9 common web design mistakes to avoid

According to the world’s leading research-based user experience group (Nielsen Norman Group) notes that ‘the first visceral reaction to a site’s design influence how users perceive relevance, credibility, and even usability.’

What this basically means is that people do judge a book by it’s cover. First impressions count.

Although it has never been easier to throw a website up using Wix, Squarespace or any other website builder, it is worth knowing basic design principles before building a website.

This is even more important now with so many brick and mortar businesses moving online – if the first interaction with your brand is a website and your website breaks design principle rules, users may well leave your website straight away.

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1) Consistency

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Make sure you don’t use a myriad of fonts and colours throughout your website. Since our brain looks for patterns when we scan websites, a viewer may well perceive a website to be messy and confusing if there are not recognisable patterns throughout. This applies to pictures, colours and fonts.

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2) Minimise headline options

According to Hicks Law, the more options we have the longer our reaction time. This means that a website with tonnes of options in the navigation bar will be unsure where to navigate and potentially just leave. Keep it simple and try and minimise navigation options to improve user experience.

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3) Hierarchy

We can guide the user to see visual elements that are important with hierarchy. The user will struggle to know where to look if everything is grabbing their attention with different font sizes, colours and shapes. If there is no visual hierarchy, it is hard to know where the user should focus their attention and if so, they may well leave the site without engaging with it.

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4) No headline

A great headline should tell the user what they are looking at. It should be short, concise and front loaded with the most important key words because users often scan only the beginning of list items. Make it simple for the user.

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6) Illegible text

Ensure that there is contrast between background colour and the text. This doesn’t mean you need complete contrasts ie. Black and white, or large and small, because it can lose the design’s aesthetic if so. Subtle contrast changes can improve the design immensely.

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7) No clear CTA

A call-to-action (CTA) is an image or line of text that prompts your visitors, leads, and customers to take action eg. Click here. What do you want the user to do? What action do you want them to take? The CTA is to guide the user but if there is no CTA, they are left aimlessly on your site.

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9) Whitespace

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What a lot of people don't recognise is that the background colour is vital to highlight the page's content. Without giving the objects enough room to breathe visually, it is hard for the user to clearly see the relevant information.

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Hopefully, this post gives you some pointers if you are attempting to make your own website on a website builder. If you want someone to just do this for you though, simply click here