List Of 10 Essential Web Design Tips
Any web-based product must be useable in order to be successful. So, exactly what does that imply? When a website gets three things right, it’s usable. It should be simple for users to achieve their objectives; it should be simple to remember; and it should be simple to learn. These three website design tips are the foundation of any successful website, and good web designer keep them in mind at all times.
However, putting those website design tips into action might be difficult. Designers do this by employing heuristics, which are techniques for assisting individuals in solving issues or learning new skills on their own. Heuristics are useful in a variety of fields, including product design and software development, despite the fact that they were coined by psychologists.
In the 1990s, Jakob Nielsen created usability heuristics to evaluate user experience on digital platforms. His ten usability heuristics for user interface design, which give ten practical, goal-oriented approaches for teams to include heuristics into their design process, are still required reading today. Fortunately for us, they also make an excellent ‘Top 10’ list…
A foreword to Mooncascade’s top ten website design tips
Although Nielsen’s pointers can be applied to a variety of digital products, we’ll be focused on web design in this piece. Let’s get right in and see what they’re all about, as Mooncascade presents our top 10 website design tips!
1. Keep the status of your system visible.
The first of today’s website design suggestions is to keep the user informed. Your website should always tell you what it’s doing while it’s up and running. Keeping your system’s status transparent encourages users to feel in charge of what’s going on, take the necessary steps to achieve their objectives, and, as a result, have more faith in your product.
Is it taking a long time for your website to load? That’s great as long as people are aware of it and can track it. Is it possible that someone has used your contact form? Inform them that their message was sent successfully. Is it possible that they mistyped an address and received a 404 error? Tell them what happened and how you plan to proceed.
2. Speak the language of the user.
The user and communication are the subject of the second of our website design suggestions. Great websites avoid jargon by using words, images, and concepts that are universally understood. Avoid technical jargon and stick to norms that allow information to flow naturally and logically. Consider children’s websites, which have simple, entertaining, and straightforward copy—yours should be just as accessible.
Recognizable symbols, such as a house for the home button or a play button for music and video playback, can assist bridge the gap between your product and the actual world. While this list focuses on website design suggestions, we will also cover SEO because employing familiar terms aids in search engine optimization and makes your product more accessible to a bigger audience.
3. Allow users to have more control and freedom.
When your users experience faults, don’t punish them with lengthy dialogues. Your product’s entire purpose is to solve real-world issues, not to generate more of them. As a result, the third of today’s website design ideas is to be sympathetic and provide simple solutions.
This can be as basic as ensuring that users can return to the landing page by clicking your logo, regardless of where they are. It might also be as simple as asking your users if they’re sure they want to delete a post before they do so, allowing them to undo activities, or allowing them to change an order after it’s been placed.
4. Keep your design constant.
Intuitive design is consistent design. If you use the same reference points throughout your website, people will be able to browse without having to second-guess what they’re doing. Consistency also facilitates the transfer of knowledge to other contexts, the learning of new skills, and the saving of time.
In general, your design should be scalable and adaptable to both web and mobile surfing, according to the fourth of our ten website design suggestions. Ensure that your typography, font colors, spacing, and layout are consistent throughout your site and devices. When users move to a new page or use your product from a different place, they shouldn’t have to relearn everything.
5. Use clever design to avoid mistakes.
It’s not uncommon for people to blame themselves for errors in tech-related items. However, in fact, there is no such thing as “user error.” As a designer, it’s your job to prevent problems as much as possible by thorough study, planning, and testing—and there’s plenty of data to assist you.
As a result, the fifth of our website design recommendations is to build in clever error avoidance. Form input fields turning red when they receive an invalid entry, automatic password strength calculation, smart reminders from Outlook or Gmail telling users they’ve mentioned an attachment but haven’t included one, and typos being underlined in red are just a few examples of smart error prevention in action.
6. Recognize rather than recall.
The second part of today’s website design tips list kicks off with a pointer that delves into psychology and the workings of the human mind. Recognizing something is always easier for our brains than trying to recall it. Make objects, actions, and options visible to reduce your user’s memory load. Consider your website as a test: you’d do better on multiple-choice questions than if you had to come up with all of the answers yourself.
In a web-based product, there are numerous ways to accomplish this. Auto-complete suggestions in forms, “remember me” choices when checking in, and presenting users previously viewed items and suggestions on e-commerce sites are just a few of the best examples.
7. Provide advanced users with more freedom and efficiency.
If you want to make things as simple as possible for your user, we strongly advise you to utilize the next of our website design suggestions… Don’t be afraid to examine your user journey critically and identify important places where you can improve the process for your users.
You might use commonly known copy/paste shortcuts, such as those found in Google Docs or Photoshop. You may use Facebook’s well-known “like” feature. You may also include customization choices similar to those seen in software setups or Google Image Search.
8. Dismantle your design.
The eighth point on today’s list of ten website design recommendations is about how the human brain works. Every unit of information in a discussion competes for visibility with other relevant units of information. Your design elements will become less visible—and less usable—as you add more. So show less and say more.
Reduce the number of colors in your design and make liberal use of whitespace. On each screen, create a single focus point that clearly highlights your information and calls to action. Don’t use long-winded material or stock photos on your website. Consider the Google homepage: there is only one logo, one search bar, and two buttons. It does a fantastic job.
9. Assist users in identifying, diagnosing, and recovering from mistakes.
Though you should always strive to avoid errors, it’s unavoidable that some will slip through the cracks. The next website design suggestion, on the other hand, can assist you reduce their influence. Error messages should be written in plain English, without any codes, and should clearly state the problem and offer a workable solution. Most of these criteria are blatantly broken by the most common web error, the 404. Consider using a customized version, such as ours.
Maintain thorough documentation.
We’ll wrap up our list of website design hints with a discussion of user help documents. Of course, we all know that no one reads help documentation, but who knows, maybe one day they will. As a result, you must ensure that yours is simple to navigate, focused on user activities, and provides clear instructions. Make it as short as possible. Help pages, a FAQ, an online chat, and a list of explanations for any troubles a user might encounter are all items that could be included.
The secret to an excellent product is usability heuristics.
Users should be able to understand any product intuitively and without explanation in an ideal world. Regrettably, that is simply not doable. While a result, as you develop something, consider about your user’s learning process and make the learning curve as short and simple as feasible for them. The list of website design tips offered above will undoubtedly assist you in your endeavor.
The more you design with usability in mind, the more users will return to your product and the more momentum it will achieve with your target market. Heuristics will not only improve UX and add value to your users, but they will also add value to your entire organization.
