Designing a website may seem like a tough job, but it does not have to be. Designers can adopt multiple tips and take them into consideration when building and launching a new website.
With the right guidance, you can construct a website that is excellent in both design and performance.
If you look at unique, well designed websites and hope to create something similar, you have to follow these considerations religiously.
To help you get started and be successful with your next website design, here are 15 tips to follow.
Table of Contents
1. Goals and Expectations
It will benefit you as a designer if you invest some time understanding your company’s primary goals and expectations.
Know what your target demographic expects from your website. Observe the competition in your field, and envision how you can stand out from their designs.
Knowing all of this can help you develop the right direction for your own site.
2. Share Your Concepts
Once you know the audience and you understand what you’re up against, you’ll want to put together some concepts and then share it with any stakeholders involved.
Keep in mind that everyone has different tastes, so whether you are pitching clients or pitching your boss, you’ll want to have multiple mockups to show.
There is no guarantee that you and your client (or your boss) will find common ground on the first idea. You can also present second and third design options to increase your chances of approval. Upon approval, you can proceed to develop the body content.
3. Build the Layout
Once you have general approval, it’s time to dig a bit deeper and really flesh out the full layout. Build out wireframes for each of the pages, then you can move on to creating its content and features.
Communicate with any stakeholders to get approval of the full site’s wireframes, and then you’ll be ready to build things out in more detail. Your wireframes should serve as a basic layout showing where various elements will go, etc., but they won’t show the full picture.
4. Make A Rough Sketch of The Framework
To show a fuller picture of the direction of the site, begin with a rough sketch of the framework if you want to understand your layout structure better. This will take into account things beyond the general layout.
This step deals with the sidebars, navigation bars, and content to allow users to navigate the site with convenience. This will enable you to get clarity about your design before jumping into the full design stage.
5. Add A Grid Before Designing
The purpose of adding grids is to create appealing templates and meet specific screen size requirements.
If you don’t, then the design will not come out according to your criteria. These grids will assist in creating the layout structure in the website’s different sections.
6. Exercise Caution with Your Typography and Color Theme
Use only one or two typefaces. Using any more than that will not benefit you in the slightest. Remain consistent with your font usage. Make sure the font is readable. You can experiment with some fonts before narrowing them down to one or two.
We recommend considering Google Fonts to ensure that any fonts you select are readable on any screen.
You also need to examine the colors that would be used for text, interface, and background. Like the number of fonts used, use only two-color sets. Exercise consistency with your colors as well. You can take inspiration from other websites such as Twitter and Facebook, to get a better idea.
Pro tip: Try to keep the contrast between your text and the background at a ratio of 4.5:1 in order to adhere to accessibility requirements.
7. Keep It Simple
Simplicity is key. It should be your topmost priority when designing a website.
Never make unnecessary additions on a page. This can clutter things and ultimately result in a poor user-experience.
Ensure that the number of components you incorporate in your page is easily navigable.
8. Communicate with Your Client
Maintain contact with your client or whatever stakeholders are involved. It is crucial that you keep stakeholders involved in the entire process.
Share your ideas and your progress and direction with them consistently throughout the project to ensure everyone stays on the same page.
You need to have regular updates or risk wasting your time working on an unapproved design.
9. Create a Prototype
If you want the stakeholders to get on board, you can construct a website prototype that you are working on and show it to them. There is a myriad of prototype tools available to assist you with this.
10.Rethink the Components
Be sure to revisit the components of your website. Is it missing a feature or function, or is everything in place?
You may even find that a feature or function you wanted to add has become unnecessary during the process. In that case, it’s ok to drop it and move on without that particular feature.
11.Be Creative
Creativity is essentially in developing a website that really stands out. Experiment with your content, and add some modifications to make your website more attractive.
The only requirement is that you pay attention to every aspect of the website. Watch out for the mistakes that could tarnish the look and feel of your website.
Creativity should serve a purpose, so be careful not to add too much or go too far with your design simply in the name of creativity.
12.Responsive Design
You need to think doubt all of the technical aspects of the site. If your website is opened on a small screen by a user, that user might not be able to see the website’s content.
Mobile responsiveness is just one of a number of technical things you need to consider. Ensure that the website is designed for the best case, and your website can be displayed visibly on both small and large screens and across multiple devices.
13.Get Feedback From Outside
Despite how you construct your website, it is highly likely that the client or stakeholder may not share your vision.
Therefore, you need to be open to turning over your ideas to a third party and receive feedback. The third-party should be someone from the outside without a stake in the matter, or even a group of people.
Don’t get too attached to one idea and be open to suggestions. By getting feedback from someone without a stake in the efforts, you can get genuine, honest feedback that can he hugely useful.
14.Communicate with Your Developers
Maintain communication lines with your developers throughout the entire process. You should put your trust in them and not constantly be looking over their shoulders, but you should also be in connection to answer any questions and to provide feedback when needed.
You may also catch some things headed in the wrong direction before they get too far, thus saving yourself and your team some headaches.
15.Test, Test and Test Some More
Before you launch, you need to thoroughly test every aspect of your design. Thoroughly test all features, navigation, functionality and other site elements.
You’ll also want to be sure to thoroughly proof and edit all content, make sure links work and be sure all is in working or. Once you have tested and tested again…and again…you are finally ready to launch!
Conclusion
These are the 15 things you ought to keep in mind if you hope to design a flawless website. This will allow you to develop the best website, get your design accepted, and then actually achieve desired results once the site goes live.
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- 15 Things to Consider to Create a Flawless Website Design - November 17, 2020
