Overview
The design of your website is more important for conversions than you think. You can implement any conversion boosting tactic in the world, but if it looks like crap, it won’t do you much good.
Design is not just something designers do. Design is marketing. Design is your product and how it works. The more I’ve learned about design, the better results I’ve gotten.
Here are effective web design principles you should know and follow
Highly intuitive structure
The first law or principle of usability of a website says that a web page must have a highly intuitive structure and should be simple to understand so that users would not have to think which way to go. It must be self-explanatory in an obvious kind of way. Don’t let any question marks or queries come up and make the navigation intuitive and simple. This helps to increase the usability of the website and also makes it much more engaging. The structure must be free from lots of cognitive load so that visitors don’t have to wonder how to move from point A to point B.
Visual hierarchy
The next principle that contributes to creating a successful and effective website is a visual hierarchy. Visual hierarchy is the order or sequence in which our eye moves and perceives the things it sees. When it comes to a web page, the visual hierarchy can be referred to the sequence in which our eye moves from one topic/content/block to another. When designing a web page, a designer first need to identify the order of importance of the various topics and then place them in such a way that the visitors first view what is most important and then move onto the others in a hierarchical manner.
Accessibility
Another highly important principle that must not be ignored when designing a web page or website is the accessibility of it. When a visitor enters the website, he/she must be able to access each bit of information in the easiest manner. This means that the text must be legible, the colors must not be harsh on the eyes and the background must not overpower the content, etc.
Hick’s law
Hick’s law states that ‘with every additional choice increases the time required to take a decision.‘ This law does not only hold true for web design but also in a number of other situations and settings. For example, if you visit a restaurant and are provided with too many food items to pick from, you will take a longer time to take a decision. As far as web designing is concerned, the more options you offer to your visitors, the more difficult will the website become to use and browse through. This means that we need to reduce the number of choices in order to provide a better user experience. Distracting options have to be eliminated to aid increased sales and better overall profit.
Fitt’s Law
Another law that acts as a major principle in web design is Fitt’s law. According to this law, the time needed to move to a target is dependent upon the size of the target as well as the distance to the target. This means that the larger the object or target and the closer it is in the distance, the easier would it be to move to it or reach it. This law can effectively be incorporated in web design and is something that can enhance your web design by leaps and bounds. However, this does not mean that the bigger, the better but means that usability factor of a target runs as a curve and not as a straight line. When you apply this law to your web design, then users may be more motivated and encouraged to press the button that you want them to press.
Communication and content
Everyone who visits your website is looking for some or the other kind of information or content, and thus it is very important for you to communicate with them clearly and in an engaging manner. Your information must be compelling, easy to read and easy to process. Communication is not just about providing written information but also about offering images, infographics and another form of media such as videos and audio pieces. Web design takes into consideration a concept called ‘Visible language’. According to this concept, visible language is the content people see on the screen and involves three fundamental principles. They are given as follows:
Organize - The first principle of visible language or effective communication is to provide the visitors of your website a clear and highly consistent layout or structure. Some important parts of the organization of concept include the layout involving the division of content, consistency, navigation, as well as visual appeal. In order to make your website communicate effectively, you need to organize and place your blocks of information in an easy to process manner.
Economize - This principle involves achieving more by utilizing less. This means that you must try to deliver the most information by taking helping of less visual elements. The design or layout must be free of clutter, should be simple and must have a high degree of clarity. It must throw emphasis on what is important and create distinctiveness between different elements.
Communicate - The user interface of the web design must be such that users are able to understand everything in the most convenient way. There must be a balance between readability, legibility, color, texture, and views.