Welcome to today’s post on web design! We’ve been chatting to expert web designers all morning, and it got us thinking.
What are the most important rules, or laws, to live by in the web design industry? We asked our good friends for their feedback, and boy did they deliver!
What we’ve got lying ahead is a series of commandments that web designers swear by in 2015.
The thing is, readers, web design is so much more than a pretty face. In fact, the actual design (colours, typography etc) is almost the last priority on the list.
The primary function of the web designer is to give purpose and direction to the site. We asked an expert web design agency to expand.
Simplicity at its finest (photo source)
Law #1: Simplicity is king
Every good web designer will tell you that simplicity is the driving force behind each and every one of their projects. The best web designers are always asking “What else can I remove from the design?”
Remember, it’s all about function. It’s about making things simple and easy for your visitors. That all starts with a simple design.
When the design is clear and free of clutter, it’s easy to see where to go next. Luckily, a simple design is also very pleasing to the eye, and makes for striking websites.
Law #2: Usability is your utmost priority
Web designers almost always have an internal battle with themselves here. After all, they are creative and artistic people!
Their instinct wants to let them run wild with creative designs, colours, and layouts. The truth is, 90% of visitors are more impressed with simple usability.
It’s the web designer’s job to help sell products online. It’s their job to make things simple and easy for your visitors. So, the most important aspect here is easy navigation and an intuitive layout.
Law #3: Company branding is your reference point
If the client company already has a strong brand identity, then that’s your starting point. Their branding will define your colour scheme, your typography, and your layout.
The web designer’s job, at this point, is to strengthen, and establish that branding even further. Use the existing colours to form your palette.
Encorporate their established logo, and build something that connects with their existing audience.
Law #4: Lead users on a journey
We’ve already talked about making things nice and easy for your visitors. Well, as a web designer, you can go one step further. You can actively design the site around a specific journey.
What is your client’s (or your own) ultimate goal? If you’re an e commerce business, it will be to boost sales. Or perhaps increase email signups.
As a designer, it’s your job to lead them straight there with clever design tricks. Draw their eye to all the right places using white space and specific colours.
Craft a simple user flow and journey that will lead them straight to the main goal.
As you can see, the role of a web designer goes much deeper than you might think.
It’s so much more than creating a pretty site.
Hugh Lake says
Amazing! This article is good and really has useful tips and guide, Thank you for sharing this to us. Appreciated.
Fakharuddin says
Hello Erik,
Awesome post with some important points for an effective and user friendly website design. Simplicity is the most important for a website that will help to provide better user experience to readers.
Drew says
I’m glad you mentioned simplicity. The less complicated and confusing your website is, the more users will appreciate and use it. Great advice.
Nora says
Thanks for sharing these effective tips.. Technology changes quickly and the expectations of our users keep rising with about the same speed. so these tips are relly healthful.
Abélia says
Thank you for providing information on the 4 laws of effective web design. I love that law #1 is simplicity. In life in general, I feel that simplicity always wins over elaborate and complicated tactics. Web design is no different. I lost sight of this key tip while working on a design project. Thanks for your help!
Jessicaroy says
Hey…Erik….
I really appreciate your work…keep sharing your ideas with us…
Yes this is very informative article about responsive or flexibility websites. It is true that if you don’t have responsive website then why any customer will come into your website for shopping or selling purpose..So if you are E-commerce service provider then your website or online business must have Responsive Websites.
Thanks fo sharing buddy!!!
Have a nice day ahead!!!!
katejohnson says
Hey…Erik….
I really appreciate your work…keep sharing your ideas with us…
Yes this is very informative article about responsive or flexibility websites. It is true that if you don’t have responsive website then why any customer will come into your website for shopping or selling purpose..So if you are E-commerce service provider then your website or online business must have Responsive Websites.
Thanks fo sharing buddy!!!
Have a nice day ahead!!!!
Barbara McIntosh says
Hello Erik… I love your 4 laws for effective website design, especially the 1st tip. For me I will prefer also a simple design for my website but, I will make a daily updates to my content. Moreover, I will list down to my note of the rest strategy to work on. Thank you! 😀
Willie Cagle says
I was delighted after I finished reading this article talking about of how to be more effective web designing, persona, I encounter fuzzy vision of how to be most attractive my fonts but thank you for this info it helps me a lot.
Thank you, Erik. Keep posting!
McKenzie says
Great tips! Thank you for the advice in this post. I like that you focus on usability because it is so important!
Eric Beeler says
Hey Buddy,
Nice Post!
I like the content of the post.In addition to this, the laws you mentioned for effective website design are worth considering. All these laws will help us in making our website more effective and efficient for users.
I would like to appreciate you for the efforts you put forth for writing this article.You have shared such a valuable information.
Have A Nice Day!
Thank You For Sharing This Post! 🙂
t says
In fact, most websites have just moments to attract potential readers. Several factors contribute to how well a website attracts its readers. thanks for the post
r says
Since the visitor of the page is the only person who clicks the mouse and therefore decides everything, user-centric design has become a standard approach for successful and profit-oriented web design. thanks for sharing.
Red Triangle Marketing says
Hi,
Awesome article, all tips and guides are very helpful. Thanks for sharing all information with us.
Christian Chave says
Hi,
Thanks for being sharing such an important information. I would like to add more.
Obviously seems just like a review summed up for having an improved website design and maintaining the value of must-haves for an internet site. I simply want to stress using one thing this is the responsiveness of the website. Peoples are on an easy step today plus they want everything to be instantaneous.
Regards
Christian Chave
Heather says
Excellent points! The first law is an area where you can gauge good designers from bad – many try to fit too many features in one space and a website can quickly become cluttered, impacting its usability negatively. Thanks for sharing!
Zane Goldsbrough says
thank you for sharing this information. this was really helpful for effective web design