5 Highly Effective Web Design Tips That Are Backed by Research
Web design, as we know today, is a subjective topic. Why? Because most of the time, if you ask two people what it is, they have different things to say about it.
One person might say that web design is all about aesthetics while the other might deem web design as a collective set of tools that ultimately helps you create a usable website.
Although they are not wrong, per say, it is a mistake to assume that web design is purely subjective because some of the tips that I will talk about in this article is backed by scientific research agreed by web development agency.
If you want to learn more about this topic, be sure to read the entire article to find out some helpful tips.
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Site Loading Speed is Crucial
Page loading speed is probably something of importance, especially to a web designer. If a person visits your site and it takes 5 seconds for it to fully load, then they won’t be likely to stick around.
With the advent of faster internet connection speeds, people who come across slow loading websites might think that there is a problem with their network.
It is crucial that you improve your site loading speed on a regular basis. Ensure that everything loads up in as little as 3 seconds or even lower.
Once you click on a link on your page, it has to load up within the timeframe mentioned above so that you’ll stay consistent and so that people will want to stick around.
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Content Should Be “Above the Fold”
There is this longstanding notion that you should place your content “above the fold” or in the beginning parts of your webpages.
Some say this is just a rule of thumb, while others really do not believe this and this is just some sort of strategy that you may or may not follow, all without dire consequences.
However, according to research, people do consume content more if it is placed above the fold. In essence, the term “above the fold” just means that the content is situated at the top of the page so when you “fold”, or in this case, scroll down the page, the content can still be visibly seen.
That being said, to help make your content more prominent than ever, you should use clear and descriptive headlines by utilizing the H1 and H2 tags accordingly.
Use media content like videos and photos as you see fit, but it also has to stay consistent with your branding.
Furthermore, if you’re a B2C or a B2B website, your call to action button should be placed prominently on the front page. By ‘prominently’, I mean that it has to have a different color scheme that contrasts the background color of your site.
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KISS
And no, this is not an affectionate gesture, but what I am referring to is an acronym that stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Okay, sorry for the last term, but it is essentially a sign for you to make everything simple. By ‘simple’, I mean that your website should only contain a few images, videos, and animations and that your written content should be the star of the show.
Use white space or negative space accordingly so that the user’s eyes will have time to breathe.
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Ditch the Sliders
Back in the day, content can be viewed from left to right, and I mean to the extreme right. That way, you’re going to have to use a slider to help you read the rest of the content since it is not scaled properly.
Although you can get away with it back in the day, that is now considered a web design “sin” and that you should never apply it. Ditch the sliders and create your content in such a way that it optimizes the use of the available space; all without the user having to slide to the extreme left or right just to read everything else.
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Choose Scrolling Over Clicking
Believe it or not, 72% of people actually are too lazy to even click one link. In this case, instead of creating multiple pages, why not have a really long page and have people scroll down as they please?
For convenience, you can add stamps or links that people can click on so that they will directly jump to a specific section that they want.
Conclusion
Web design is not subjective as things have been proven by research and science. Making your pages load fast and prioritizing scrolling over clicking are just two of these things that you should start implementing on your site for better views and lower bounce rates.
