How to Create a User-Friendly Website Design
User-friendly web design is, as its name suggests, friendly or simple for people to use, navigate, discover information, and find their way around. As it should be, modern consumers have high expectations for website design, functionality, and performance. With so many innovative web design and development trends emerging almost daily, stumbling upon a mediocre website is simply disheartening.
Investing in a user-friendly design to retain visitors on your website and encourage them to return is no longer a suggestion; it’s a requirement.
The success of any online business or organisation depends on the creation of a user-friendly website layout. A user-friendly layout can aid in boosting engagement, enhancing the user experience, and ultimately driving conversions. In this article, we will discuss key principles and strategies for designing a website that is user-friendly.
1. Keep things basic
Simplicity is one of the most essential principles of user-friendly website design. Your site’s visitors should be able to swiftly and easily comprehend its purpose and how to navigate it. This includes employing plain and concise language, avoiding cluttered layouts, and reducing the number of available options.
2. Utilise a Responsive Layout
Utilising a responsive design is another important principle of user-friendly website development. This implies that your website should be adaptable to various screen sizes and devices, including desktop computers, smartphones, and tablets. A website with a responsive design is accessible to all users regardless of their device or location.
3. Prioritise Navigation
When a visitor lands on a website, they frequently turn to the navigation bar for orientation. The navigation bar is essential because it stays with the site visitor throughout their journey and functions as a means to return to the home page.
Additionally, you should limit the number of categories in your navigation bar so that it doesn’t become too cumbersome, and you should position it in the same location on each page. Conduct A/B tests on your bar, experimenting with subtly different positions, tab configurations, and even wording. This will inform you of what users prefer and what functions best on your website.
4. Make it available
Accessibility is an additional crucial aspect of user-friendly website design. Your website should be accessible to users with disabilities, such as those with visual or hearing impairments. This includes using alt tags for images, providing transcripts for videos, and ensuring that your website is accessible with a keyboard.
5. Choose Colour Carefully
Carefully select the colours for your website. There must be a harmonious relationship between attractiveness and clarity. Not only must your colour scheme be appropriate for your industry, but the contrast between the background and text must be sufficient so that visitors can read the text without straining their eyes.
6. Optimise Load Times
Load time is an important factor in determining the viability of a website. When people click on the link to your website, it must load promptly. If it takes longer to display, users will abandon the site. According to studies, people abandon a website if it takes longer than ten seconds to display, as the user’s attention span is rapidly diminishing.
To have a website with a rapid loading time, remove all unused additional elements. Your website will be slowed down by an excess of videos and other multimedia. It is difficult to create a user-friendly website when numerous websites have additional elements that make site pages slow to display.
Therefore, request that your professional graphic designer minimise the number of videos and large images on your website.
Compressing your code is another effective method to increase the load time of your website. Download some compressing software, such as Gzip, to accomplish this. Then, compress each file individually. This reduces the number of HTTP responses. Keep in mind that more HTTP responses result in increased server traffic, which slows down a website.
7. Employ Explicit Calls to Action
A distinct call-to-action is also necessary for a user-friendly website. Although it seems obvious that your visitors will locate the CTC buttons, it would be prudent to make them alluring so that they are compelled to click. You shouldn’t leave your visitors unsure of what to do on a page.
Ensure that your web designer makes the call-to-action on each page functional so that it can attract visitors. Among the attractive text-based call-to-action icons are Download Now, Click Here to Order, Learn More, Get x product free, and Contact Us.
8. Employ White Space
For a more user-friendly website, judiciously distribute elements such as text and images. Consider white space as a means of ensuring effectiveness. White space is the empty area between two elements.
White space between two elements provides visual relief for the reader. This serves to keep a visitor on your site for a longer period of time. Due to lack of capacity, the site page will appear crowded and congested, making the page less readable. However, due to the ample white space, readers can concentrate on the adjacent titles and text.
Studies have shown that user attention increases by 20% when there is a lot of white space around titles and text. If a page has sufficient white space, there is a sense of vitality and openness.
However, maintain a balance, as excessive vacant space can result in insufficient information. Therefore, establish a balance by placing the most important information first. Leave space around the text or images at the top to emphasise them.
9. Use Images and Videos of High Quality
Images and videos are essential components of user-friendly web design. Images and videos of high quality can help to engage users and convey your message more effectively. It is essential, however, to optimise images and videos for the web so that they do not drag down your website.
10. Test and Refine
Lastly, testing and iteration are essential for designing a user-friendly website. You should test your website with actual users to identify areas for improvement, then iterate your design to resolve these problems. Over time, this iterative process can lead to a more effective and user-friendly website design.
FAQS
Using your navigation and page names, they should be able to navigate your site without any conjecture. Page names do not contain jargon or unfamiliar abbreviations. The website’s architecture is straightforward and logically organised.
A user-friendly website facilitates the search for information on any device. Because your website is user-friendly, users spend more time interacting with it, which ultimately leads to conversions.
The site must be user-friendly. Image, identity, brand, and other design elements are employed to elicit emotion and appreciation. Content must be navigable and discoverable both on and off-site. The content must be accessible to individuals with disabilities.
Conclusion
Designing a user-friendly website is essential to establishing a prosperous online presence. By adhering to the aforementioned principles and strategies, you can create a website that is user-friendly, visually appealing, and effective at attaining your business objectives.
