Principles Of Effective Web Designing

By Author: softwebsolutions
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Small businesses depend a lot on their website for marketing and branding. Potential customers visit the website; and then decide whether they would like to transact with the organization or not. It is therefore mandatory for a small organization; to have an attractive layout and appearance of the website. The other important thing is the usability aspect of the website. Please note; that potential customers visit your website to get an overview of the company. Hence; it is very important to design the website in the best possible ways to get positive results for business. Let us now see some of the principles of effective web designing:

Navigation structure: Businesses should realize the importance of a proper navigation structure on the website. Users can have a very frustrating experience if the navigation structure on the website is not proper. They can even shift to another website to search for their relevant topic. Website navigation affects both usability and accessibility. Hence; it is important for businesses to create pages and sections on the site in such a way that it is easy and logical for ...
... the visitors to maneuver. Do not make the visitors think about the navigation process. It should be effortless and easy.
You can follow these principles given below to create an effective Navigation structure:

Always use icons to aid navigation. It makes the site look visually appealing and easy to use.

Create groups of related links in a logical manner. You can have the most important links on the top navigation bar and functional (dashboard, account, settings etc.) and legal links (copyright, privacy, terms) elsewhere.

Provide location information to the users so that they can easily find their desired content. This can be achieved through Breadcrumb navigation.

Clear call to action: Many small businesses do create an attractive website but forget to include clear call to action. They include endless descriptive paragraphs without including icons for action like buy a product link, contact us link or subscribe link. These icons can go a long way in driving traffic on your website. It can also attract the attention of the visitors; and if the visitors are interested in your products; they can directly contact you.
Let us now see principles to be applied while creating an optimal call to action:

The design of call to action tab can be broken into four simple elements - size, shape, color, and position. Each of these four elements; determines the efficiency of call to action in attracting the visitors.

Visitors do not like to think a lot while clicking on a link. Please understand that; the main purpose of call to action is to provide relevant information to the visitors without wasting their time.

Call to action is very useful; but overdoing it leads to negative impression in the minds of the visitors. If you have multiple call to action icons; decide your primary target and then go for call to action. It should not confuse the visitors.

Color & Contrast: Normally businesses do not think about color & contrast while creating a website. This is a big mistake; because if your website does not have sufficient contrast in comparison to its background, then visitors will find it difficult to read the content. This is especially true for people with poor vision or color-blindness. Color and contrast can create interest in the minds of the visitors. It can also be useful in defining the flow of the webpage.
Let us now see some principles for integrating color & contrast on the website:

Use a free color contrast tool to check how the contrast on your website measures up.

Find out how major sites use color and contrast on their sites. You can also search for different colors which are soothing to the eyes; and helps visitors to read the content. Try different color schemes on the website.

If you want to use minimal color on your website; it is advisable to create size difference between elements. This enhances the user experience and you do not have to rely on color.

Content: It is always said that content is the king. Hence; it is very important for organizations to present their content on the website in an attractive manner. Visitors normally browse through the content on a website hence; a strong visual content hierarchy plays a very important role in attracting them. It also enhances the user experience to an optimal level.

Some principles for designing effective content on the website include:

Always include white space between the content. It helps the readers in focusing the useful content within each section.

Readers are not interested in lengthy paragraphs while browsing on websites. Organizations should break information in digestible blocks of text; so that the content is presented optimally.

Include a good line height; so that the content is easy to read. Proper margins and letter spacing should also be considered.

Clutter: Too much of content on the same webpage leads to a cluttered and unreadable page. A cluttered website will hamper the traffic; because visitors will not return to the page, if they do not understand the flow of the information. The same thing applies for images. If too many images are included on the same webpage; visitors get annoyed because users do not get relevant information from the images.

Follow these principles for an uncluttered visitor experience:

Ask yourself if every item on each page is relevant. "Does it really need to be there?" "Does it serve a specific purpose?" "Can it be avoided?"

Find out whether the content and images on the website help the visitors in getting the relevant information. You can also differentiate content, advertisements, and promotions on the website.

Decide on the priority and then go for the most relevant information on the top of the page.
Can you suggest any other principles for effective web designing? Do you think web designing plays a very important role in website promotion? If yes; post your requirements to an expert team of web designers at info@sofwebsolutions.com.