Some basic web design principles are highly effective for web designers. Here are essential tips to help in achieving effectiveness in web design.
1. How Do Users Think?
You should first and foremost have an understanding of users’ thinking patterns. Users’ habits on the web are not so different from customers’ habits in a store. For the bulk of the time, Visitors to a web site simply glance at each new page, scan some of the text, and click on the first link that catches their interest or vaguely resembles what they are looking for.
Here are a few thought patterns of users:
- Users appreciate quality and credibility
- Users scan, they do not read
- Web users are impatient and usually insist on instant gratification
- Most users typically choose the first reasonable option
- Users follow their intuition
- Users want to have control
2. Don’t Make Users Think
Web pages should be as obvious and self-explanatory as possible. When you are creating a site, your job is to get rid of the question marks — the decisions users need to make, consciously considering the pros, cons, and alternatives.
An unclear navigation and site architecture that is not intuitive tends to increase the number of question marks and makes it harder for users to comprehend how the system works and how to get from point A to point B.
3. Manage to Focus Users’ Attention
It is no longer news that images are more eye-catching than texts, the same way as bold texts are more attractive than plain texts. Therefore, your website should provide static and dynamic content keeping in mind that some aspects of the user interface attract attention more than others do.
4. Strive for Feature Exposure
Feature exposure is the ability to create a user interface design that enables the user to see clearly what functions or features are available; and that the content is well-understood. This is a fundamental principle of a successful user interface design.
5. Make Use of Effective Writing
If you will be working with a typical Denver web design, you should note that the web is different from print. So, try as much as possible to avoid lengthy text blocks without image, keywords marked in bold or italics, and exaggerated languages. Go straight to business.
6. Avoid complex structures
Complex structures are harder to scan, analyze, and work with. It is always advisable to use the whitespace solution to avoid absurd complexities. White space helps to reduce the cognitive load for the visitors, and also makes it possible to perceive the information presented on the screen. You would have observed that when new users see a design layout, they try to scan the page and then divide the content area into palatable sections of information. Denver web designs have a characteristic uniqueness if the right local web designer is consulted.