With over 2 billion websites all vying for attention, yours needs to stand out from the crowd. A well-designed website creates a great user experience, builds trust and persuades or guides visitors to take action. So what makes a good website design? Here are 9 essential elements…
#1 – Clear intention and purpose
If you look at any popular website, they all have one thing in common. They are all designed with a clear intention and purpose in mind. In essence, they take the visitor on a journey. This journey typically goes something like this…
- Description of expertise
- Reputation building
- Lead generation
- Sales and aftercare
As such, a good website design contains all of these elements. Irrespective of whether it’s an informational site, a sales website or an industry-specific site, effective web design is always created with these essential principles in mind. Remember, when you design a website with strategic goals, it makes it easy for your visitor to take action.
Talking of making it easy for the visitor, this brings us to our next essential element of great web design…
#2 – Keeping it simple
A key principle of efficient web design is to create a website with the user in mind. You may have heard the hype around user experience – or UX as it is commonly known – but there is a reason why it’s so important.
Think about it this way, there’s no use in investing hugely in SEO if, when a visitor lands on your website, they don’t stay long enough to check it out. You want them to stay and look around, eventually taking some sort of action. This is why good website design is so fixated on the user experience.
Here are ways that you can achieve this through your website design…
- Colour – it’s been proven that varying colours can evoke different emotional responses so look to find the right colour palette that fits your brand. Get it right using complementary colours and it will serve to enhance positive customer behaviour towards your brand.
- Typography – The right type is easy to read and commands attention but it can also be used to represent a visual representation of your brand’s voice. Typically it’s recognised that quality web design will incorporate a maximum of 3 fonts to help the user experience
- Imagery – Effective web design involves the use of imagery including photography, video and illustration. The right imagery is pleasing to the eye and serves to enhance your core message.
#3 – Navigation
Another core element of the user experience is proper navigation. Remember the idea is to retain visitors once they land on your site.
Therefore the ease with which they move from page to page to find the information they need is key.
For best results, a good website design should always incorporate navigation that is simple, intuitive and above all, consistent.
#4 – F-Shaped Pattern Layout
It’s a known fact that people prefer to scan a website rather than read it completely. Eye- tracking studies, for example, have revealed that people primarily focus on the top and left areas of the screen and the F-shaped layout best mimics our natural pattern of reading behaviour in the West. Therefore, when applying this principle to web design, you should be looking to deploy key information like contact details, CTA’s and navigation buttons in these particular areas.
#5 – Visual Hierarchy
Another element of good website design is the arrangement of various key elements in order of importance. Otherwise known as visual hierarchy it’s a good way to quickly show visitors where the most important information is. This can be achieved through headers and subheaders to break up the text, colour changes, style changes, imagery or even the simple use of whitespace.
#6 – Great content
Of course, we couldn’t talk about what makes a good website design without mentioning content. Compelling content is an essential part of web design. It can attract and influence visitors, build trust and persuade them to take action.
#7 – Simple structure
Good website design is always structured. Remember it’s all about the user experience and web sites with simplistic grid arrangements help to align key elements on a page and keep it looking clean. Consider columns and sections that perfectly align along with pictures and action buttons that balance. The result is a good looking website that is both easy on the eye and easy to use.
#8 – Speedier load times
One element of effective web design that often gets overlooked is load time. Did you know, for instance, that most visitors expect a website to load within just 2 seconds? Any longer than this and a visitor will typically leave. So how do you quicken up your load times? Tips like…
- Enabling file compression
- Proper code optimisation
- Reduction of redirects
- Leverage browser caching and
- Optimising images
…are all ways that you can get your website design to load quicker.
#9 – Make it mobile-friendly
While we’ve talked a lot about what makes a good website design in regards to the mechanics, what we haven’t yet mentioned is the type of device the website is viewed on. So why is this important?
According to Statista.com, mobile viewing accounts for approximately half of the web traffic worldwide (50.81%).
When websites are shown on mobile screens, they are viewed differently. Therefore any web design that doesn’t incorporate a responsive layout is likely to run the risk of losing over half of its traffic sources.
Quality web design incorporates key data that can instantly adapt the site depending upon where it is viewed, without losing any key elements.
So there you have it, 9 essential elements of what makes a good website design!
At Mediboost, we’re a dental and medical marketing agency that is highly experienced in all elements of online marketing including what makes for effective website design. If you’re in the dental or medical industry and feel that your existing site could do with a revamp then come and talk to us about the essential elements of great web design.
Call us today at 1300 163 058 today to book a free strategy consultation.
