A functional and visually appealing website design will help you grow your business. How you design your web pages makes a big difference. If your website is not designed correctly, your prospects will look for another company, causing you to lose business to your competitors. 

In designing a website, the look and feel of your site should reflect your business and brand identity and consider user experience and functionality to generate leads and sales. Studies show that 94% of people first notice the look and feel of a website or app, and then decide to continue browsing it or move on to another site with a more appealing aesthetic.

Some essential rules apply that make certain types of website layouts work better than others. Below we’ve put together nine essential website design tips to help you create compelling websites. 

Read More: 13 Best Online Graphic Design Tools for All Skill Levels

9 Highly Effective Website Design Tips

1. Use A Visual Hierarchy

Visual hierarchy is an essential principle of arranging and organizing the elements of a website so that visitors naturally gravitate to the most critical aspects. By using visual hierarchy correctly, you will be able to draw your site visitor’s attention to some aspects of the page in order of priority, with the essential element placed first.

By adjusting the position, color, or size of certain elements, you can structure your site so that visitors are drawn to those elements first. All this is done to get your visitors to perform the desired action naturally and pleasantly. 

The first thing the user should see, for example, is your brand identity through a well-designed and unmistakable logo, which ensures that the brand will stay in the minds of visitors. That’s why it’s common in website design to ensure that the logo is displayed in the upper left corner.  

2. Choose The Colors of Your Brand.

Colors can influence how we understand and interact with content and how we feel about it. Your brand color choice plays a significant role in your site’s usability and user experience. Your website’s color palette should reinforce your brand identity, be pleasing to the eye, evoke emotions and make your site easy to read and navigate. For one thing, each color has a different emotional connotation.

To use colors effectively in website design, you need to know the emotional connotation of each color, how colors are formed, and how they relate to each other. It would help if you tried to limit your color selection to no more than 3 or 4 dominant colors.

– Establish a color hierarchy.

Use one color for each of your main elements (primary), highlights (secondary), and other less critical elements (background). Keep the color palette simple and the background colors neutral. 

 Neutral backgrounds allow the colors of call-to-action buttons, menu items, or other design elements to stand out and get the attention they deserve.  A simple white, black or neutral background is the most common background.

 – Stick to consistent themes. Once you’ve chosen a color palette, stick with it to reinforce your brand identity. Incorporate the brand’s color palette into every element you add, every piece of content you publish, and every website design you create.

 3. Create Website Content That Is Easy to Read

  Typography is how all the visual elements of text, especially fonts, but other elements such as size, text color, style (italic, bold, Etc.), and spacing between letters, words, and lines, are arranged and presented on the page. 

 It is essential to choose your website’s typography carefully because it affects how your readers read and how they feel about the text on a web page. Ideally, you want a font that is easy to read across multiple devices and screen sizes that matches your brand’s look and feel. 

 Good readability requires users to scroll effortlessly through your pages or scan them on different readers. To achieve readability on your website, consider the following rules:

 – Contrast: 

 Make sure the contrast between the text color and the background color is sufficient for the readability and accessibility of your site. 

 – Letter size: 

 In general, body text should be at least 16 pt for website design, but this depends entirely on the fonts you choose for your website. To create a clear hierarchy and better attract readers’ attention, make sure that the written content on your site is of different sizes and weights. Choose a large size for headlines and smaller subheads, and opt for an even smaller paragraph or body text. 

 – Font type: 

 Sans serif fonts are usually the best choice for long online text like the one you’re reading now.  There are many serif fonts (which have small, protruding lines at the ends of the letters, such as Times New Roman) and more decorative display fonts, such as script fonts that look handwritten. 

 If you choose any of these fonts, use them sparingly, as they can be too distracting if used excessively. Avoid using cursive fonts for the body text. It is best to stick to a simple, eye-pleasing font when the user reads one line of text after another.

 – Limit the number of fronts:

 Too many varied fonts usually create a cluttered look, distracting your brand identity.  You can also create exciting font pairs by using different fonts for headers, subheads, and body text while remaining consistent with these fonts throughout the site.

 For your site to be typographically consistent, headers, body text, and links should follow the same style from page to page.  In addition, the size, line spacing, color, and weight should be the same for a given content type. Try to use at most three different fonts on a single website. 

– Don’t include large blocks of text.

 Large blocks of text intimidate readers. It’s best to separate them using paragraph breaks or bold page formatting. 

 – Avoid long paragraphs and line lengths

 Long, blocky paragraphs must align with digital content best practices.  Simply breaking up long paragraphs makes content easier to consume. In general, paragraphs should be at most 3 or 4 lines. Visitors may have a more challenging time reading lines if lines are very long. 

