Do you happen to look for website design tips that actually work? Well look no further! In this post, we will provide you with 13 practical tips and tricks to make your website more attractive to potential customers. It doesn’t matter if you just got started your career as a web designer or you have made numerous websites, improving your craft is always a necessity.
Without further ado, here are 13 website design tips for you to upskill yourself and sharpen your design work.
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Hold back from chaotic color schemes.
It’s tempting to go crazy with color when so many great tints and hues are available. Although vivid and robust color schemes are at the heart of many designers’ aesthetics, when too many colors are used, the visual chaos created overpowers the rest of the web design.
Keep your color pallet minimal and your background colors balanced. Colors on call-to-action buttons, menu items, or other design elements stand out and attract the attention they deserve with a toned-down background. Sometimes a plain white, black, or neutral background is all you need.
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Put meaning behind the images.
The photographs used in a web design layout significantly impact the overall appearance and feel. Poorly taken photos with blurry focus and shaky composition can detract from even the most dazzling designs. Generic stock pictures can deplete a design’s life force, making it flat and uninspiring.
Using high-quality photographs to improve your designs is a straightforward approach to do so.
If you wish to use stock photographs, many good alternatives are available. But don’t just throw them into your designs as is. Make sure that you crop and modify them. To make photographs blend in with the harmony of a web design, add filters, adjust the saturation, change the warmth, increase the contrast, and employ other photo editing techniques.
Additionally, be certain that the photos you select are appropriate for the context of the information with which they will be associated. If an image has nothing to do with the part it’s being placed in, you may need to find one that does.
Finally, be aware of the file types you’re employing. Understand the distinction between a JPG and a PNG. Using the correct file formats can significantly affect how quickly your pages load.
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Gain knowledge about SEO.
We understand that you did not study web design to be troubled by search engine optimization. However, the way you put together a web design can have a massive impact on SEO.
Some things you should know about search engine optimization as a web designer include:
- How to utilize header tags such as h1>, h2>, and h3> correctly
- How the portion of a link that identifies a specific page — known as a slug — might affect organic search results
- How to optimize photos to reduce loading times and the bounce rate (the percentage of visitors who see one page on your site and then leave without taking any action.)
Of course, the complexity of SEO cannot be reduced to three bullet points. Check out webflow’s blog on “9 SEO best practices for your Webflow website.” for more information.
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Make use of responsive design.
There are several devices available with diverse screen sizes. No matter how someone accesses your site design, it should provide a consistent experience regardless of the device. Instead of wasting time on unnecessarily complicated animations and hover effects that may not function on every device, spend that time improving UI and UX for everyone.
Following responsive design principles ensure that your website is user-friendly and provides an optimal experience across desktop and mobile devices.
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Give typography a sense of order.
When we sit down to read a book, we expect that each page will be sequential. The text will be the same size, spaced precisely, and repeated in the same manner. This sense of coherence keeps us interested, providing an uninterrupted reading experience through the pages of a book.
Likewise, the typography in a web design must have a sense of order and uniformity. Headers, body text, links, and other information must be styled consistently from one website page to the next. Padding, line spacing, size, color, and weight should all be consistent for a given sort of content.
We believe that creating a global style guide page for each website you make is a good idea. You can ensure that typography is consistent throughout a site design by doing so.
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Be mindful of diversity and inclusion.
Visitors to a home page come from a wide range of origins, races, genders, abilities, and ages. Being a good web designer entails providing a welcome user experience for all. When selecting pictures and character illustrations, make sure they depict people from various backgrounds.
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Portray who you are as a designer
Designers with considerable skill sets that cover UI, UX, and other facets of web building are not uncommon. A web designer rarely has a single concentration when working on a project.
However, mastering them all is an impossible task because there are so many diverse aspects to design. Designers must seek areas of design that are personally engaging and interesting to them. Good designers understand that having a specialty and becoming specialists in those specialties helps differentiate their work and makes them more appealing to potential clients.
Though many designers find themselves jumping from one type of project to another early in their careers, establishing a niche becomes simpler with advancement, growth, and observation.
To begin, determine which businesses or customers you enjoy working with the most. If you’re interested in all things IT, you should look into SaaS companies, startups, and other digital entities. If you enjoy cooking, you could discover that building restaurant websites is a good fit for you.
Defining yourself as a designer includes your artistic aesthetic. Whether you prefer precision-crafted minimalist designs or like to push the boundaries with abstract and conceptual designs, you must have a distinct design voice.
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Teach other designers
Teaching isn’t just a chance to give back and aid a young designer; it can also help you better assess your own work.
Being a mentor entails more than just providing website design advice. It entails being able to assess a problem and explain why it isn’t functioning, as well as the steps they may take to change it. Paying attention to someone else’s work and engaging your analytical thinking will help you analyze your own designs.
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Mark down case studies
Case studies should be included in any web designer’s portfolio page, yet many fail to do so. While they may need some time and work, case studies can benefit you in a variety of ways.
Case studies are hugely helpful to a portfolio. Visitors to your website receive an in-depth look at your process, see how you approach problem-solving, and get a greater sense of who you are as a designer.
Taking a close look at your work as a web designer also allows you to better understand what you’re doing correctly and where you might need to improve. Case studies are a detailed archive of your work that serves as an excellent record of your development.
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Grasp the principles of web design
Knowing design principles gives professional designers the intuition that guides their decision-making.
Consider learning the fundamentals of UI, UX, typography, composition, and color theory. Understand visual hierarchy, Gestalt theory fundamentals, and the golden ratio. Dive into the more conceptual design components so you may apply what you’ve learned to your work.
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Seek others’ feedback and critiques
It feels good to hear that you’re doing well. However, constructive criticism is required to advance as a web designer.
Obtaining appropriate feedback begins with you.
Let others know what kind of input you’re looking for. Give them some background information on the project and its goals. Prepare all of the information they’ll need to examine your work.
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Keep up your inspiration
It’s easy to become trapped in the vacuum of one’s work and fall into a design rut. Keep your mind active with site designs that inspire you to avoid creative stagnation.
Check out Awwwards, Behance, Dribbble, and the Webflow Showcase. to see what’s new. Follow your favorite web designers on social media and consume as many fantastic web designs as you can.
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Participate in experimental web design initiatives.
Why not come up with something unique? Push yourself to create something odd or extraordinary. Take an existing website and make your own boundary-pushing overhaul. Every excellent designer understands that stepping outside of their comfort zone forces them to approach their design work differently.
Furthermore, don’t be afraid to fail. Entering undiscovered design territory does not always result in a design you will like. The beautiful thing about these types of personal initiatives is that no one has to see you fail.
Wrapping Up
The fact that web design is an ever-evolving field makes it so rewarding to pursue. New design methods and technologies are always being developed. To make your process faster, you can consider hiring an IT outsourcing team. HBLAB JSC with nearly 8 years of experience might be a solution for you!