An effective and good web design is decided by the website users and not the website owners. Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. Here are the top ten principles of an Effective web site design that will definitely contribute to make your website engaging, functional and effective to its users.
- Purpose – Each page of a website has to be informational and have a clear purpose to fulfill the needs of the customers. If a website visitor is looking for entertainment, information, interaction or purchase a product online, then the website has to provide the relevant and essential information to its users in an effective means.
- Communication- Web users always wish to get the required information quickly, easy to read. The effective web design principle is to organize the information for the readers properly under proper headings, sub heading, bullet points, listed points and crispy sentences.
- Font/Typefaces – San serif fonts like Arial and Verdana are easy to read on screens. The ideal readable font size is 16px. Stick to not more than one font in your website for a uniform look and readability.
- Colors – A well-chosen color palette is essential for any webpage. Choose contemporary colors for balance. Choose vibrant colors to a minimal. Use a good contrasting colors for background and foreground. Use a lot of white space to give an uncluttered look.
- Images – Choose the right and relevant images for your website, that helps to connect with the brand. Consider purchasing stock photos for a more professional look. Use infographics and videos for better communication.
- Navigation – Easy navigation helps the user to run around a website easily with easy clicks. Designing clickable buttons, sitemap and three clicks thumb rule helps the users to navigate quickly.
- Grid Based Layouts – Do not place the contents in a web page randomly. It is not easy to read and gives a clutter feel. Instead use a grid-based layout to section out the content into columns and look balanced giving a very effective web layout.
- Design in ‘F’ Pattern – People read a website in the F pattern. People see the top left and below it rather than the right corner. Effectively designing the website as per the viewers visual pattern will help the viewers to read in their regular reading pattern and get the information in a short time, instead of searching for it.
- Loading Time – Any user never waits if the website takes time to load and display its contents. Optimize the image sizes and use minimal HTML, CSS and Java script to develop a website.
- Mobile friendly/Responsiveness – The web users prefer to see the websites in smart phones as equal to looking them on computers. It is very essential to have a responsive web site design that can be viewed in both computer and mobiles.