What Makes a Good Website Design

When we create an online business, we worry about offering the best first impression to new visitors. Our web page not only has to be an extensive catalogue of our products or services; it has to be the tool that gets you conversions instead of just visitors, and having a good website design is the secret. But how do we do this? Where do we start? We unveil the mystery for you to understand how important this topic is.

Spoiler alert: its not as tricky as you may think. The key to having an astounding web design in Melbourne is thinking first about your audience, and then adapting their needs to the page. Let’s take a look around, shall we?

ux website design interface

Consider The UX First

We have said it before, user experience (UX) and the user interface (UI) are game changers. Having a usable web page means making every corner of the site accessible enough for the visitor.

Have you visited a website that really draws your attention but you end up closing it because it is too busy? You are not the only one; statistics show that you only get 5 to 10 seconds to convince the visitor before he or she closes the site forever.

Including UX in your web design makes it understandable for the reader; it’s like when you invite someone to your house, if it is not clean or comfortable, people won’t like visiting you that often.

Make sure all the buttons and menus are easy to view and readable when they first visit, use images to draw the attention without boring the visitors, use pop-ups if you want to, but not too many, and personalize the content to what your audience is looking for.

Really Work On the About Us Page

Every digital business has two things in common: 1) They have a home page 2) They have an About Us page.

Many potential customers want to know what your business is about; the about us section is part of a good web design because it’s an easy way to engage with the visitors.

The homepage is the first impression people get about your company, and the about us page is where they really connect.

Talk about the history of your brand, where is it based, how did you come up with this idea, what you do and how: but don’t settle with technical words that do not create an emotional response from the reader, always keep a friendly tone without being disrespectful.

Include a Search Bar

Your website is the ultimate marketing tool, take advantage of it! Make it easier for the visitors to find what they are looking for.

As we said, the secret to a good web design is to think about the visitors first. Their time is vital, and if they don’t see what they are looking for fast, your last chance to catch them is through the search bar.

It doesn’t matter if you consider your website to be well divided or explicit enough, always include a search bar for a better user experience.

Use Space Wisely

This one is for all the web designers that love binding together videos, music, pictures and words.

There is no need to have them all on the one page; remember that many visitors come from mobile traffic, and automatic playlists, videos or pop-ups mess with the user experience.

Instead of using all these resources at the same time, distribute them throughout your site’s pages. For example, a nice homepage should include short texts and high-quality images related to the business.

You can leave the videos and the music for particular sections, and we strongly advise not to make them play automatically.

via GIPHY

Make It Responsive

Now that we have mentioned the mobile traffic, it is time to remind you not only to update your site often, but to make it responsive to smartphones.

A good web design for mobiles has to be easy to navigate, independently of the smartphone the visitor is using.

That means, avoid pop-ups whenever possible, make the menu buttons big enough to be read but not too big to disturb the reader, and it wouldn’t hurt you to optimize the site for voice searches either.

Make the Contact Information Visible Enough

A good quality interface includes allowing the visitor the possibility to contact you for a personalized quote or to request more detailed information about a particular service.

Do not hide the contact information from the reader, because you will make him work harder. It’s not that they are lazy, it’s just the way internet browsing works. We want things to be at our reach, and if we have to click too many times, we get bored or fed up and jump to the next page.

The contact information section must be visible, whether you want it as a page in the top menu bar or at the end of the homepage. It must gather your corporate email, phone numbers and address if possible.

call to action buttons

Do Not Be Afraid of Using CTAs

Sometimes, the buying decision can be changed to your benefit thanks to the call to action buttons.

Words like “contact us”, “get started”, “subscribe now”, “are you going to miss this opportunity?” and “go premium” tingle the readers head and seduce them to click.

If the CTAs come along with an amazing offer like discounts or free trials, even better!

Distribute wisely these call to actions throughout your site, sit back and see your conversion rate go through the roof. But if you have any trouble with this or need some guidance, our team of web designers in Melbourne has your back.

Work With the Visual Hierarchy

Another great idea for having a good website design is working with the visual hierarchy; certain parts of your site are more important than others, you determine this by creating a business or marketing plan.

For example, if your intention is to attract subscribers or to sell specific products for a particular season of the year, make those sections more visible than the others.

The intention is to persuade the viewer; maybe they are visiting your site looking for a pair of winter boots, but if you need to sell more coats, show them a picture of a winter jacket followed by the boots they are looking for.

The visual hierarchy is a strategy widely used for many homepage web designers; you can change the hierarchy according to your marketing plan anytime.

Capture Your Audience with Video

The use of video has become one of the most important tools when it comes to inbound marketing strategies. Not only are we talking about videos on websites but also introducing videos on platforms such as YouTube, Facebook or Instagram. Video marketing statistics show that worldwide, 51% of marketing professionals claim that video provides the best return on investment above all other forms of content. 

Website visitors are consuming video content more than ever before and that trend is only up from here. Moving from text and images to video has become a fast transition and businesses who don’t incorporate some of this strategy will be left behind. 

Users browsing the internet have a short attention span, and using videos will allow the user to consume more content, faster. Not only does video improve consumption but it’s also great for SEO (search engine optimisation). An important ranking factor on how a site ranks in search results is how long the visitor stays on a webpage for, the longer the visit the more important Google recognises the webpage is.

Hick’s Law

Our final advice is to narrow down the visitor choices. Have you visited a restaurant that has a menu with dozens of options? Maybe you got there knowing more or less what you wanted, but when you see a big menu, it takes you longer to decide.

That is the Hick’s law, every additional choice increases the decision time. So, at least for your homepage, present the most requested items or the ones you need to sell the most, and then divide the rest of your products into different sections.

Had you thought about these tips for having a good website design? For further information on this, Design Point offers you the best web design in Melbourne so get in contact with us today.