10 Essential Web Design Principles for Creating User-Friendly Websites
The effectiveness of a website is determined by its usability and usefulness, rather than its visual design, in determining its success or failure. Because the only person who clicks the mouse and so decides everything on the website is the visitor, user-centric design has become a common method for successful and profit-oriented online design. Ultimately, if individuals cannot utilize a feature, it might as well be non-existent. Here are the principles of good website design and effective web design, including in the context of web design Kerala:
1. Don’t Make Users Think
The web page, according to Krug’s first law of usability, should be obvious and self-explanatory. When creating a website, your goal is to remove any uncertainties that users may have. This involves reducing the need for users to make conscious decisions, considering the pros and cons, and exploring alternative options.
When the navigation and layout of a website are complex, it leads to an increase in uncertainties, making it challenging for visitors to comprehend the system’s functioning and navigate from one point to another. To aid users in reaching their objectives, a clear structure, sensible visual cues, and easily recognizable links are essential, helping them find their way with ease.
2. Don’t Squander Users’ Patience
When offering a service or product to your visitors in any project, aim to keep your user needs as simple as possible. The fewer actions users must do to evaluate a service, the more probable a random visitor will try it out. Inexperienced visitors tend to prefer experimenting with the service rather than completing lengthy web forms for an account they may never utilize again. Allow users to explore the site and discover your services without requiring them to share personal information. It seems unreasonable to require people to enter an email address in order to try the functionality.
Also read How to Improve Your Website Performance: 8 ways to Speed Up Your Site.
3. Manage To Focus Users’ Attention
Because websites contain both static and dynamic material, some features of the user interface draw more attention than others. Images are obviously more appealing than text, just as bolded phrases are more appealing than plain text.
Web users can instantly recognize edges, patterns, and motions since the human eye is a highly non-linear device. This is why video advertising is highly unpleasant and distracting, but they perform an excellent job of attracting people’s attention from a marketing standpoint.
4. Strive For Feature Exposure
Modern site designs are sometimes chastised for their strategy of visually appealing 1–2–3-done processes, huge buttons with visual effects, and so forth. However, from a design standpoint, these aspects aren’t necessarily a bad thing. On the contrary, these instructions are incredibly beneficial as they effortlessly navigate visitors through the website content, ensuring a user-friendly and effortless experience. A fundamental aspect of successful user interface design is allowing the user to know clearly what functions are accessible. The method by which this is achieved does not matter. The crucial aspect is that the information is comprehensible and that visitors feel at ease while engaging with the system.
5. Make Use Of Effective Writing
Since the web is distinct from print, the writing style must be customized to suit the preferences and browsing habits of online users. Promotional writing will be ignored.
Long blocks of text without any images or keywords in bold or italics tend to be overlooked or ignored by readers. The excessive language will be ignored.
Discuss business. It is advisable to steer clear of amusing or imaginative names, names influenced by marketing, company-specific names, and unfamiliar technical terms. For example, if you describe a service and want users to register an account, “sign up” is preferable to “start now! Using quotation marks around “explore our services” is a preferred approach compared to simply stating “explore our services.” The best solution for good writing is to employ brief and succinct language (get to the point as quickly as feasible), while also considering the specific requirements of a website development company in Kerala:
- employ brief and succinct language (get to the point as quickly as feasible),
- To enhance readability, adopt a scannable design approach. This includes categorizing the content, incorporating multiple levels of headings, and utilizing graphical elements and bulleted lists to interrupt the monotony of lengthy text paragraphs.
- utilize simple and objective language (a promotion does not have to seem like an advertisement; give your users a legitimate and objective incentive to utilize your service or stay on your website).
6. Strive For Simplicity
The fundamental objective of web design should be to follow the “keep it simple” (KIS) approach. Users typically visit a website with the intention of accessing information rather than solely enjoying the design. Strive for simplicity rather than complexity.
The “keep it simple” (KIS) approach to web design should be the primary focus. Users rarely visit a site to enjoy the design; instead, they are usually looking for information, independent of the style. Rather than complexity, strive towards simplicity.
7. It’s Okay To Have White Space
Indeed, it is challenging to overstate the importance of white space. It not only helps to lessen cognitive strain for visitors, but it also allows them to perceive the information displayed on the screen. When a new visitor arrives at a design layout, their initial action is to scan the page and segment the content area into manageable and easily comprehensible sections of information.
Also, read How long does it take to redesign a website?
Complex structures pose challenges in terms of readability, scanning, analysis, and manipulation. When deciding whether to separate two design elements with a visible line or some whitespace, the whitespace method is frequently preferred. Hierarchical architectures minimize complexity (Simon’s Law): the better you can present viewers with a feeling of visual hierarchy, the easier it will be for them to grasp your material.
8. Communicate Effectively With A “Visible Language”
Aaron Marcus explains three essential concepts involved in the use of so-called “visible language” — the content users view on a screen — in his articles on effective visual communication.
- Organise: Ensure a clear and consistent conceptual structure for the user’s understanding. Organizational aspects like consistency, screen layout, linkages, and navigability are critical. All elements should follow the same norms and guidelines.
- Economize: by maximizing the effectiveness of cues and visual elements with a minimalistic approach. There are four key factors to consider: simplicity, clarity, distinctiveness, and focus.
- Communicate: tailor the presentation to the user’s ability. To achieve effective communication, the user interface should strike a balance between legibility, readability, typography, symbolism, multiple perspectives, and color or texture. Limit the use of typefaces to three, with no more than three different point sizes. Strive to limit each line of text to a maximum of 18 words or 50–80 characters.
9. Conventions Are Our Friends
A boring website is not the consequence of the conventional design of site features. Conventions, in fact, are quite beneficial since they lessen the learning curve and the need to figure out how things function. For instance, it would be a usability nightmare if every website employed unique visual representations for RSS feeds. That is similar to how we get used to basic concepts of how we organize data (folders) or shop (product placement).
Conventions allow you to obtain the confidence, trust, and reliability of your users while also demonstrating your reputation. Adhere to users’ expectations by understanding their anticipated navigation, text layout, search placement, and other relevant aspects of a website. A common usability session example is to convert the page into Japanese (assuming your online customers don’t speak Japanese, For example, utilize tools like
According to Steve Krug, it is best to innovate only when you know you truly have a better concept and to rely on traditions when you don’t.
10. Test Early, Test Often
This so-called TETO principle should be implemented in all web design projects because usability testing can reveal critical insights into substantial faults and concerns with a given layout.
Also, read What is the difference between web design and web development.
Don’t test too soon, too late, or for the wrong reasons. In the latter scenario, it is important to remember that most design decisions are local; that is, you cannot uniformly respond to whether one layout is better than another since you must analyze it from a very specific point of view (taking into account requirements, stakeholders, budget, and so on).
Conclusion
In conclusion, implementing these ten essential web design principles can greatly contribute to the creation of user-friendly websites. By prioritizing factors such as simplicity, clarity, usability, and effective navigation, designers can enhance the overall user experience. Employing scannable layouts, clear instructions, and intuitive interfaces further facilitates user engagement. Additionally, considering factors like visual design, content organization, and language adaptation ensures the website’s accessibility to a wider audience. By adhering to these principles and understanding the specific requirements of a web development company in India, designers can create websites that effectively meet user expectations and deliver a seamless browsing experience. This will not only attract and retain visitors but also contribute to the success and growth of the web development company in the competitive Indian market.
