The way web designers tackled web design has changed over the years. Along with the need to adjust specific website components, there have been standards on how websites should look and feel while being used by visitors. As a result, there are best practices that web designers follow to ensure that the visitors will have the best user experience.

Web design isn’t only about making a website look good. It should also dictate how usable, functional, and easy it is to use. People nowadays are keener with how a website lays out in front of them, making web designers work hard to make the best website possible. But for web designers, what are the best practices they can do to ensure an excellent and effective website?

1. Consider User Experience (UX)

User experience refers to the overall satisfaction a site visitor achieves with logging onto a website. Products that exude usability, accessibility, and pleasure are more likely to deliver a higher quality experience. Therefore, designers should keep in mind how a user might feel after browsing a website.

Web design has to be easy-to-use and concise. It shouldn’t have too many elements that might distract the user from getting the information they need. The best way to design a website with an excellent user experience is by putting yourself in the user’s shoes and imagining what you’d like to experience while browsing a website.

2. Lead People to the Call to Action

Navigation is a common issue or problem in web design. Some designers think that adding too many options for users to click on makes them want to stay on the website longer. However, it isn’t the case as more people click out from a website due to an unruly navigation system.

Therefore, it’s essential to keep the navigation system and the interface as basic as possible. If needed, lead the users directly to where they should be by using the call to action buttons or statements. Lead them to where they should be to avoid confusing them on where to go on the website.

3. Use Negative Space to an Advantage

Negative spaces are great ways to establish a sense of relief on a website. As it’s easy to overcrowd a blank page, people need to see negative spaces to realize that they can stop for a while and absorb everything they have read on the page. As a result, they should understand the content better and prevent information overload.

As much as possible, web designers should gear the website with enough padding on all sides, especially in between texts, images, and headings. Every page should practice the value of negative spaces to ensure a seamless browsing experience.

4. Use Color Contrast

The use of two contrasting colors paves the way for users to go where they should be. People’s attention will always be drawn by contrasting colors, making it practical to highlight the call to action buttons, logos and even emphasize essential words or phrases that users should see.

5. Add a Breadcrumb Trail

Breadcrumbs, also called breadcrumb trails, is a secondary navigation system that tells the website’s current user. The term comes from the children’s story of Hansel and Gretel, where they used breadcrumbs to find their way back to the house—the same as how the tool functions on a website.

By looking at a breadcrumb trail, users get to see where they are on the page and the past pages they’ve been to before they got to where they are. The navigation system is helpful, especially for people who want to track down where they came from while navigating massive websites.

Conclusion

Overall, designing a website is easy, especially for people who have been exposed to terrible websites in the past. As online platforms continue to change, it should be expected that more good practices in website design will be developed in the future. But for now, web designers should focus on functionality built around a great user experience to make their websites stand out from the rest.

Calling Digital is a website design company that aims for clients to reach the next level in business. We recognize the challenges of website design, making us willing to help those in need to produce a high-quality website. If you’re looking for website designers near you, check out our services and website design how-to today.