7 key factors of a great website design

Website design is a critical part of web development process. Mostly it is kept informative and attractive to maintain a strong user base. But some designs leave us with a poor experience, and we never come back.

All people have opinions and tastes, and we’ll never absolutely agree on which website designs are good, great, or simply bad. But everyone can base their emotions on comparative factors. So let’s take a look at 7 key factors of a great website design:

Purpose & Clarity

Before creating a website, you need to outline your website’s goals or objectives. The most important thing is to have a clear, well-defined goal. The eventual success factor of websites depend at this point when starting with web development process. Owners who have a clear idea of ​​what they want to do will be able to decide;

• How site should be organized?
• What content should be included?
• And what messages will be delivered to visitors, and how?

Without knowing what you are trying to achieve, your risk of losing direction that could potentially eliminate chances of your users being positively affected become high. Therefore, you need to define your target audience. For example, is your target audience the general public, or does it belong to a specific industry or profession? Is your target audience a specific age group? Another consideration is social and economic status of the audience. Having a clarity on your target audience will allow you create and organize your site content like a Pro.

Usability in website design

Visitors to your site are there to discover information they need or want. The fact is that today’s internet users are impatient and if they are not impressed or do not understand how your site works then they will bounce back.  

In addition, having a responsive and welcoming site will allow users to view and use your site on all devices. A site based on a planned wireframe will also be compatible with mobile devices. This allows smartphone users to get necessary information on the go.

The important information you want your visitor to see should be “over the fold”. An old newspaper term meaning that the most important info of your site should be on the banner/first half. For instance, your company logo and name should be the first thing they see. This is followed by important navigation links, including “Contact Us” and others.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Avoid too much information
• Avoid complicated words
• Use a simple layout
• Use short paragraphs

factors of web design

User-Focused

Users are the ultimate determining factor in success or failure of your site. A user-centric site is both active and accessible. Often, designers or website owners get distracted by their own desires and needs for a website, and they sometimes forget about the needs of users. 

Website content should be written for the users and not for yourself. You need to steer them in to the right direction. This may be visiting a product or services page or contacting you. When you want a visitor to do something, it’s called a “call to action” or CTA.

Navigation in website design

Your site navigation is more important than you think. Having an intuitive and easy-to-navigate website will make your users happy. And having a well-designed and deliberate sitemap that is easy will go a long way. Sites that require excessive clicks or page links will only disappoint your visitors. So get them where they want to go quickly and easily. 

Another factor that facilitates users is “breadcrumbs.” Breadcrumbs inform users where they’re on your website and how they got there. They are generally placed below logo or the website name on left side. An example of this is; home>services>website design & development> posts. The simpler it is for a viewer to navigate your website, the better.

Appearance

One of the most important components of your site is its appearance. The website design needs to appeal to your audience and present your company professionally. Consumers will love web design that uses the latest trends and functionalities.

Furthermore, your website design needs to suit and reflect your brand. Colors, typography, graphics, and images, all have to work collectively as an integrated process in order to stay relevant over time.

Apart from this, you must also make sure that your website does not download too slowly on any device. If it takes too long to load, the user will leave. Two things that may slow down the download speed are having large photos or too many elements downloaded from your website.

factors of website design

Ease of Updates and Content Management 

It’s great to have a brand new website, but what happens when you need to update your content or add timely information? Unless you’re a smart coder and you can edit your site, you’ll either need to ask a developer to edit or make sure your site has a great Content Management System (CMS). This is something that many website owners forget to think about when they are looking for someone to build a website.

Today, most of the sites are built using WordPress Content Management Platform (CMS). Once your site is fully ready to launch, you will have access to update your content at any time.

SEO & Analytics

A high-quality website without traffic is only a waste of time. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) will assist to increase visitors to your site. In addition, having relevant website content will connect you with new customers.

Search engines, like Google, use applications to decide where your website will rank in search results. Google is continuously updating its set of rules to calculate website’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Therefore, it’s vital to keep up with Google’s primary updates.

So if you’re thinking about your first website or need to refresh a current one, head over to TanBits and talk to our team of amazing designers today.

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