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In today’s digital marketplace, your website is your virtual storefront. It acts as a 24/7 ambassador for your brand, and your audience’s first impression is all rolled into one. Want to find out our top design tips for creating really cool content? Stay tuned…
With plenty of other contenders in the online arena, how can you design a website that wins over your visitors? The answer lies in intentional design, where every element, from user experience to colour palette, is meticulously crafted to guide visitors towards your goals.
So, brew a cuppa and join us as we sit down with Claire, our Senior Creative Specialist at bspoq, as she talks us through 5 design tips that will transform your website from a digital brochure into a captivating, conversion-boosting platform:
1. User Experience (UX)
That’s where UX reigns supreme. Every click, scroll, and tap should be effortless, guiding visitors seamlessly towards their desired destination.
- Mobile-First: Over half of website traffic now comes from smartphones. So, design with mobile layouts in mind, avoiding cluttered interfaces and prioritising readability.
‘Mobile makes up 57.8% of global internet traffic. Desktop, in comparison, has a 40.16% share of the total web traffic. The remainder comes on tablet, with 2.04% of total online traffic.’
– MobiLoud
- Map the Journey: Plan user journeys – think of them as well-signed walkways – ensuring each step is clear and logical, like intuitive menus and consistent navigation tools.
- Keep it Simple: Don’t overwhelm visitors with excessive information or confusing layouts. Prioritise clarity and hierarchy, guiding their eye with visual cues and making calls to action (CTAs) prominent.
2. The Power of White Space
White space isn’t empty gaps, it’s breathing room. It separates elements, guides eyes, and makes things pop. Without space, information drowns. With space, it breathes and your message hits home.
Forgetting to consider white space when you are creating a website can be detrimental to your page’s success, as everything blends and confuses viewers. Imagine squeezing words together without spaces – exhausting, right? Design with purpose, give things room to breathe, and your message will come alive.
- Think, Apple: When it comes to white space, there’s one (very large) business that comes to mind- Apple. Think of those sleek product pages! That’s the power of white space in action. It keeps the focus on your message, creating a clean and sophisticated atmosphere.
- Don’t Fear Colour: White space doesn’t have to be literally white! It can be any negative space surrounding text, images, or even a vibrant background image. Have fun and play around with colour; using your branding or logo colours can also help to emphasise your brand persona and general recognition of your business too…
3. Mastering Hierarchy for Impact
Visual hierarchy is the idea of arranging elements to rank their order of importance. Designers structure visual characteristics—e.g., headers and CTAs —so that users can understand information easily. By laying out elements logically and strategically, designers influence users’ perceptions and guide them to desired actions.
- Size Matters: Use larger fonts and prominent placement for key information, guiding visitors’ attention where you want it.
- Bold and Beautiful: Play with font weights, colours, and contrast to highlight crucial elements and create a natural reading flow.
- Whitespace, Again: Use white space to strategically separate and emphasise different sections of your content. Whether it be to a product spotlight, a new blog, or your latest campaign!
4. Speak in Colours: Evoking Mood and Action through Palettes
Your website is an extension of your brand and the colours used on your site should reflect this. With this in mind, colour can be used to focus the eye and draw attention to key information, menus, CTA’s etc.
- Brand Beacon: Align your colour palette with your brand identity. Take into account your visual brand identity: your logo, your product, your merchandise, etc. It’s also a good idea to think about your sector, i.e. if you were creating a website for a spa and wellness business, you might use calming colours like soft blues and greens. Whereas websites that are targeted at kid’s products might be more colourful, bright and animated.
- Accessibility First: Colour is very important for making sure your site is accessible – using text colours that are too tonally close to the background can make things unreadable for some people. Tools like WebAIM’s Contrast Checker can help you avoid accessibility pitfalls.
5. Strong Snaps: Quality Imagery for Quality Engagement
Making sure the images on your site are high enough quality to look good and small enough to be fast loading is a balancing act. Having large images slows down loading and can affect your site health score, whilst using pixelated images cheapens your brand.
- Pixel Perfect: Optimise image sizes for fast loading speeds, striking a balance between quality and file size. Tools like TinyPNG and Photoshop can be your digital shrink ray.
- Brand Ambassadors: Ensure images reflect your brand personality. Vibrant, playful shots might suit a children’s clothing website, while minimalist aesthetics could work for a luxury brand. The purpose of the image should also be kept in mind – images contribute to the overall story and experience for the site and should be planned as such.
- Copyright: Always use legal, copyright-free images. If you’re not sourcing the images yourself, you can use sites such as Envato or Shutterstock for stock images – however, too many of these won’t reflect your brand persona. Get the camera out and create some great original content too!
Remember, consistency is key! Maintain a consistent design language throughout your website, from fonts and colours to image style and navigation. This creates a familiar and trustworthy experience for visitors.”
Claire, Senior Creative Specialist, bspoq
By following these 5 design tips, you can transform your website from a pixelated afterthought into a captivating online landscape. It’s an investment that will pay off in improved engagement, higher conversions, and a brand that sticks to your mind and outshines competitors. So, get out there, be creative, take risks, and start crafting your website masterpiece!
Want to find out more? Head over to our website and request a meeting with our team today!