When it comes to new website design, the design aspect is often at the forefront of your mind – what is it going to look like? However, a website is more than just a nice design. There are many elements involved from SEO to achieving brand awareness and creating a smooth customer experience. You are competing with many other businesses, both locally and internationally, so simply having an aesthetically pleasing site is not sufficient. The key is ensuring that your website is user-friendly, so here are some ways to make sure this is the case:

Design is important

Although design is not everything, it certainly is a key part of your website. However, it’s not just about imagery; it’s about making sure the design makes your website user-friendly too. Creating white space around any text and imagery helps to create a clear layout that is easy to follow, and it can be useful for highlighting more important elements of your site. If you’re selling a particular product or service, your design should reflect that, and direct your visitors visually to the things they are most likely to be looking for. Within this, your website colours and theme should also reflect your core brand, to provide a consistent feel across your site, and create a smooth buyer journey and brand recognition.

Simple and concise information

Research suggests that keeping information simple and concise encourages more visitors to read the information given. Keep text to a minimum and say what you want in a few key points. Use headers to break up sections of text, as this prevents information from appearing overwhelming on the page, which can deter people from reading. Studies show that websites using the “F” Principle can generate greater engagement than those which don’t – this means laying out your key information in the shape of an “F” (such as the menu being on the left/top, headers going across the page). This is the natural pattern that a reader’s eye follows when clicking onto a new page, so websites that embrace this can see far lower bounce rates.

Easy-to-follow menu structures

Have you ever struggled to find something on a website, only to be met by endless drop down menu options and no idea where to click onto? A menu structure should be split into clear headers such as “About Us”, “Services” and “Contact Us” with minimal options. These may have drop down options too, but keeping them to the relevant section makes your website more user-friendly since visitors will find it easier to look for the exact information they need. Keep the menu levels at a maximum of 2 drop down levels for best-practice and user-friendly web design.

Cater to desktop and mobile users

Every year, there is a growing number of mobile users searching online, meaning that it’s important to consider your website for both desktop and mobile users. Consider a responsive grid structure layout that will adapt for mobile users to give them a user-friendly experience where they can navigate as normal and see the website optimised for use on a small screen.

For more best practice advice from Iconic Digital, take a look at their latest digital news.