Simplicity
Website design affects simplicity. Unnecessary features will annoy users. Keep it simple.
Avoid over-designing your website. Simple sites last longer.
Consistency
You should aim to reduce as much noise as possible in your website design. Therefore, each page must have matching design elements. It covers font styles, sizes, headers, subsections, button colors, button sizes, logo placement, and more.
This requires two things. First comes the brand style guide, then CSS. The term “CSS” refers to Cascading Style Sheets, which include information about design.
Alignment
Consistency includes alignment. With misaligned pieces, your website will not establish consistency.
The visuals must complement the site’s general tone and, in particular, the content. This technique helps maintain brand purpose and identity.
Compliance
Compliance relates to the website’s security, which should be smoothly incorporated into the web design.
There are predefined rules and laws to go by in web design and development. One example is the GDPR.
Additionally, mechanisms like Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) are available to guarantee that the personal user data on your website is protected.
Typography
Text and images matter equally. Text content must help people find information. Thus, make the text engaging aesthetically pleasing, and optimized.
Website performance, especially on search engines, depends on text readability and comprehension. Keywords and metadata are essential.
Intuitive navigation
The ability to navigate a website allows people to do what they want and move around the homepage. Thus, navigation should be easy enough for users to quickly know where to head or click next.
A structured page hierarchy makes navigation easy. Bread crumbs and the three-click rule are excellent today. Using device-specific clickable or tappable buttons is refreshing.
Rule of thirds
The rule of thirds applies to images. Websites communicate visually.
Split the image in nine equal parts using the rule of thirds. Compositional elements must follow horizontal, vertical, and intersecting lines.
Do this to grab attention. Any website can benefit from engaging visuals.
Minimalism
Minimalist websites have lots of negative space.
Minimalist designs simplify the interface. Remove unneeded or, non-user-friendly items.
A balance between usefulness and aesthetics should be maintained while you’re at it.
Fast loading
Believe it or not, but page loading time is now a part of web design principles. This has been the case ever since Google designated speed as a ranking factor. Other than that, users hate websites that take forever to load.
Make sure that the website loads in 5 seconds or less. The rule of thumb is the faster, the better. So, optimize the images, combine codes in one central JavaScript or CSS file, and minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, among other speed optimization tips.
Mobile compatibility
Responsiveness is a factor that is related to speed. You want a website that works across browsers and devices.
Mobile compatibility/friendliness is vital. Internet competition necessitates a responsive layout.
Call to action
One way that the design supports the business objectives is by putting the right calls to action.
There are differing perspectives on using calls to action. Nonetheless, there should always be one call to action button on a page. If there are multiple calls to action, emphasize the most important one with a larger button or different color, using a special icon.
