7 Web Design Principles Every Business Owner Should Know
Whether you are looking for a new favorite coffee shop or trying to purchase a pet, most people start by looking at business websites before they see a storefront. Your business website has to make a good first impression on potential customers. Your website has the power to drive sales, market your brand, and even recruit top employees.
Business owners need to know the basic principles of web design so that way, you can quickly fix details on the site and know what to look for if you are hiring someone else to perform the job.
Why Does Your Business Need a Well Designed Website?
Your website is usually the first impression your business makes on potential customers, making it the first step toward building trust with your customers. Trustworthiness is a top priority for most customers. They want to make sure they are purchasing from a company that holds the same principles they do.
Your website is where potential customers will get information about your company and the products or services it offers. But it is not enough to have your vision statement on the site. You build trustworthiness between your business and your customers by having a website that has everything laid out in such a way that it is easy for customers to find what they need.
What Web Design Principles are Key
Understanding basic web design is a benefit to every business owner. Knowing what customers are looking for on your website helps you make sure that it is intuitive and clear. And knowing the basics will also help you to spot potential problems before they become issues for your customers. There are only a few fundamental principles to keep in mind, so it is relatively easy for a busy business owner to navigate.
1. Less is More
Minimalism is the trend right now for websites. Gone are the days of adding flashing boxes and spinning palm trees to highlight parts of your website. Instead, focus on creating clean lines and adding only the necessary information. If you need to have a specific piece of information highlighted, set it off to the side. However, if you try to do this too often, your customers will become confused about what information is important.
2. Readability
Use clean font styles that enhance readability for customers. When you use some of the more artistic fonts, it might be pretty to look at from a creative standpoint, but if readers cannot read the font easily, they will skip another website. This means another company will get their business. Make sure that your font color stands out from your background color enough that your customers do not have to strain to read it.
3. Consistency
Be sure that you are consistent in both style and content on your website. Stick to only two or three font styles, usually one for titles, one for subtitles, and one for body text. Using too many different fonts, colors, or formats can confuse customers and prevent them from trusting your business to provide them with the products and services they are looking for while maintaining excellent customer service.
4. Images, Photographs, and Videos
It is crucial to pick the right images and videos for your business. Adding a video or picture that only loosely connects to your products or services can confuse potential customers. Or using videos or images whose color scheme clashes with the rest of the website could cause potential customers to click off your site. A disjointed website could also lead to customers not fully trusting your business and seek out another company to use.
5. Navigation
If your website is challenging to navigate, potential customers will not spend the time trying to figure out what they are looking for. Make your menu items clear so that customers can easily navigate the right section of your website to find what they need. Give clear titles to your pages, not cute or funny ones.
If you need to add subheaders to organize your products or services further to make your website more accessible, do that, but don’t add them unnecessarily. Make sure your clients can find the information they need in as few clicks as possible. Ideally, two to three clicks are the maximum.
6. Attract New Users and Customers
You only have eight seconds to grab a potential customer’s attention and keep them on your website to look around. Make sure to include concise headlines for any articles or blog posts you include on your site. Explain what your site is about on your homepage. If readers have to guess what products or services you are selling or what type of information they are going to get, they will not continue to look around.
7. Communication
Communication is key to any business, but it is especially important on your website. Your customers aren’t speaking directly with you, so your site has to talk to you. Product and service descriptions need to be clear and concise. It would help if you broke up blocks of information into smaller pieces by using headers, subheaders, bullet points, and short paragraphs.
How Can a Website Benefit Your Business?
Websites generate traffic for a business. When people use a search engine to find products, services, or information available, your business is more likely to come up with a recommendation if you have a website and not just social media pages.
Having a website also encourages and increases customer interaction. You can have a contact form for customers to get in touch with you or even an instant chat feature allowing your customers to get their questions answered in real-time.
Why You Should Hire a Professional
While business owners need to know the key points of web design, there are many more details that you don’t have time to worry about while running your business. That’s why it is good to hire a professional web designer to help with the initial design and continued upkeep of your website.
Professionals are there to work with you to create the perfect website for your business. Knowing the key points of web design will help you choose the right firm to work with. You can find lots of web design firms all over the world or find a web design firm in NYC to help make your website as amazing as your business.
Launch Your Website
The key points for a successful website are easy enough to remember and master. Keep those key points in mind as you work with a professional web designer to make your website work for your business. Remember to keep your site simple, clean, and easy to navigate, and your customers will thank you by returning to your website again and again.