10 Effective Principals of a GREAT Website Design

This blog post is relevant for educational purposes and mainly targeted to individuals who may be taking a leap and trying to build and design their own website (Sites like WIX.com or even Web.com offer free tools to design a website by yourself). If you are looking for a more professionally designed website, chances are your website designer already takes these 10 Principals of a GREAT Website Design into consideration: 1. What is the overall purpose of your website? Do you use your website to sell a product or service or is it mainly used for people to get your contact info? Starting with the home page and then all of your subpages, make sure you create a clear purpose for the page. 2.  Are you communicating that purpose effectively and clearly? Come out and say it. Make your message clear so users don’t need to guess what you want them to do. Use bright and frequent call to actions that instruct users to: Call, Click or Buy! 3. Choose your typefaces keeping the reader in mind. The easiest to read typefaces are Arial, Verdana. Also keep your font to about a 16pt size. Don’t confuse your users with many different types or sizes fonts. Use no more than 3 fonts or 3 different size fonts. 4. Do your colors work well together? Don’t overuse colors on your website. White space helps with communicating your message and offers an easier navigation. While looking at colors look up which colors work well together and offer a smooth, appealing look. If you need help or consultation, give our graphic design department to discuss your thoughts. 5. Do your images look crisp? Use great images to help create an effective website design. Perhaps you have them handy, but if not, look into stock photo companies like Getty Images. 6. Is it simple for your users to navigate? An easy website design leads your user to perform the action you want. Guiding them through your website story will lead them to your goal. Whether you want walk-in foot traffic , phone calls or eCommerce sales - - your navigation is critical to your success. 7. Does your layout follow a grid pattern? Is your content, images and videos all lined up in linear or consistent layouts? Or does it look like a mess of random photos and words? Keep your layout consistent to add to a great design. 8. For content, a F = A! For written content an F pattern works best for readers. People read from Left to Right. Your content should too. 9. How fast does it take your website to load? If you have a slow loading website people will not stay on it to see what you have to say, sell or promote. Make sure your website is on a strong server and has appropriate plugin’s that allow it to load quickly. 10.  If it doesn’t work on mobile, it doesn’t work at all. This is a relatively new piece of the design puzzle. Now, if your website is not mobile friendly (meaning it doesn’t respond to mobile devices) your website will not retain users. Also, search engines like Google are now penalizing websites who are not responsive (mobile friendly). Make sure whatever template you use, it has mobile friendly code built in. If you use a professional website design company, like Alphagraphics, we ensure all of our websites are mobile friendly.