Inspiring Interns give some top tips for web build and design.
Within a matter of seconds of landing on your website, users have formed a judgement about your company, as a website is typically the go-to platform for potential customers to find out more about what your company offers. If your website doesn’t fulfil your customers’ expectations, they won’t stick around. With this in mind, you need to be aware of the best web build design and tips.
Here are four things you need to know about improving your web build and design:
1. Clear out the clutter
While you may wish to get all of the information you can on your website – and particularly on the home page – doing so may overwhelm the user in an instant. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is having too much clutter on the screen. Too many elements in one space can confuse the user on where to look, and you may lose that consistent and flowing experience. The tip here is to include as much white space as possible, to ensure the design remains minimalist for the most vital information to be absorbed.
2. Keep load speed in mind
Have you ever been on a website that takes forever to load and have clicked back onto the search engine to find a similar company offering the same products? If your website is extremely slow, your website visitors will do the same. You must aim to cut down the loading speed to give your users the best possible experience, by using a specialist website builder that prioritises loading speed.
3. Mobile optimisation
Approximately 50 per cent of website traffic derives from mobile devices. Therefore, it’s important to consider mobile as the main approach (as opposed to desktop) when it comes to building your website. Mobile layouts are different from the desktop version, in terms of both the visuals and performance.
With this in mind, it would be advised to create the website with the mobile layout taking precedence as a result of restricted screen space, before building on this design for the desktop. Various devices (phones and tablets) have different screen sizes and technical factors which is also something to take on board. In this case, it would be wise to refer to the website’s user data to determine which form of device your visitors make use of and keep this information in mind when it comes to the design and development of your website.
4. Use photos of people
Potential customers like to know that there is a human side to the companies they wish to purchase from, which is where branding comes into play within the website design. Choose to integrate images of people, rather than locations or items into the design, as this gives the illusion of a much more approachable and human brand that users can relate to and build trust in, without making any prior contact. Hire a photographer to take professional images and embed them within the design as a full-scale background image to increase user engagement.