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A website is at the core of the digital marketing campaign. It attracts users and allows them to learn about a business, be informed and help them in the journey of becoming customers. It gives the first impression to the target audience and guides them on how they should view the brand going forward. As such, a good web design determines whether this will be a success or not. 

People judge a business or brand within the first few seconds after interacting with the website by observing its appearance.

A catchy and good web design is important in winning customers to yourself and convincing them to be committed to your brand based on their judgement. A good design helps people learn what a brand is offering and whether it meets their needs.

A good web design offers guidance when people are navigating through the pages and tabs, reading web content and influencing their strides towards loyalty and purchasing a brand’s services or products.

The goal of web design should be to give attention to the customers’ needs. This piece, therefore, highlights some techniques of a good web design.

What are the Goals?

Understanding what a brand wants to achieve enlightens the creation of a design that fits the brand or business.

The main goal of the website should inform everything about it. For instance, if brand awareness is the goal, then every page of the website should reflect brand consistency.

If the goal is to raise sales, then the focus should be on how to draw more customers. Goals will ensure focus is maintained and will determine the next steps the brand is taking.

Navigation Structure

The mapping of the website should be done strategically and intuitively to help the target audience get what they are looking for and give relevant information.

The website should be organized and straightforward with clear language and recognition. The website navigation structure should consist of; simplicity, footers, search bars, use breadcrumbs, links leading to other pages or relevant information, and a menu and a drop-down guide. 

Thinking like the audience will help offer quick and easy access to information, avoid confusing the users and leave them to guess some things.

The navigation should have simple headings such as about, product or service type, location, contact etc. that give a deep and engaging experience to win their loyalty.

Simplicity

People are specific when visiting a website. While a slick website is good to have, this is not the primary goal for the audience.

Avoid unnecessary information and elements that will distract and possibly hinder one from obtaining what one wants. Prudent consideration should be made on the use of colours (not too many), having legible typefaces and correct font text colours, and only using graphics when they are helping to complete a task.

Complexity should be avoided and emphasis placed on creating a good user experience.

Consistency

Consistency strengthens the brand’s appearance in the audience’s minds. It creates a standard and maintains it for the users hence creating a good brand impression. Consistency will help avoid confusion, strengthen your brand identity, make your brand memorable thus, and reinforce people’s loyalty and trust.

A website’s consistency should be clear and the same on every page. For instance, when centring the navigation menu it should be the same all through.

The font, logo and shape should be the same size and shape including the colours and style used. The audience’s experience with the brand should be the same all the time irrespective of whether it is the website, flyers, social media or business card.

Consistency should also be seen in the brand messaging and voice.

Calls to Action (CTAs)

These are very crucial for every website and should be on every page as they inform and guide the visitors on where to go, leaving no room for them to wonder or guess where to click next. CTAs direct the audience and lead them on how to navigate through the website.

Remember, the aim of a website should be to give information easily and therefore, CTAs motivate customers to purchase, subscribe and be in touch with the brand. They offer clarity on what the brand is offering and address the queries from customers.

Visuals

Images or what people see stick faster and longer in people’s minds compared to what they read. The website should be appealing and make use of colours including the whitespace, imagery (photos, videos, and illustrations) and other graphics.

Visuals should be organized hierarchically from the most important, leading the audience to the desired action. A good web design draws the audience’s eyes to the brand’s mission.

Mobile-friendly design

Mobile phones account for the largest internet access tools compared to desktops. Therefore, websites with poor phone displays are a turn-off. Mobile-friendly designs should be a priority and not an afterthought.

The website should be optimized for mobiles first to create a good user experience that is easy and enjoyable. Non-mobile-friendly designs will cause a brand to miss out on customers leading to decreased sales. The website’s outline should fit the device’s screen to boost engagement.

Security

Users need to feel secure in this day of rampant cyber-attacks and insecurities. The security levels of the website should be tight to create customers’ trust especially when they are sharing sensitive information.

Your website should ensure security by, ensuring a secure web host, keeping login credentials secure, getting an SSL certificate, updating WordPress core, plugins and themes and having secure domains.

 

Conclusion

Web design is a multifaceted concept that involves multiple factors that determine the success of a brand’s website. As such, understanding the principles and best practices that guide the design process is important to understand what one is doing. The above techniques give pointers to what would make an effective website. However, this should not end at that but rather, constant optimization of the website should take place to serve the customers and the brand satisfactorily.