Essential Elements to Keep in Mind

While Designing a Website

The common questions that may pop up in your mind while

designing a website are "What should I be including in the

website?”, “What are the critical elements that I cannot afford to

ignore?”. Even the best designers in the industry are confronted

with these questions while designing a website. So, it is better to

have a checklist so that you don't forget anything.

Here are some essential elements that you need to keep in mind

while designing a website.

Navigation and accessibility

The ultimate goal of the website is to provide visitors with the

information they are looking for. Visitors should be able to

navigate easily through the website and find the information.

Make sure that the navigation menu is easy to identify and is

easy to use.

Don’t overwhelm the users with too many tabs – the top

navigation should have not more than ten tabs.

It should be easy for users to know where they are in the site –

use breadcrumbs.

Users should be able to access all important pages from each

page of the website.

Make sure that the links are easily visible. It is better to

differentiate them using a blue color.

Theme, colors and fonts

Make sure that the theme, colors and fonts are consistent across

the website. This will not only allow your readers to identify

your website/brand, but will also help build your credibility

among them over time. An appropriate theme and colors help

render your website a professional look.

When it comes to fonts, use the standard ones as they are

accessible through all browsers. Using non-standard fonts may

impair the design in some browsers as they choose a default font

to display your text.

Choose the colors wisely and be creative in combining colors.

Use colors that complement and contrast.

See to it that the theme and colors in your website match with

those in your physical store/marketing material.

Use standard fonts such as Times, Georgia, Arial, and Helvetica.

Space

An effective way to enhance the aesthetics and readability of

your website is to use the white space wisely. Space does not

have to always be white. Space refers to the absence of

elements, and could equally be a background color or the

texture of the surface.

See to it that the spacing is consistent across the website – the

spacing between similar elements like the lines, paragraphs,

images, etc.

An image or a piece of text surrounded by space will appear

larger and more important than one that is crammed into a

smaller space.

Unique and high quality content with relevant images

One of the common mistakes many people commit while

designing a website is to copy the text and images from other

sites. This makes their job easy. However, not only will it reduce

your credibility, but will affect your website’s search engine

rankings as well. Search engines consider text, images or videos

copied from other sites as duplicate content and reduce the

rankings.

Create quality content that is relevant and unique, even if it takes

time.

Make sure that there are no spelling, grammar and punctuation

errors in the content.

See to it that the content is presented in small paragraphs, and

not in big chunks of text – online users won’t read each and

every sentence, they just scan the webpages.

Customize images for your website. It is better to use the images

of real products and people.

Call-to-action' buttons where ever required

Call to action is one of the important aspects of a website’s

design. Without these buttons the main purpose of the website

will not be met – making a sale, gathering or providing

information. Call to action buttons should be obvious and easy

to identify.

Use contrasting colors to call to action buttons like ‘Buy Now’,

‘Join’, ‘Download’, ‘Sign-Up Free’.

Give space to highlight them.

Social media buttons

Social media provides a great opportunity to make your

brand/content go viral. Social media sharing buttons are without

a doubt one of the best ways to get your brand/content shared.

Optimize the social media buttons at a prominent place of your

webpages to make social sharing easier for your visitors.

If not all, try to optimize at least the top three social media

buttons – Facebook’s ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ buttons, Twitter’s

‘Tweet This’ button, Google’s ‘+1’ button.

About-Us and Contact-Us pages

The content in these pages is more important than you might

think. These pages tell your visitors what you do, who you are

and how to contact you.

You can outline your company’s philosophies, mission, vision,

or goals in your About Us page.

See to it these pages are personal and unique.

If possible, upload a photograph of you and your team.

Mention address, email and telephone/mobile phone number in

the contact page – it boosts trust of your audience in your

business/website.

Informational footer

Incorporating a footer is one of the best ways to provide your

visitors wealth of information without getting in the way of

website design.

You can include sitemap, about us, contact us, services, and

other important pages in the footer.

Don’t clutter the footer with tens of links – use only the

important ones.

Keep it simple and easy to use.

Your website is the gateway to new opportunities on the Web.

Be it your business or personal site, you need to bear in mind

these points while getting it designed.

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