-Write meaningful headlines that match your brand. 

 Never underestimate the impact of a good title or subtitle.  Make sure your headline is descriptive. An excellent descriptive headline focused on key phrases at the top of the landing page can attract attention and interest from users without using flashy graphics or video files. 

 Only use as many headlines as distinct sections on your page, as too much bold, the bloated text will lessen this effect.

 4. Use White Space 

 White space, also known as negative space, refers to areas around page elements that are empty, devoid of content or visual aspects, and do not attract attention.  White space is an essential website design element that helps you break up the page and improve readability. 

 White space gives users visual breaks when processing website design or content, highlights the main topic and improves readability. The use of white space can guide the viewer’s eye to separate sections, and less white space can serve for elements that are meant to be connected because of their proximity. 

 The white space around an element, the more attention it draws.

 Surrounding priority elements with white space allows you to draw visitors’ attention to your goal better.  For example, if your goal is to get conversions, surround your sales CTA with white space. 

 By minimizing distractions, you avoid information overload and highlight the essential elements of the page. Users can focus on each part of a web page, piece by piece, and guide the user’s eye to important information, such as a call to action or value proposition.

 Your site backgrounds should stand out with enough white space to avoid distracting visitors from your main elements. Use sliders sparingly because movement and new images in a slider distract and weaken your control over what your users see. 

 5. Include High-Quality Images 

Finding the perfect combination of text and images is essential in your website design. Incorporating high-quality visual elements, such as beautiful photographs, vector illustrations, or icons, will do wonders to communicate your message and make your content more informative, engaging, and memorable. 

 There are many ways to incorporate images into your website design. You can incorporate static images, gifs, videos, and other media into your pages, but remember to be consistent and intentional in your choices. Images attract attention more than most text, make it easier to process information, and can stay in users’ minds longer.

 – Use photos of people

  Placing original, quality photographs on your site, especially of people rather than objects or places, increases its conversion potential.  Using quality photos as full-screen background images makes your site pop. 

Using a photo showing a person looking gently toward your call to action can draw visitors’ attention to benefit statements or calls to action. Such clever photo juxtaposition can increase your conversion rates.

 – Avoid stock photos of people

 Stock photos of people, since they can easily be identified as stock photos, never come across as authentic and therefore do not build trust. If you are forced to use them, try to choose stock photo sites that offer high-quality, natural-looking images.

 Instead of placing these images as is, crop them, filter them, adjust the saturation, change the warmth or increase the contrast to better match your website’s design harmony. Also, please ensure the images you choose are meant to fit the context of the content they accompany and contribute to your business goals. Use a compressor to reduce the size of large files to increase the loading speed of your pages.

 -Avoid carousels

  Image sliders or carousels are ineffective because users usually only see the first image, with the others being ignored.  Instead, heroic full-page or vertically stacked images will encourage users to scroll further and increase your conversion rate.

 6. Make Sure Your Site Is Easy to Navigate

 Navigation is one of the essential elements of a website design. The map displays the main places users can visit and dive into areas such as your services, products, blog, Etc. 

 To improve navigation on your site, you need to streamline the content, navigation hierarchy, and responsive website design so that the experience stays mostly the same on mobile and your visitors can easily find what they’re looking for. 

 Additionally, a site with a solid navigation helps search engines index your content while dramatically improving the user experience. Your site’s menu should be prominent, easy to find, and well-structured according to the importance of each section.

Clean, specifically organized navigation tells the user that you want them to move through your website quickly and that there is no hiding place.  As a result, your users are more likely to visit more pages during their session, which increases the time spent on your website.

 Many websites opt for a horizontal navigation bar.  This navigation style lists the side of the main page by the side and is placed in the site’s header. 

 Page Header

 The page header is one of the essential elements of any website. It should contain your brand logo, a navigation menu, and perhaps a CTA or search bar.

 Here are some tips for optimizing your site’s navigation:

 – Keep your main navigation structure simple and close to the top of your page.  If you have a home link, place it on the left. It is usually the most common location for the home link. But don’t worry too much about the order of the menu items.

 – Only offer a few navigation options per page; don’t force users to dig too deep into your site to find a specific section. A good menu will limit the number of clicks needed to reach any part of your site.

 -Ensure consistency

 Every website should have a navigation guide and other important pages at the top of the home page. Your navigation labels and placement should remain the same on all site pages.

 – Consider using breadcrumbs on every page (except your home page) so that users remember their navigation path.

