When you create a website for your business, the first thing that people notice is the way it looks, upon which users base their first impression. Most people associate websites with terrible web design as scam pages or even spam, which means design also contributes to giving your brand authority. Good web design is essential to establishing the credibility of your business. But before you start looking at cool plugins and features, you need to improve and refine the following basic elements of web design:
Quality Graphics
Every website needs a good layout, a couple of images, and content in the appropriate font. Take note of these simple tips when it comes to your website’s graphics:
- Make sure all visual media are of the best quality possible for desktop and phone users.
- Any chosen font should be readable from far away.
- Do not use copyrighted images unless they are yours or you have permission from the original owners.
- If you’re going to use stock images, make sure that they’re of good quality and don’t have watermarks on them.
Visual Branding
Another element to consider is how your design can match the brand that you’ve built. You want people to recognise your business instantly when they get to your website. Aside from the logo, your website theme should directly associate with the type of business you own. For instance, most eco-shop websites utilise clean lines, earth tones, and lots of white space to appear calm and soothing. Parallel to that, banks often use bold colours, fonts, and
sophisticated layouts to convey strength and authority to emanate trustworthiness.
Colour Scheme
Colour choices also affect your website’s design. In fact, the Color Assignment study explored the kinds of words and phrases people associated with particular colours, and found that:
- Trust: Most participants chose blue (34%) followed by white (21%)
- Security: Most chose blue (28%) and then black (16%)
- Speed: Red was the overwhelming winner at 76%
- High Quality: Black at 43% and then blue (20%)
- Cheapness: Orange came out on top (26%), followed by yellow (22%)
- High Tech: Almost evenly split, with black at 26% and blue and gray second (both 23%)
- Reliability: Blue won (43%) and then black (24%)
- Courage: Purple (29%), then red (28%)
- Fear/Terror: Red (41%) followed by black (38%)
- Fun: The top color was orange (28%), followed by yellow (26%)
Content
No good web design is complete without good website copy. Your main pages, such as the homepage, shouldn’t be text-heavy. Some designers start the design process right away and leave “lorem ipsum” on sections where text could go, but ideally, the content has to be written first to size it properly or get an idea of where it should go.
Navigation
Lastly, make sure that none of the design elements will interfere with navigation. A website should be easy to explore. If you go overboard with the design and include too many CTA buttons with a few leading nowhere, your users will lose their patience.
How to get the basic elements of web design right: Conclusion
Now you know the basic elements of web design. Good web design is clean, easy to navigate, and uses quality graphics. As long as user experience is the priority, your website will resonate with your audience and therefore can help you establish your organisation as an authority in your field.
Are you looking to amp up your web design in Melbourne? SKCreative is the business to turn to. Saku is a freelance digital marketing consultant in Melbourne and I’m experienced in designing and developing websites for Australian small businesses and startups. I can build you a custom website visually appealing enough to impress any user while sticking to your company’s branding. Get a free consultation with me today!
