6 Ways to improve your website design for better usability

The design of your website can make or break your business’s success. A well-designed website will compliment your brand’s message and successfully convert visitors into customers and clients. But if your website is lacking in design, chances are your visitors will simply move on to the competitor’s site. And while an attractive website design is largely subjective, there are some basic principles that make up a good design. If you think there’s something missing with your website design or if your website is not converting well, the tips in this article may help you achieve better results:

• Large and clean typography
• Attractive images
• White space
• Contrast between elements
• Creative use of icons
• Simple and fast transitions

Large and clean typography

Large text and attractive typography on your website will help your visitors easily notice the main message or information that you want to share with them. You can also make important text bolder, change its color, or emphasize it to grab the attention of your website visitors. Larger text also makes the content on your website easier to read. Remember to use short paragraphs and break up long sections of text with interesting headings, bullet points or else.

Attractive images

Optimizing text on your website to satisfy your visitors is a good thing. But you can do better by using adding captivating images. Visually content is very powerful and miraculously affects our feelings, moods, and even our actions. In an ideal situation, you would use professional photos of your company, employees and products. However, if you currently don’t have the time or budget to invest in a professional photo shoot or in case you need some general high-quality images, you can make use of stock photography websites to add some flair to your website.

White space

White space is the empty space between elements that is intentionally left to give an elegant, clean and uncluttered look to your website. White space can make your most important content stand out and contribute to the visual hierarchy on your website. An important thing to keep in mind is that white space doesn’t actually have to be white – in fact, it can be a solid colored background void of any other design elements that would distract from the main message.

Contrast between elements

Contrast isn’t just about color. You have to think about size contrast as well. White space can help you achieve color contrast to help your visitors differentiate between elements on your website. Size contrast is important when you don’t intend to play too much with colors in your design. Size contrast can help you arrange the visual hierarchy on your website. Just like typography, you have to add some size to your elements to make them look more important than other elements.

Creative use of icons

Icons can be used to add extra visual appeal to your website or to tell visitors what will happen when they click on particular links or elements. You can use icons throughout your website to bring attention to your menu items, call-to-action buttons or else. Naturally, don’t forget to include your social media icons to refer visitors to your social networks as well. Your valuable audience can be powerful communicators, so make sure you use that to your advantage.

Simple and fast transitions

Nowadays, it’s also quite popular to use transitions between page sections, especially if you have a one-page website. For example parallax effects can provide a smooth transition from one section of the page to another. If you’re considering using such transitions, animations or other effects on your website, make sure they are smooth, fast and have the minimum impact on page load times. This will avoid user frustration while still adding visual appeal to your well-designed website.

Conclusion: Design improvements for better usability

We hope you like the suggested design improvements for your website. You also may want to consider other improvements based on your personal needs to make your website stand out. That’s perfectly fine. But remember, the most important thing when it comes to design is that every element on your website has a purpose, not just randomly adding elements here and there. Try to optimize your website as much as possible, so that you don’t risk losing customers, which could hurt your business. Do you have other suggestions for common design principles?