What Makes a Great Website?

In today’s market, great websites are the cornerstone of a successful business. They serve multiple functions by impressing potential customers, representing your brand, boosting your SEO, and providing the best possible experience for visitors. To that end, creating a website that isn’t just good but great is essential. Read on to discover exactly what makes a website great, below.

A great user experience

User experience (UX) is all about how a website user experiences your site. It’s a vital aspect of successful website design because good UX will minimise customer frustration and increase loyalty.

Put simply, if a customer enjoys the experience of using your website they are more likely to visit again, which is essential if you want to build a relationship and encourage sales. To that end, choosing a website design that puts the experience of your customer first is one of the best things you do.

A clear purpose

One way to put your customer’s experience (UX) at the center of your website design is to make sure that every page has a clear purpose.

For example, websites that are designed to primarily provide access to a service will need to be designed in a different way to ones that focus on providing information to the user. This is because the needs of each type of user will be different and website design should be customised to these needs.

However, it is worth noting that there are some commonalities that all websites will share concerning purpose. These include establishing the credibility of your brand, building your reputation, driving sales, and supporting customers once they have made a purchase. Therefore it’s crucial that no matter the other purposes of your website, your design also supports these functions.

A great user interface (UI)

Parallel to UX, there is UI otherwise known as user interface design. A UI is the gateway that allows users to interact with a digital system. UI is a critical part of great website design because without it there will be a barrier to visitors being able to understand, interact, and use your website effectively.

Factors such as simple page layouts, consistency of colours and fonts, and the use of whitespace can all contribute to successful UI design. Making sure that the UI reflects the intuitive needs of the user in a way that makes sense to them is also a vital aspect to consider.

Another aspect of successful UI is listening to the data from analytics and initial tests. Indeed, you will be able to see very clearly if any UI design elements are not meeting your clients’ needs, because they will not be using them. In turn, this data will allow you to improve them as necessary.

Great responsiveness

Responsiveness is also something that can be impacted by website design. A responsive site loads quickly, and on any device, including mobile ones. This is something essential for companies looking to meet the needs of today’s users and gain their business. Unfortunately, if your website is not responsive enough (has a slow loading time) it will cause users to navigate away and sales to be lost.

Although, ensuring responsiveness can be challenging because of the different aspect ratios that each type of device uses. With that in mind, opting for a mobile-first website design approach can be helpful here.

That is, instead of designing your site to be viewed on a desktop first and then converting it to mobile, you design a site with the specifications of mobile devices in mind. Factors such as limiting content, optimising images, and using the right scale for buttons can be particularly effective in this process.

Great navigation

For your website to serve your business as effectively as possible you will need to address website navigation in its design. Navigation is all about making sure visitors can move around your site in a fast and efficient manner.

The best way to achieve this is by keeping things as clear for the user as possible. Fortunately, there are several tactics you can use that will help you achieve this. The first is using the terms in the navigation bar that are familiar to your audience rather than jargon.

Next, designing a great menu hierarchy is also crucial. Indeed, there are a range of menu styles to choose from, including horizontal bar menus and top-down menus, among others. The latter being especially useful if you have a large amount of information to convey to visitors that would overwhelm a single horizontal bar.

Using a breadcrumb navigation approach can also be helpful here. This is because it allows visitors to keep tabs on their location no matter where they are on your site. Therefore allowing them to always making find their way back to a relevant page or category no matter how deep they go.

Great visual design

Visuals matter just as much as any other type of design when it comes to creating a great website for your business. Remember, no customer wants to look at or use a website that is cluttered, confusing, or visually jarring.

Fonts

Choosing fonts that reflect your brand and company image is an important aspect of web design. Smart font choices can help to convey both professionalism and consistency, as well as aesthetics.

Suitable font choices (fonts made to be used on the web) are also crucial as they help improve the readability of your site which will contribute to a better user experience (UX).

Colours

Colour is paramount to successful website design too. Bright neons and dark blacks may seem like the most striking combination, but they can be pretty hard on the eyes of the user. Instead, staying with a more muted colour palette and limiting the number of colours used can help to keep things much easier on the eye!

Remember to pick colours that sit close to each other on the colour wheel too (complementary colours) as these will create a much more harmonious effect for the user.

Images

In addition to the colours and the type you choose for your website, the images you pick can have a distinct effect as well. Images such as photos, vectors, diagrams, and illustrations are some of the first things visitors will see, so that means they contribute to making that all-important first impression. Indeed, studies have shown that visitors decide whether to stay on a site within the first 50 milliseconds of arriving!.

With that in mind, using images on your website that are professional, of great quality, and that has a sense of consistent visual story is the best approach. This means staying away from stock footage where possible. Instead, limit your design to custom-created images that best reflect your business’s brand and values.

Resources

We have found some great videos to help you understand what makes great web design. Click the videos below, and start improving your designs work today.