With competition reaching sky high limits in this online era, it is essential for businesses to create an exceptional website which serves as an outstanding online introduction of the business. Your website should have an edge over that of your competitors.
A wonderfully designed website alone will not work wonders for your business. It should help you build your brand and help frame your business strategy. An efficient team of designers must be hired to get customized web design concepts for different projects and your website must match with your business model. Expert designers make use of sophisticated tools to create a website as per your business niche. Such a website augments your online presence and helps your business march ahead.
Responsive Web Design Strategy
The introduction of a number of mobile devices has made responsive web designing more than UX oriented. Responsive web designing is now included by every business in their strategic plans. As a content creator, you need to be aware of your content marketing responsibilities and also what RWD is.
With responsive web design, you need to write content and publish it just once. The layout adapts itself as per the display screen size. The screens used by different users vary across the world. The display screen for a specific website is constantly changing. Your website must be designed in a manner that its layout adapts itself as per the size of the screen on which it is displayed.
Maintaining Consistency
Elements including color, layout, and font should be consistent in your website. A good website ensures smooth navigation from one page to another. To ensure consistency, you must keep in mind that font, color, and layout structure is the same all through your site. This will keep the users engaged to the website.
Avoid Stock Photography
Viewers often look for a practical depiction or representation of what the product is rather than glamour shots. Dry stock photos having a dull white background are not in. People appreciate a story with personality. Ensure that you use meaningful images on your site. Images are helpful in creating messages, which are delivered to the target audience, at the subconscious level.
Utilize Responsive Images
Responsive layouts help in creating different image sizes with different resolutions. This helps designers in developing images which are mobile-optimized. Such images are perfect for smaller screens and higher-resolution versions can be generated to fit screens of a larger size. One can use JavaScript and htaccess files with different sized images as per the width of the screen. There are tools such as TinySrc which let you prefix large images with a TinySrc URL and the remaining work is performed by the tool itself.
CSS Media Queries
You can gain cognizance about different ways to carry out subtle modifications or changes using media queries and you can also find ways of using media queries on a single style-sheet through tutorial from CSS-tricks. For instance, when it comes to fluid-width design having a sidebar which is 35 percent of the original width of the page, then depending on the browser window’s original width, one could easily tell what could be done in case the browser is narrow/wider/or quite wide.
Make use of Responsive Data tables
Responsive Data tables are wide and necessitate the user to scroll horizontally and vertically for a clear view. One solution for this is to reformat the table for better readability. Another way out is to display a pie-chart or graph as per the data in the table. You can also fit the table into an effective mini-graphic which is suitable for narrow screens.
An effective navigation system serves as a soul of the website. It must support all search preferences. A good website is one which helps visitors find the information they are looking for, in an easy and effective way. Following are the features an efficient navigation system should possess:-
=> Simplicity
=> Navigation controls on website footer
=> Breadcrumbs on every page except homepage
=> Visible search box on the top of the website
=> Limit navigation levels to three
=> Explain the destinations of the links inserted on your webpage
=> Simple interface
Avoid Using Excessive Flash and Animation
If possible, you must minimize the use of JavaScript and Flash. A number of mobile devices do not support Flash and this would serve as a hindrance for navigability of the site. Switch to HTML5 wherever applicable. For those websites which require animations, HTML5 is the best option. HTML5 substitutes Flash perfectly.
Make Your Site Reachable
If you wish to have good amount of traffic to your website, then you have to make it compatible to the browsers and devices on which it is viewed. No matter what the application or browser visitors are using, they must be able to access your website.
Usability
The success of a website relies highly on its usability. A user-centric design can reap benefits for a profit-oriented website. Even if your website is not that eye-catching, it will fare well and invite more traffic if it has high usability. For this it is important to make the user aware of the functions available on your site. Feature exposure lends a good user interface design. Your website must encourage interactions from visitors.
Focus On Writing Style
Web content writing is not the same as the content written for print media. Users’ browsing habits and preferences need to be considered while writing web content. Objective language must be used instead of a promotional one. Long text blocks without keywords and images are the most disinteresting things a website can have. Talk business with clean and crisp content. Categorize your content by using subheadings, bulleted lists and visual elements.
Utilize Negative Space
Make the best use of negative space in your web design. Ensure that visitors are able to figure out what they have on the screen without much effort. Designers need not worry too much about negative space while making a website. First create the website as you would usually do then review the site to remove the stuff wherever required.
Test Early, Test Often
TETO principle is followed for all web design projects. Usability tests greatly provide critical insights into major issues and problems related to a specific layout. Test early and go for comprehensive tests.
All in all it can be said that there is a common line that runs between web designing and fashion designing. In this rapidly changing environment, it is difficult to say what will last and how long. Carrying out your own ideas is a better option than following a set of trends.
Images: Author’s Own
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