The 8 Most Important Principles of Web Design

Visual hierarchy is one of the most essential principles of good web design. It is the order in which the human eye perceives what it sees. An effective website design must fulfill its intended purpose by conveying your particular message while at the same time engaging the visitor. Several factors, such as consistency, colors, typography, images, simplicity and functionality, contribute to good website design.

Simplicity is the best way to go when you consider the user experience and the usability of your website. Below are ways to achieve simplicity through design. Color has the power to communicate messages and evoke emotional responses. Finding a color palette that fits your brand will allow you to influence the behavior of your customers towards your brand.

Keep color selection limited to less than 5 colors. Pleasant color combinations increase customer engagement and make the user feel good. Typography has an important role to play on your website. It attracts attention and works like the visual interpretation of the brand's voice.

Fonts must be legible and use only a maximum of 3 different fonts on the website. Navigation is the guidance system used on websites where visitors interact and find what they are looking for. Website navigation is key to retaining visitors. If website navigation is confusing, visitors will give up and find what they need somewhere else.

Keeping navigation simple, intuitive and consistent on every page is key. The visual hierarchy is the arrangement of elements in order of importance. This is done by size, color, images, contrast, typography, white space, texture and style. One of the most important functions of visual hierarchy is to establish a focal point; this shows visitors where the most important information is located. Waiting for a website to load will lose visitors. Nearly half of web visitors expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less, and potentially leave a site that isn't loaded in 3 seconds.

Optimizing image size will help your site load faster. As Ryan Singer, the developer of the 37Signals team, states, users would probably be eager to provide an email address if asked once they had seen the feature work, so they had an idea of what they were going to get in return. However, registration can be done in less than 30 seconds, since the form has landscape orientation, the user does not even need to scroll the page. Modern web designs are often criticized because of their approach of guiding users with visually appealing 1-2-3 step steps, large buttons with visual effects, etc. But from a design perspective, these elements are not bad at all.

On the contrary, these guidelines are extremely effective, as they guide visitors through the content of the site in a very simple and user-friendly way. Here are 10 principles to help guide the design of your next website: Paths to sections and content on your site should be clear and easy to use. Imagine an intersection with 3 street options instead of 10: simplicity makes travel better. In 1910, Max Wertheimer, a psychologist, observed a series of lights turning on and off at a railroad crossing. Nielsen originally developed these usability principles in 1990 but revised them for maximum clarity based on an analysis of 249 usability issues. Please note that these are not specific laws or guidelines but rather general rules.

It is for this reason that they are called “heuristics”.Elementor is the leading website creation platform for professionals on WordPress. Elementor serves web professionals including developers designers and marketers and has a new website created every 10 seconds on its platform. This is one of the most important features or principles that you should keep in mind and implement while designing a website. According to a survey conducted by Clutch they found that “almost everyone (94%) says that easy navigation is the most important feature of a website. It's true because if your site is difficult to navigate there's nothing easily available in the first place things might not work out. Easy navigation includes a simple menu design and the ability to quickly and reliably move around sites. Don't worry I have some tips to easily navigate your website.

You must design your page in such a way that even if the user reaches a 404 error page they must return to other pages or even leave your website. Give them options to perform other tasks as shown in the screenshot above. Consistency in website design matters a lot. Pay attention to combining design elements on each page. It can be understood that fonts sizes headings subtitles and button styles must be same throughout your website. Finalize correct fonts and colors for texts buttons etc., and stick with them throughout development.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) would be useful for keeping complete information about styles and design elements. Web design is a huge and complex field and there are thousands of principles for good web design. By following these 8 simple design principles you can create better websites that are aesthetically pleasing easy to navigate and encourage users to convert through solid CTA. The design principles are based on contributions from professionals from industries as diverse as psychology and behavioral sciences physics ergonomics and more. Over time these principles will become another way in which designers perfect their work and will naturally reach their peak. In a nutshell this principle states that most important elements of a website must be larger and visually more distinct from less important elements. The principle of mobile-friendly design is no longer an advantage but rather a necessity as use of mobile devices continues to grow. However there are many useful general principles and rules that can help improve projects in terms of usability and aesthetics when designing websites.

Gloria Foulke
Gloria Foulke

Wannabe twitter lover. Freelance social media maven. Friendly twitter nerd. Hipster-friendly zombie advocate. Avid zombie practitioner. Amateur baconaholic.