Why Good Web Design is Important, and Why You Need It
When making a website, you should always say to yourself – what is important in web design. Stick to what is important and in the end your website will be very successful.
Your website’s design should be professional and reflect your brand. If you don’t have a designer, it’s time to hire one.
You don’t need to hire an expensive designer to create a beautiful, functional website for your small business. You can build your own, or you can use one of the many free, user-friendly website builders to create a professional-looking site.
The best web designers know how to create websites that are not only visually appealing but also functions well. They know what customers want and need and they deliver it to them in a manner that is easy to navigate and use.
Why Website Design Matters
When it comes to your website design, design is important. Whether you realize it or not. You are visually influencing your customers and they are judging your business based on visuals alone. Poorly designed websites will quickly turn people off. So make sure your site is as appealing as possible.
Focus on user experience. Your website is the main source of communication between your business and your customers. If it’s not communicating effectively, you’re going to lose out on sales. This means that the focus of your website design should be on the user experience.
75% of users make judgments about a company’s credibility based on visual design alone
If you see an outdated-looking website. You may wonder if the company is legitimate. Whether they have the products you need, or if there’s a better website for the products you are looking for.
First impressions matter
Just as in real life you have often heard “make a good first impression” be it in business, social or your love life. This is also true in the digital world.
A website’s visual design plays a significant role in first impressions. And how it affects visitor behaviour.
The purpose of this article is to explore the principles behind the design of web pages. Highlight some of the best practices that you can use to create a more engaging experience for your visitors. Designing for user experience. Websites are a reflection of the company they represent. So it is important that the look and feel of your website are consistent with your brand.
Make a great first impression fast
When it comes to your website design, design is important. Whether you realize it or not, you are visually influencing your customers and they are judging your business based on visuals alone. Poorly designed websites will quickly turn people off. So make sure your site is as appealing as possible.
These days people are short on time and very busy. So you have to make sure you deliver that first great impression from the moment they enter your website.
What Do We Mean by “Good Design”
“beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” is a very well known phrase. And there is certainly a lot of truth in it. However, there are generally universally things that are agreed on what looks good and what looks bad. For example in the case of a physically attractive person. If you were to answer 100 people if that person was attractive, at least 90% would probably agree with it.
This is the same in the digital world. If you were to ask 100 people if the Apple website is attractive, a very high percentage would say yes.
But while there is some personal preference in how people interpret design. Studies show that people are consistently drawn to beautiful things. In fact, science and psychology support the idea that people inherently react to good design.
Each design is made up of a variety of standard elements, such as colour, shape, and size. A good design applies those elements to create a consistent visual language.
Like the English language, there are rules that govern the use of language, and there are those who are better at using these rules than others. Your grade-school teacher probably taught you about the difference between “good writing” and “bad writing,” and there is a measurable difference between “good writing” and “bad writing.
When it comes to the design of your website, there is such a thing as “good design” and “bad design”. While we may not all be equally skilled in communicating visually. Web designers are trained to speak in that language. Therefore it’s important to invest in a professional, well-designed website design that communicates effectively with your customers and prospects.
Why You Need Good web Design
There are a lot of good design elements that can impact your website, but let’s look at a few specific ways that a good web design philosophy can improve your website.
Usability
The design of your website affects how easy it is for visitors to find what they want. Research shows that visitors to your website want to see product or service information, contact information and an About page for you business.
It’s important that your web design makes these things easy to find, otherwise, you’ll annoy your users and possibly drive them away. You should put your primary services in your main navigation and feature your phone number in the upper-right-hand corner of your site
Interestingly, even when you have two websites where the functionality is the same. The website with a nicer design, the user will automatically prefer the functionality of the nicer designed one, thinking it is better usability wise.
Navigation
“Keep it simple, Stupid”
The navigation of your website is important to its overall design. Hick’s Law can help you create effective navigation while keeping in mind the psychology behind the design.
