1.

Simple is the best

Over-designed website may not work. Putting too many elements on the page may lead to distract visitors from the
main purpose of your website. Simplicity always works in an effective web page design. Clean and fresh design of
your website not only makes the website appealing, but also help user to navigate from one page to another
seamlessly. Loading a website having design features which do not serve the purpose may be frustrating. Keep your
design as simple as possible so that the visitors can feel it easy-to-use and can find their ways easily.

2. Consistency

Consistency in website design matter a lot. Give your attention to match design elements throughout each of the
pages. It can be understood that your fonts, sizes, headings, sub-headings, and button styles must be the same
throughout the website. Plan everything in advance. Finalize the fonts and the right colors for your texts, buttons
etc, and stick to them throughout the development. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) would come in handy to keep the
complete information about design styles and elements.

3. Typography & Readability

No matter how good your design is text still rules the website as it provides users the desired information. Since
search engine crawlers are very much familiar with this data, it becomes an integral part of SEO activities. You should
keep your typography visually appealing and readable for visitors, along with tricky use of keywords, meta-data, and
other SEO-sensitive elements.
Consider using fonts that are easier to read. The modern sans-serif fonts as Arial, Helvetica etc. can be used for the
body texts. Make proper combinations of typefaces for each and every design elements such as headlines, body
texts, buttons etc.

4. Mobile compatibility

Keeping in mind the ever-growing usage of smartphones, tablets and phablets, web design must be effective for
various screens. If your website design doesn’t support all screen sizes, chance is that you’ll lose the battle to your
competitors. There are a number of web design studios or service points from where you can turn your desktop
design into a responsive and adaptive one for all screen sizes.

5. Color palette and imagery

A perfect color combination attracts users while a poor combination can lead to distraction. This necessitates you to
pick a perfect color palette for your website which can create a pleasing atmosphere, thus leaving a good impact on
visitors. Enhance users experience by selecting complementary color palette to give a balanced-look to your website
design. Remember to white space use as it avoids your website from visual clutter and mess. Also avoid using too
many colors. 3 or 4 tones for the whole websites are ample to give appealing and clear design.
Same is the case with images. Don’t use multiple vibrant images

6. Easy loading

No one likes the website that takes too much time to load. So take care of it by optimizing image sizes, combing code
into a central CSS or JavaScript file as it reduces HTTP requests. Also, compress HTML, JavaScript and CSS for
enhanced loading speed.

7. Easy Navigation

Study shows that visitors stay more time on the websites having easy navigation. For effective navigation, you may
consider creating a logical page hierarchy, using bread scrums, and designing clickable buttons. You should follow
the “three-click-rule” so that visitors can get the required information within three clicks.
8. Communication

The ultimate purpose of the visitors is to get information, and if your website is able to communicate your visitors
efficiently, most probably they would spend more time on your website. Tricks that may work to establish effortless
communication with the visitors are – organizing information by making good use of headlines and sub-headlines,
cutting the waffle, and using bullet points, rather than long gusty sentences.

To wrap it up

Keeping the aforementioned principles of good website design, you can easily develop an aesthetic and functional
website. Without this base, it would be difficult to travel a long path. Only with a clean and user-friendly design, you
can think to succeed.

Purpose. Great design starts with a purpose in mind. Ask yourself, “What do I want to accomplish with this page?” If
a page doesn’t have a clear purpose, consider getting rid of it.

Aesthetically pleasing. I’ll dig more into this in section one on visual design, but your site needs to look good. If your
site looks like it was built in the 90’s, it’s time for an update.

Relevant and original content. Your site should show content that’s relevant to your target market and original.
Plagiarism is illegal and penalized by Google. Besides, it’s better to be a first-rate version of yourself than a second-
rate version of someone else.

Clear site navigation. I’ll discuss this further in section two on technical aspects, but know that navigation matters.
Any page on your site should be within three clicks of any other page on your site. Your navigation should be
intuitive and simple. This helps both Google for SEO and your visitors for navigation.

