Top 10 Web Design Principles to Follow
Usefulness, utility and responsiveness to address the varying web requirements of the web users determine the effectiveness of your web presence. Web design principles mainly focus on how you can better create an interactive space for your audience or users. Web design trends can be different and quite alluring from time to time considering the huge change that the web technology and devices are going through, but the most effective principles remained mostly remained unchanged for a long time like the focus on content, readability, simple and effective web display, etc. Undoubtedly for some years thanks to the huge proliferation of mobile devices and technology for some years web design has to adjust to the dynamics of these new range of devices and platforms and today as internet is accessed more from these devices than the traditional ones, presentation of web pages in coherence with this new demand of display and responsiveness is one of the prime considerations for a web designer. Let us see the top 10 web design principles to follow.
- Addressing the impatience of web users with instant gratification
- Quickly gets the user's focus and call to action
- Obvious, bold visual guide to direct users
- Responsive layout with array of action buttons
- Augmented content readability
- Simple, sensually attractive and clear design with least clutter
- Telling and involving the user in a visual story
- Test your web design early and as often as possible
- Prioritize your landing pages and accordingly put navigation layout
- Using real images and media rather than sourced ones
On the web space users are most impatient, in fact they are best recognized from other domains distinctively due to their impatience simply because of the fact that here unlike any other area of media interface the choice is unlimited in billions if already not in trillions. As per most of the surveys web users tend to stay in a web page not more than 2 to 3 seconds before they move to other page or site if they do not get their desired content. If an user becomes utterly confused coming on to your web page or simply do not find anything interesting or related to his interest, the most possible chances are that he or she would immediately leave the page and search elsewhere. So, one of the most important web design principles is to address this impatience of web user with instantly gratifying attributes. If you can make user stay between your pages for a few minutes to a considerable time every time he visits, you are successful in the very basic regards of web design.
Whatever brilliance of design, aesthetic attributes of sophistry and technical artfulness you have delivered in designing a website at the end of the day what matters most is how your target users appreciate this with their visit and time spent between your pages and finally how it influences your business deliverables. From this perspective getting quick focus of the user should be first priority and similarly the defined and clear call to action for the users to follow. Your visitor is there and already searching for his interests, say a blog or a product or any other deliverable and in such a situation if your site does not respond automatically as an aid to let him find his places of interest, you just could not deliver the most important aspect of a website - a clear call to action. Similarly when your visitor already shown interest in making a transaction or chosen something as his preference if you automatically cannot display the offers or schemes of ease or convenience you are actually killing your sells through utter non-responsiveness.
Something which is bold, obvious and deserves almost commanding respect automatically makes us feel dependent on that let us be guided by it. It happens in so many instances and web pages are no different from this principle. Instead of presenting your web page with clutter of content, advertisements and images if you just guide the reader to unfold your reserve gradually it can make them feel more interested as it creates an intriguing aura about what you are going to offer, it makes the reader respect you in a special way and when you command respect you can command business more easily than ever. Providing boldly tagged or numbered separate pages with distinct steps or themes to unfold gradually what the reader is searching for is just not a technique, but almost one of the most prominent web design principles followed by a great number of successful designers and developers all over the globe.
To talk of top 10 web design principles to follow in our time a mention of responsive layout is simply irreplaceable. A layout that commands response or that at least motivates the user to respond positively to your offering make your work easier by several hundred notches. A layout that according to the device you are using and according to your browsing history quickly establish connection with your preference and invoke in you urge to respond in an interactive manner can really pave the way to great page views and business conversion.
When we talk of the priority of content and a need to focus on them in any design environment, it is just not a so called ground principle that can be maneuvered with design as and when the designer wishes. For reading and using content the web user primarily comes on the websites and a great majority of web users on the internet are primarily content focused readers who visit websites for informative, insightful, unique, knowledgeable and value adding content and their primary interest for content is in any way subverted or given backstage, the websites irrevocably loose traffic and business. So the prominence of content above everything else is obviously the first principle that any designer cannot afford to downplay. Augmenting the readability of the content to suit the varying reader's preference can have a boosting effect on your overall website appreciation and consequently on traffic.
Other aspects of aesthetic sensitivities and attractiveness apart a website must be simple, clear and with least clutter to present a better visibility and this is the foremost of all web design principles. A website with clutter of content, design aspects and advertisements looks actually hostile to our eyes and we just do not get motivated to stay between the pages simply we instantly face difficulties to find our desired content or we just get overwhelmingly confused. A simple and clear web design with lots of white space around that place the content in prime focus makes the readers instantly oriented with their required content.
Human beings have an inner gravity towards linear narratives or storytelling and this inertia is given a focus in every publicity drives, from television commercials to billboard advertisements and no doubt web space is no different from that. If you are business objective driven in relation to your web venture then this publicity principle you cannot forget even in regard to web design. Designing websites that gradually delivers the narrative of your content and proposition in a typical storytelling mode with befitting visuals and use of design attributes can just make the visitor involved immensely and obviously that must be influencing your business deliverables to a great extent.
Like any other tech zones self testing of your design attributes from time to time is an important web design principle that you cannot down play at any point of time. Usability tests actually make you realize your design potential to a great extent and provide clinical insights that help you rectify your web design mistakes and shortcomings to augment the desired effect. It is advisable to test at every step to gain assurance fore going further and do testing as often as possible at every step of the web design projects.
There are millions of websites who surprisingly do not have any priority of topics or contents in their presentation and even if they are indignant of such priority their navigation layout and other design attributes are completely devoid of such priority principle. These websites often look exceptionally devoid of focus and so cannot command a good volume of web traffic.
Using self sourced real images and media content is one of the most effective web design principles that can give you huge competitive edge over others. You might have sourced your images and media files from different vendors or service providers to augment the visual effect of your web pages until yesterday and always thought how such huge pull of glossy image reserves and media files do not become able to drive your traffic to stay a little longer. The reason is simple internet traffic is wiser enough to understand the difference between a local, original, self sourced and a fake, sourced from outside, external material. Real images and media provide your unique flavor and tell your unique story and that is what is most valued among the web users.