4 Web Design Golden Rules You Should Never Break

You need to focus on more than just how your site looks. Check the top 4 web design golden rules that you should never break

4 Web Design Golden Rules You Should Never Break

When it comes to web designing, it can be easy to get hung on its aesthetics. But is that all that matters for an excellent website? The answer is, “Not really!” For a successful website, you’ll need to focus on more than just how your website looks. In this article, we’ll check the top 4 web design golden rules that you should never break.

4 Web Design Golden Rules You Should Never Break

Today, there are over a billion websites that users can potentially land on, meaning that there’s tough competition out there for you. To have a chance of standing out from the crowd, your website needs a great design, especially since 94% of first impressions relate to your site’s design.

But what does a great web design really means? Is it about the color scheme you use? It is about where you place your logo on the screen? Or maybe about the font you use for your content? All of these and a lot more.

Great web designs feed into user experience and functionality, while also being easy to understand at first glance and look aesthetically fantastic. And, to achieve that, besides adding your personal touch and creativity into the design, there are also a few golden rules in web design that are always applicable.

Here are four web design golden rules you should never break when designing or redesigning your site:

Design with Visual Hierarchy in Mind

Visual hierarchy is an essential UX principle in web design as it aims to help display content clearly and effectively for users. In other words, it helps designers plan their information architecture to help users navigate through the website easier, which helps reduce the amount of effort and time needed to engage with your website.

Using the correct visual hierarchy will help you lead your site’s visitors’ attention to specific page elements in order of priority.

So, how do you use the principle of visual hierarchy in your website’s design?

There are two main components of visual hierarchy, including size and element placement. While size refers to highlighting your website’s top elements, such as business logo or name, by making them larger, element placement refers to using certain elements to steer visitors’ eyes in the direction you want. For example, you can place important call-to-action buttons at the very center of the screen.

Establish your site’s information hierarchy and then use elements like color, contrast, or spacing to accentuate them.

Make It Mobile-Friendly Web Design Golden Rules

According to Statista, there are over 3.5 billion smartphone users worldwide. And, data shows that 74% of these users are more likely to return to a mobile-friendly website, whereas 93% of them have left a website because it didn’t display correctly on their device.

As people use their mobiles more and more often to search on the Internet, purchase goods, get entertainment, and even trade, mobile-friendliness has become a core rule in web design. All of your site visitors should be able to enjoy the same excellent user experience, no matter the device they are browsing.

So, it would be best if you made sure that no matter how the visitor sees your site, all vital information is displayed correctly on different screen sizes.

One practical tip would be to make essential information on your website easily findable. Unlike visitors who browse your site from desktops, mobile users are looking for more specific information on your website, such as contact information or the cost of a product they want to buy. So, make this essential information impossible to miss.

Another core rule in web designing when creating a mobile-friendly site is to size interactive elements according to the screen size. In other words, make sure that your website is navigable with one thumb and requires no pitching to use. Keep in mind that mobile users use their fingers to scroll and tap the buttons on your website. So, consider the size of the screen when designing the interactive elements in your web design.

Pay Attention to Responsiveness

A great website must also be responsive otherwise, it could cost you many customers. In fact, data shows that 93% of users have clicked back and left a website because it didn’t load fast enough.

Take e-commerce, for example. Customers most likely have hundreds of other sites to choose from to purchase the same. Or a similar product they can get from you. If your website isn’t responsive and quickly allows them to make the purchase, it’s very likely they’ll go back and enter your competitor’s site instead.

Or, take mobile trading, for example. Which a 2018 survey found that it is extremely likely to increase from 18% to 37%. So, in other words, more traders use their phones to trade stocks or Forex using algorithmic trading strategies tested online. Moreover, another study found that 43% of mobile traders check their phones every 20 seconds. So, you see: time is money for these online users. Thus, if you have a trading platform. It should be accessible from any electronic device and operate well in any browser and be responsive.

Make It Easy to Navigate Web Design Golden Rules

Making your web design easy to navigate basically means. Making it easier for your visitors to find what they are looking for. Ideally, for your visitors, they should enter your website and not have to struggle. To figure out where they should click next to get where they want.

Your goal is to engage your visitors to spend more time on your website. However, the time spent on your website should be on. So, doing the things you want users to do, such as purchasing. Filling out forms, or signing up, not figuring out how to do all these things. So, make sure you optimize your site’s navigability by:

  • Linking your logo to the home page
  • Adding a clear menu
  • Offer vertical navigation elements
  • Include navigation in the footer of your site
  • Include a search box on the top of your site.