Like the phrase ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’, effective web design is judged by the users of the website and
not the website owners. There are many factors that affect the usability of a website, and it is not just about form
(how good it looks), but also function (how easy is it to use). Principles of effective web design_Steve Jobs Websites
that are not well designed tend to perform poorly and have sub-optimal Google Analytics metrics (e.g. high bounce
rates, low time on site, low pages per visit and low conversions). So what makes good web design? Below we explore
the top 10 web design principles that will make your website aesthetically pleasing, easy to use, engaging, and
effective.

1. Purpose

Good web design always caters to the needs of the user. Are your web visitors looking for information,
entertainment, some type of interaction, or to transact with your business? Each page of your website needs to have
a clear purpose, and to fulfill a specific need for your website users in the most effective way possible.

2. Communication

People on the web tend to want information quickly, so it is important to communicate clearly, and make your
information easy to read and digest. Some effective tactics to include in your web design include: organising
information using headlines and sub headlines, using bullet points instead of long windy sentences, and cutting the
waffle.

3. Typefaces

In general, Sans Serif fonts such as Arial and Verdana are easier to read online (Sans Serif fonts are contemporary
looking fonts without decorative finishes). The ideal font size for reading easily online is 16px and stick to a
maximum of 3 typefaces in a maximum of 3 point sizes to keep your design streamlined. Principles of effective web
design_Serif vs Sans Serif Typography

4. Colours

A well thought out colour palette can go a long way to enhance the user experience. Complementary colours create
balance and harmony. Using contrasting colours for the text and background will make reading easier on the eye.
Vibrant colours create emotion and should be used sparingly (e.g. for buttons and call to actions). Last but not least,
white space/ negative space is very effective at giving your website a modern and uncluttered look.

5. Images

A picture can speak a thousand words, and choosing the right images for your website can help with brand
positioning and connecting with your target audience. If you don’t have high quality professional photos on hand,
consider purchasing stock photos to lift the look of your website. Also consider using infographics, videos and
graphics as these can be much more effective at communicating than even the most well written piece of text.

6. Navigation

Navigation is about how easy it is for people to take action and move around your website. Some tactics for effective
navigation include a logical page hierarchy, using bread crumbs, designing clickable buttons, and following the ‘three
click rule’ which means users will be able to find the information they are looking for within three clicks.

7. Grid based layouts

Placing content randomly on your web page can end up with a haphazard appearance that is messy. Grid based
layouts arrange content into sections, columns and boxes that line up and feel balanced, which leads to a better
looking website design.

8. “F” Pattern design

Eye tracking studies have identified that people scan computer screens in an “F” pattern. Most of what people see is
in the top and left of the screen and the right side of the screen is rarely seen. Rather than trying to force the
viewer’s visual flow, effectively designed websites will work with a reader’s natural behaviour and display
information in order of importance (left to right, and top to bottom). Principles of effective web design_F Layout

9. Load time

Everybody hates a website that takes ages to load. Tips to make page load times more effective include optimising
image sizes (size and scale), combining code into a central CSS or JavaScript file (this reduces HTTP requests) and
minify HTML, CSS, JavaScript (compressed to speed up their load time).

10: Mobile friendly

It is now commonplace to access websites from multiple devices with multiple screen sizes, so it is important to
consider if your website is mobile friendly. If your website is not mobile friendly, you can either rebuild it in a
responsive layout (this means your website will adjust to different screen widths) or you can build a dedicated
mobile site (a separate website optimised specifically for mobile users). Mobile Friendly Web Design It is easy to
create a beautiful and functional website, simply by keeping these design elements in mind. Have you got a website
design that needs reviewing or optimising? Or perhaps, you are planning a website and you are looking to get the
design right from the ground up. Either way, these principles of effective web design can help your website be more
engaging, useful, and memorable for visitors.

Problems
too much advertising / pop-up advertisements

clickbait headlines