Having an appealing and functional website is essential for any company that wants to be present in the digital world. It is through the website that your customers have access to all the information they need: who you are, what you offer, your contacts, your location and even “extra” informative content. Your website is like your company’s digital home and this is where the importance of web design comes in.
Just as when building a house, we want the main structure to be safe, efficient and durable, the same is true when we build our digital home. The foundation of this structure should offer a secure and functional website. But, once built, we want our house to also be pleasing to the eye, inside and out. For our website, we want it to be harmonious and appealing to users.
Webdesign is the component of design that is concerned with the creation and decoration of a website. But, unfortunately, some essential bases of webdesign are not always fulfilled in order to design an appealing and functional website. Although they are not rules in themselves, there are certain procedures that will make your website a pleasant user experience and thus bring the results you want: more visits, contacts, subscriptions, sales, etc.
Today we are going to talk about the 10 most common mistakes in web design and how they can be avoided:
1. DO NOT FOCUS THE DESIGN ON THE USER
When users enter a website, they expect their needs to be addressed and their doubts resolved quickly and clearly. In a few seconds they form an opinion and decide to stay or leave, depending on their experience. That’s why it’s essential to design a website with good user interface design, so that the interaction is as simple, intuitive and efficient as possible.
2. MISUSE OR LACK OF CTA’S
Some websites don’t use CTA’s (Call’s to Action) or use it incorrectly. But CTAs are the key to generating conversions. When used in a strategic and clear way they encourage and direct the user to certain actions in your favor: buy, call, send an email, subscribed,
3. NON-RESPONSIVE DESIGN
Prioritising a responsive design for any device should be one of the priorities when creating a website. It is important that your website fits and works well on a computer, tablet or smartphone, as all these devices have different sizes, different navigation modes and therefore require a design adapted to each one.
4. LACK OF CONFORMITY WITH THE RGPD BASE CRITERIA
Since the General Data Protection Regulation there are certain practices to be implemented on a website to ensure the privacy of user data. Examples like a privacy policy and cookies pages are mandatory when building a website. It is important that the user feels safe when signing up/subscribing to your website.
5. USE OF STRONG COLORS
When we want our website to be appealing, draw attention and “grab” the user, we can fall into the risk of thinking that use strong and vibrant colors is the solution. But actually, this will create the opposite effect, it will tire the user and eventually make him quit. Another error can be the combination of colors, which can, once again, tire the user’s eyes. This doesn’t mean that the use of color is prohibited and that you should only use neutral colors, on the contrary. The important is that this use is thought out, balanced and with light combinations for our eyes.
6. TOO MUCH INFORMATION/ADVERTISING
The need to make sure our website is as complete as possible and has all the information the costumer may need can be tricky. A website with too much information will, once again, tire not only the user’s eyes but also the browsing experience itself. The user will get confused and eventually choose to leave the page and look for what they need on another website.
Too much information can also come with too much advertising. When a website has too many pop ups attention will be diverted from what really matters: the content.
7. LINKS THAT DON’T WORK
One thing that can generate more frustration for a user when visiting a website is that the links present do not work. We have already mentioned that it is essential that the user experience should be as easy and pleasant as possible. Not being able to access what he want will make the experience difficult and frustrating.
8. MISUSE OF FONTS
A good part of our website will be made up of text and therefore the text is a very important part that should not be undervalued. Companies often make the mistake of using fonts that are too big to draw attention, too small to take up less space and/or using too many different fonts to create a diversified design. But all this will make the design confusing and unbalanced.
Fonts are an essential element for your message to be transmitted as clearly as possible. That’s why we should always choose a maximum of two different fonts, easy to read and with a reasonable size for readability. The sizes of titles, subtitles and text should not differ too much, in order to have a visual balance.
9. MISUSE OF THE VISUAL HIERARCHY
The design works one of the most important parts of a website: the looks. Before reading the content, the user will look at the website and analyse the design. That’s why it’s so important that your website is visually appealing and pleasant. Of course, we all have different tastes and we will like different designs, but a good visual hierarchy is the basis so that, regardless of the taste, the user feels pleased with what he is seeing. A good visual hierarchy requires harmony in the size of the images, the different sizes of text blocks, the use of colors and so on. The most important thing is that all the elements of the website are in tune.
10. DIFFERENT DESIGN STYLES
In addition to what was mentioned above, the design of the website must be the same on all pages and on the same page. Using the same fonts, the same style of language, the same quality of images, the same colors, throughout the website is essential for it to be cohesive. It is important that the website transmits the image of the brand and that it continuously maintains it on all pages.
If you want to avoid all these mistakes and make your website an intuitive and appealing experience for your audience, talk to us!