Hick’s Law essentially says that the more choices you give someone, the longer it takes for him/her to make a decision. It’s often summarized as, “Keep it Simple, Stupid.”
When Hick’s Law is applied to website navigation, we want to make it easy for users to decide where to go. It is advisable to limit the number of options to seven or less.
As an example, let´s use a business that sells cushions, they may be tempted to have a product menu with many different types of cushions e.g. side cushions, back cushions, round cushions, square cushions, comfort cushions etc. This can overwhelm a user who is not exactly sure what type of cushion they want or even what the difference is, so applying Hick´s Law the initial navigation at least should just be cushions.
Guide the User
Your web design can guide your users’ eyes and tell them where they should look. On your website, your design can highlight special offers, call to action, and highlight buttons and clickable elements. These things can help you drive users to take the actions you want.
There are many ways to improve your visual design for conversion, but let’s take a look at some examples.
White space, also known as open space, is one of the most effective ways to draw users’ attention to your call to action.
It is difficult to discuss white space without mentioning Apple. They’re known for their clean designs and simple, bold images that are surrounded by a lot of white space. With almost nothing else on the page to distract you, it’s almost hard not to click on the phone, which is the message here.
You can take a site like Amazon on the opposite side of the spectrum. There is a lot of information and product options on this page, but there is one thing that always jumps out: the yellow add to cart button. Even on a busy page, contrasting colours and styles create a visual hierarchy that draws your eyes towards the conversion button.
Brand Professionalism & Trust
The website design is a big factor in whether or not people trust your business. If your website looks outdated or unprofessional, it will not encourage trust. Meanwhile, if your website looks modern and professional, it will encourage trust.
A good web design makes your customers feel at home and helps them trust your brand. If you have a well-established brand, you should use the same colours, logo, and style on your website as you do on your other marketing materials.
All of the big companies use a uniform colour scheme, logo and style. The principal reason for this is to be easily recognisable and established. If big companies do it, it is for a good reason and whatever the size of your company using the same techniques will also slowly build your brand and trustworthiness.
A web design specific to your customers
The overall Web design for it to be effective will also have to keep your target customers in mind.
You need to know who your target customers will most likely be and what type of design will most likely appeal to them.
A business that has female products, should have a visual design that will attract females – softer colours, more feminine fonts and the content should be focused on women needs and wants and perspectives.
Another example,a business that sells high technology items. The web design should reflect that, it should be in itself high technology. Sharp colours, interesting design, some cool effects. This again will appeal to its target customer.
It is very important to know who you are selling to when you are designing a website.
Be Mobile-friendly
The majority of people now make their online searches on mobile devices, and Google has now started to make more of an effort to prioritize mobile-friendly websites in search results. A mobile-friendly website design is now a necessity to stay relevant and get found online. In fact, 85% of adults think a company’s mobile website design should be as good or better than their desktop website design.
Good web design isn’t just for the desktop anymore. Today’s mobile-friendly world demands a responsive website design that will look and function great on devices of all sizes.
The all-important SEO
The front end of a website is only one part of a great website design. Search engine optimization can be affected by how the design comes together behind the scenes.
A website design can look great on the outside, but if it has too many large images that make it slow to load, it can cause visitors to leave and negatively impact the marketing of the website. Web designers can sometimes get carried away with designs and technologies that look great, but end up hurting the site’s ranking.
Is Your Website Design Making the Right Impact?
One of the most effective ways to make a good first impression is with your website design. It needs a great web design in order to achieve that.
Whether you are starting a business or you already have one, customers want and expect a great visual layout. And they’ll judge your business on looks before they read a single word.
Of course, as you have already read, a good website design is much more than an initial impression. Every single aspect of a website should have a focus on how to attract customers and then convert them.
This is why a professional web developer with years of experience and technical knowledge will be able to produce a much more attractive, effective and successful website.
You should always look at your website not as a cost but as an investment that can produce enormous results for your company if done correctly.
If you’re looking for website design and development services, let us know – we’re here to help!
