UX design is a term in which both the words UX and design play a balanced role. When UX complements the design and design complements the UX, you reach a pinnacle experience.
Want to know how important UX design is for websites? It can be explained by just the one fact that visitors create an impression about a website in less than five seconds. Five seconds is all it takes for the users to decide whether to leave a website or stay.
Website design is the factor that determines the success of any website. Suppose you are selling a product through a website. A user looks at your website first before they look at your products. If the website design is weak, no matter how wonderful a product you are selling, the probability of users buying the product is less.
Website design is not a one-step process. However, certain UX design principles, when applied, will help you create a website that follows the standard set by users. Here we will walk you through four relevant principles for excellent website design.
1. Navigation
94% of visitors say easy navigation is the most important website feature, reports a survey conducted by Clutch.
Wondering what makes a smooth navigation experience?
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Minimalism: Navigation bar should be simple with minimal options.
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Simplicity: The website structure should be clear and predictable.
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Design: Use harmonious design by implementing consistency in colors and shapes.
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Clarity: While naming options, avoid using jargon. Follow real-world conventions.
When navigating through a website becomes difficult, finding relevant information becomes a task. This will create an unsatisfactory experience among visitors leading them to leave your website and look for alternatives.
2. Responsive Design
In this era of technology, a design loses its relevance if it cannot fit well with all the devices such as smartphones, computers, tablets, etc. A design that is fluid and compatible with all the devices is called responsive design.
A design can be made responsive by implementing the following things:
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Optimize the images: That is, reduce the size of the images without sacrificing quality.
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Create prototypes: The best way to test your design’s responsiveness is by creating several prototypes and testing them.
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Mobile-first design approach: Implementing a mobile-first design approach leads to a design that is content-focused, and hence user-focused.
Making a design mobile responsive is very critical in today’s world. Since mobile screens are smaller, it is essential to optimize CTAs and navigation according to the screen size. Designers should ensure that buttons can be easily accessible in small screens. Also, vertical scrolling is more appropriate than horizontal. If a transaction requires the user to leave a mobile device and power up their computer, it will most possibly be abandoned.
3. Consistency
Consistency in website design screams professionalism. The importance of matching colors, fonts, sizes, button styles, etc. throughout the website design cannot be emphasized enough. Maintaining consistency in website design will make your brand recognizable and help to build brand identity and trust.
Some tips to carry out a consistent website design are:
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Maintain a consistent color scheme throughout the design. Pick the perfect color palette keeping in mind the target audience and the nature of the website.
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Use white spaces and keep the colors minimalistic.
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Define the information hierarchy appropriately and highlight important content.
Implementing the perfect color palette is among the most crucial UX design psychological principles. Every color has a psychological property associated with it. Hence, they should be effectively used to enhance website design.
4. Performance
According to research conducted by Google, the probability of visitors leaving a website page increases by 32% when the page load time increases from 1 to 3 seconds. Further, if the page load time rises to 6 seconds, the bounce rate increases to 106%.
Thus, if the performance of a website is slow, users will abandon the website. So it is vital to optimize the page load speed.
Some ways to increase performance are:
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Scan the website for anything that can be compressed.
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Optimize your images. Avoid using too many images.
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Reduce HTTP requests.
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Improve server uptime and response time.
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Avoid having broken links on the website.
Tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights and Pingdom Tools can be used to test website performance. These tools can help locate the problems affecting speed, making it easier to improve performance.
So, these are four relevant principles for any website design. Understanding these principles will help you whether you are designing a website or hiring a UI UX design agency to create a website for you. By following these fundamentals, you are sure to develop a website that is simple and intuitive. Usability and user-friendliness are two key factors in good website design. And it can only be achieved through constant research and refining.