 – Avoid using social media icons in the header of your website. Placing icons in the header encourages users to leave your site and get lost in social media! Also, colorful social media icons in your header are not ideally suited for your purposes. Instead of placing the icons in the header, could you put them in the footer. Visitors can find the social networks if they search, but you’re not suggesting they leave.

 Footer:

 The footer of your site is most likely the last thing that will be seen on your site, and it’s a good idea to place all your important links there. Place contact information, a registration form, an abbreviated version of your menu, links to social media, legal and privacy policies, and links to translated versions of your site.

 Search bar:

 In addition to menu navigation, consider placing a search bar at the top of your pages so that users can browse your site for content by keyword. If you use this feature, ensure the answers are relevant, typos are tolerated, and keywords can be approximately matched. 

 7. Include CTAs On Your Site’s Homepage

 A CTA (call to action) is an element of a web page, advertisement, or other content that prompts the visitor to take action. That action is to buy a product, download a content offer, sign up for a mailing list, start a free trial, or learn more. Either way, encourage visitors to perform the intended action by placing a call-to-action button on your site’s homepage.

 – Use color to guide visitors’ attention to calls to action and other elements such as background color, images, and surrounding text. If you want your button to be more visually prominent 

 – contrast the button color with the background

 – Contrast the button color with the button text

 – contrast the button color with the surrounding page elements. Choose an “action color” for the buttons, separate from your brand’s color palette. This color is also known as “passive color.” 

 – leave much white space around the button.

 -Watch out for the fold.

 The fold is the first glimpse of a website before the visitor has to scroll down and the essential part of your website design. Make sure your headline and any relevant call to action (CTA) are in this area, as this is the first place you can generate clicks and traffic. 

 -Spread out the CTAs

 Place only some of your calls to action at the top of the page. Even if visitors first see your call to action at the fold, they still need to be ready to proceed. Much of the persuasion happens further down the page. A website design should always include additional CTAs elsewhere on the page; only some visitors will act on them immediately. Ensure that you place calls to action further down the page, wherever interest is likely to run high.

 Your goal is to persuade them to make a choice, and that often happens beyond the fold. As a general rule, if you have a button in the area above the fold to take action, you need to offer the same action in at least one other area of the page after the fold.

8. Use Responsive Website Design

Nowadays, it is essential to consider a “mobile first” approach for the website. According to Statista, Mobile accounts for about half of the world’s web traffic. In Q2 2022, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 58.99% of global web traffic.

 Responsive website design means investing in a highly flexible website structure so that your site is compatible with different devices visitors use. On a responsive site, content is automatically resized and redesigned to fit the dimensions of the device the visitor is using to provide an optimal user experience.

 It can be to modify or remove some elements that would clutter small screens or hurt loading time. For example, on the desktop, you will see a navigation bar with categories that, when you hover over each type, a drop-down menu appears. 

 But on mobile, this menu folds behind a hamburger button, which improves the appearance and performance of the mobile site. You’ll also notice that the images are more significant, which is perfect for manipulating them with your finger on a mobile screen.

 Your mobile website should be cleaner and less cluttered than your desktop version. So think about minimizing page elements and reducing resources, like the menu.  You can also use unique mobile features to boost your mobile design.

 Review the mobile version of your site from the user’s perspective, and test every page, every user action, and every button. Not only is this in the interest of your users but also in the interest of Google, whose algorithm takes mobile responsiveness into account when ranking search results.

 9. Limit Distractions On Your Site

 More complex designs are less likely to be perceived as attractive. Multi-column designs such as left-side navigation, content area, and right rail are more complex and present more elements to visitors.  If a website visitor has too many options, they may choose an opportunity you don’t want or bounce. That’s why it’s essential to have low visual complexity, and instead of presenting many options to users, show one thing at a time in the visitors’ field of view.

 Complicated animations, overly long content, and “chunky” images can detract from the value and message you are trying to convey.  It would help if you made sure that the content of your page is straightforward and that your website design is smooth. Hence the trend toward single-column layouts and tall pages emphasizing one or two elements at each scroll depth.

 – Avoid tabs and accordions

 Using tabs and accordions is a way to get things out of the way. Most website visitors scan and prefer faster and easier scrolling than clicking or using a tab to view something. Therefore, it is recommended to make your content more visible to visitors by keeping it all exposed, without the need to click to reveal something.

 Conclusion

 These guidelines on proven UX principles will help you apply them to your site to design a good and well-presented website. Your website design should have a visual and emotional impact on visitors. Still, its effectiveness goes far beyond beauty and depends on its ability to provide visitors with what they need. 

 Website design is constantly evolving. Remember to test regularly to see what works and what doesn’t.  Get inspired by the best website designs and learn about the latest trends in web design.