Best practices of web design

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One must really focus on web design while building a new site or blog. Bad design might worsen the chances of getting repeated visitors to your site again. If you’re a non-techie engaging an experienced and creative designer helps to make your site more appealing. For CMS software like WordPress or Joomla there is no hassle hiring a designer. Bloggers can probably either go with a free theme or a paid theme.

Read Free vs Premium WordPress Themes

The following factors one should consider while designing a website:

1. Simple and attractive design

Designers must focus on using colors appropriately on the site.  A tidy and attractive design certainly helps to get readers’ attention. People won’t come back to your site again if the design annoys your reader’s eyes. All colors won’t work in a similar way. For instance, dark-colored backgrounds may work for certain niches like entertainment or celebrity’s personal site, whereas white background with black colored text works well for informational sites or blogs.

At the end of the day, you’re solely responsible for choosing the best colors for your site. Choosing the best fonts for your site is equally important.  Colors and graphics on the web pages could be well-balanced.

If you’re already using an old design, it’s time to update to a newer one.

2.  Usability

People could be able to navigate from page to page without any hassles. Breadcrumbs really helps in connecting pages and using them appropriately makes the site more user-friendly. Leaving people in confusion may lead to harming your site’s reputation. The navigation and layout must look simply.

3. Responsive design

You could have a website designed for desktop users and another site developed for mobile users. It may work but it’s a waste of resources, isn’t it? Responsive design comes to rescue in this scenario. This design actually works on all PCs, Laptops, Smartphones, tablets and others without missing data. Be it an image, text or a video. Personally check your site on all available gadgets and ask your friends to do so. Make sure it fits on all screens. Responsive design gives a better user experience.

4. Make it pass on Cross-browser environments 

Designers must double-check the site on all browsers (IE, Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, Opera, Android, IOS etc.). There are few free sites like Browsershots to check browser compatibility.

Remember that it’s quite difficult to satisfy every browser’s version.

Image: Browsershots screenshot of way2earning tested on Iceape browser.

5.  Page speed

Low page speed may mess up the entire website. People don’t wait for a long time to view your web pages. Avoiding flash, avoiding frames, optimizing images and minimizing scripting languages certainly help in speeding up your page. In recent times people are more enthusiastic about using jQuery and HTML 5.

Do’s

• It’s important to specify alternate text for images.
• Make sure that all internal and external links work well.
• Recheck all social links and share buttons.

Don’ts

• Don’t design a site purposefully to show advertisements on a web page.
• Don’t leave under construction pages for a long time. At least don’t promote it until everything gets done.

The success of any website lies in its appealing design and engaging readers with great content.