In a world with over a billion websites, it’s very stressful to not only attract users to your website — but also to make them stay. If they can’t view your website on their mobile device, or if the shades of blue look a little odd on their browser — it is very likely that you will chase that user away, losing a potential customer.
That’s where Web Design, Usability, and User Experience come in to play. This week, let’s look at how to implement these concepts into your website so that you can have an awesome website that will make your users want to see more.
1. Visual Appearance
There are three simple, basic rules when it comes to visual appearance in web design. Something similar to the image:
- Colors: Don’t use too many colors, especially colors that don’t go well together. Use a maximum of five colors.
- Fonts: Like colors, don’t use too many or fonts that are difficult to read. Match the font to your content.
- Graphics: Don’t add too many pictures and videos. Only add what is necessary for your website and its content.
2. Navigation.
Bring your users from point A to point B without them needing to guess how to get from one page to another.
- Keep it simple with a maximum of three levels. Don‘t add drop-down upon drop-down. This will confuse users and force them to leave your site. Add navigation links in your footer(bottom) of the website to enable simplified navigation.
- Use breadcrumbs on every page (except for the homepage) so people are aware of their navigation trail.
- Keep the structure of your primary navigation simple (and near the top of your page).
- Make sure your navigation will work on a variety of devices — especially mobile! Use Bootstrap if you are not sure how to do this.
3. Responsive & User-Focused Design
With a responsive site, your content is automatically resized and shaped to fit the dimensions of whichever device a visitor happens to be using.
This means that your pictures, sentences and navigation will alter to different views on a desktop, tablet and mobile device.
The best way to ensure this is to use the grid system. Like mentioned above, you can view Bootstrap if you are not sure on how to use this.
4. Animations & Effects
Having your users interact with your website and actually enjoy it is important.
This means either having a logo that moves when a user hovers over it, or having the background of a button change color when it is clicked or prompted.
You are already a website user. In order to provide the best experience possible for your site‘s visitors, take advantage of the fact that you already know what types of web experiences you are familiar and comfortable. You can use this information to make your site easier for visitors to navigate.
5. Transparency
Be honest with your users about your products and services. . Don‘t make visitors have to dig through dozens of pages to find out what it is you actually can do for them.
Remember, 68% of visitors leave a site because they don‘t think you care about their experience. So as a final bit of usability/UX wisdom, start caring more! Put yourself into the shoes of your site‘s visitors and keep them in mind every step of the way.
