Good Website Design Principles and Effective Web Design

To correctly apply the concepts, we must first understand how people interact with websites, how they think, and what the core patterns of user behavior are.

What Do Users Believe?

Basically, Web users’ habits aren’t all that different from retail customers’ routines. Visitors examine the text on each new page, then click on the first link that piques their attention or faintly matches what they’re looking for. In fact, they don’t even glance at the majority of the page.

Most people look for anything intriguing (or useful) and clickable, and when they find some promising possibilities, they click.  If the new page does not satisfy the users’ expectations, the Back button is pressed and the search is resumed.

Users value quality and credibility. If a page provides high-quality material, consumers are ready to compromise the content with adverts and site design. This is why poorly designed websites with high-quality content receive a lot of attention over time. The design that supports the content is more significant than the design itself.

Users skim rather than read. When analyzing a web page, visitors look for fixed points or anchors that will guide them through the material.

Users skim rather than read. Take note of how “hot” spots appear abruptly in the middle of phrases. This is common during the scanning procedure.

Web consumers are impatient and want immediate pleasure. A very basic principle: if a website fails to fulfill the expectations of users, the designer failed to execute his job successfully, and the company loses money. The higher the cognitive load and the less obvious the navigation, the more likely visitors are to abandon the website and seek alternatives.

Users do not make the best decisions. Users do not look for the quickest way to find the information they need. They also do not scan webpages in a linear method, moving from one site section to another. Users instead satisfice; they select the first reasonable alternative. There is a good likelihood that they will click on a link that appears to lead to the goal as soon as they find it. Optimizing is difficult and time-consuming. It is more efficient to satisfice.

The Web does not support sequential reading flows. The scan path of a certain page is described in the right screenshot on the image at the bottom.

Users are guided by their instincts. Most users fumble through instead of reading the information provided by the designer. According to Steve Krug, the primary issue is that users don’t care. “If we find something that works for us, we stick with it.” We don’t mind if we don’t grasp how things function as long as we can use them. If you’re going to act like you’re designing billboards, make amazing billboards.”

Users want to be in charge. Users expect to be able to control their browser and rely on consistent data presentation across the site. For example, people don’t want new browser windows to open suddenly, and they want to be able to return to the previous site with a “Back” button: it’s therefore best practice to never load links in new browser windows.

1. Don’t Force Users to Think

The first law of usability states that the web page should be obvious and self-explanatory. When designing a website, your task is to eliminate the question marks – the decisions that users must make consciously, taking into account benefits, disadvantages, and alternatives.

If the navigation and site layout are not simple, the number of question marks increases, making it more difficult for visitors to understand how the system works and how to navigate from point A to point B. A clear structure, reasonable visual cues, and easily identifiable links can assist users in finding their way to their goal.

2. Don’t Waste Users’ Patience

When offering a service or product to your visitors in any project, aim to keep your user needs as simple as possible. The less activity necessary from users to evaluate a service, the more likely it is that a random visitor will try it out. First-time visitors prefer to experiment with the service rather than fill out lengthy web forms for an account they may never use again. Allow users to explore the site and discover your services without requiring them to share personal information. It seems unreasonable to require people to enter an email address in order to try the functionality.

3. Controlling User Attention

Because websites contain both static and dynamic material, some features of the user interface draw more attention than others. Images are obviously more appealing than text, just as bolded phrases are more appealing than plain text.

Web users can rapidly perceive edges, patterns, and motions since the human eye is a highly non-linear device. This is why video commercials are highly obnoxious and intrusive, yet from a marketing standpoint, they perform an excellent job of attracting viewers’ attention.

4. # Aim for Feature Exposure

Modern online designs are sometimes chastised for their strategy of guiding visitors through visually appealing 1-2-3-done-steps, huge buttons with visual effects, and so on. However, from a design standpoint, these characteristics are not a negative thing. Such instructions, on the other hand, are incredibly helpful because they guide visitors through the site material in a very easy and user-friendly manner.

5. Utilize Effective Writing

Because the Web differs from print, the writing style must be tailored to the interests and surfing patterns of consumers. Promotional writing will be ignored. Long text blocks with no images or keywords in bold or italics will be ignored. Excessive language will be ignored.

Discuss business. Avoid names that are funny or creative, names that are influenced by marketing, company-specific names, and unfamiliar technical terms. For example, if you’re describing a service and want customers to register an account, “sign up” is preferable to “start now!””, which is superior to “browse our offerings.”

6. # Aim towards Simplicity

The “keep it simple” (KIS) approach should be the fundamental goal of web design. Users are rarely visiting a site to enjoy the design; in most situations, they are looking for information regardless of the style. Strive for simplicity rather than complexity.

From the perspective of visitors, the optimum site design is pure text, with no adverts or other content blocks that fit exactly the query visitors used or the content they were looking for. This is one of the reasons why a print-friendly version of a website is vital for a positive user experience.

7. Do Not Be Afraid Of White Space

Actually, it’s difficult to exaggerate the value of white space. It not only helps to lessen cognitive strain for visitors, but it also allows them to perceive the information displayed on the screen. When a new visitor arrives to a design layout, the first thing he or she does is scan the page and divide the content area into consumable chunks of information. Complex structures are more difficult to read, scan, analyze, and manipulate.