are four key principles of good web design to keep in mind, no matter what kind of company you are -- and no matter what kind of lasting audience you're trying to achieve.
Readers don't read -- they scan.
If you're searching for a quick answer to a question, you're not likely to read the entirety of a web article until you find it. Rather, you'll scan the page looking for headings, bold text, lists and other formatting clues to help guide your eyes to the answer you seek. It's imperative to never create gigantic blocks of text on any webpage. If users want to get lost in monolithic paragraphs, they'll go read Henry James. When they want quick answers, they'll scan your page -- so you'd better know how to engage their eyeballs.
Keep your formatting consistent.
Could you imagine trying to navigate a website that changed its layout with each new page you clicked on? It would be maddening! Good web design is all about consistency, and what makes a good web designer is really his or her ability to keep the site visitor grounded in his or her navigation on the site. That's one of the most essential principles of good web design you can remember.
Balance creativity with functionality.
Any good digital marketing agency knows when to bust out the eye-candy graphics and when to keep a site minimal, pragmatic and functional for a user. It can be a huge challenge for certain firms to find this kind of harmony, but it's crucial to building up user loyalty. Web visitors expect a good logo design in order to guide them back to a home page; they also expect tabs to help them quickly establish the basic layout of your site. Good web page design will be eye-catching, but it won't simply be different for the sake of different. It'll be memorable but comfortable for any users to pick up on and utilize.
Free up your font and title choices.
You could design a gorgeous, simplistic webpage layout that draws people in based on its engaging layout and color scheme. But if you've chosen a rotten font (I'm looking at you, Comic Sans), you're likely to lose their interest in a matter of seconds. This ties into the idea of functionality we mentioned above -- don't do something just because it makes your site stick out, especially if it risks alienating web users who've grown accustomed to the way the web at large tends to operate. Additionally, pretty pages are rendered moot by poor word choices, so tighten up the writing as best you can, especially when it comes to catchy titles.
These are just four of the important principles of good web design you should rely on. Go for the tried and true, but never make it ordinary. That's all a part of landing the best web design on the internet.