You could spend hundreds of pounds creating your website, but visitors will quickly exit if it fails to capture their attention. On average, it only takes ten to twenty seconds for a user to decide whether to leave your website or stay and in today’s digital era, there are no second chances! You only get one first impression, and since this is derived from your website, making it as beautiful as possible is essential.
With the worldwide web getting increasingly crowded each day that goes by (1.13 billion to be precise!), the pressure is on for businesses to get themselves recognised amongst the masses, which is why a visually appealing website is crucial for capturing and retaining the attention of your visitors.
Not only can it produce organic traffic, but your website can set the tone for your brand, create a positive user experience, and establish credibility.
Fortunately, even if you’re not a web designing whiz equipped with key design principles, you can create a visually stunning website that captures audiences and keeps them returning for more. If you’re unsure where to begin, we detail five key principles to follow when creating a visually appealing website in our article below, from creating a user-friendly experience to outsourcing web design in Southampton – keep reading to learn more.
Simplistic Design
Think about all the websites you’ve used in your lifetime. Have you ever remained on a site that is challenging to navigate, has tons of pop-ups, and isn’t visually stimulating? We’ll take that as a no. Our brains are naturally hardwired to like order, so simplistic, clean designs are the best approach for your website, as it ensures visitors can easily navigate and understand your website.
Although designing a website is an exciting process, and we might get carried away with all the design elements, templates, effects, and other visuals we can use, we mustn’t go overboard and avoid cluttering pages with excessive text and graphics. Doing so will only achieve the opposite result and cause your website traffic (and search engine rankings!) to dwindle.
While designing your website, you should also keep plenty of white space between each piece of text or image so that your website remains spacious, unclutters and easy to read. Also, keep your decorative elements, like font and colour, consistent with your brand so that your website maintains its clean, simplistic design and reflects your brand’s visual identity well.
Don’t Be Afraid To Outsource
We often adopt a ‘DIY’ attitude regarding our business, as we’re usually reluctant to shell out for a service we feel we could do ourselves. And with many DIY templates and free-to-use website builders, why wouldn’t we design our website ourselves? However, think about how many DIY web designers use the same templates/web designers and how many web pages could look very similar to yours.
Ultimately, you want your website to be personal and reflect your brand values (not everyone else’s!). Since free-to-use templates/website builders can provide limited scope for customisation, many people outsource web design in Southampton and other areas to do the process on their behalf.
While it might cost a little more than taking care of it yourself (at times!), don’t be afraid to outsource if you feel like you need to –the decision can save you much time, effort, and expenses in the long run! To learn more, consider looking at bespoke web design from Freestyle Digital, which specialises in web design in Southampton.
Visit their website to browse their complete list of web design services, schedule a call with one of their team, check out their web design portfolio, and much more. Or contact a team member directly for specific inquiries, and discover how their web design services could help you build a visually appealing website today.
Consistent Branding
Branding is one of the most essential aspects for businesses of any size. However, it must be consistent; otherwise, it gets confusing! Therefore, your website must contain consistent branding to create a cohesive and professional website.
Consistent branding ensures that your brand is easily identifiable across all your digital platforms so new and returning customers can find you quickly. Plus, having a constant (and positive!) image means that new audiences are more likely to make purchases and return to your company in the future. You can create this consistency by ensuring your website aligns with your brand identity, including your logo, colours, typography, and overall style.
For instance, place your logo at the top of the page so that it’s easily recognisable, decorate headers, and backgrounds, using your brand colours, and choose legible fonts that reflect your brand’s personality. Consistent branding ensures a seamless brand image is created and helps users quickly identify/trust your brand.
Use of High-Quality Visuals
As discussed in our introduction, you can spend hundreds of pounds designing a website, but visitors will only stick around if it’s visually appealing! Therefore, it is essential that you incorporate high-quality visuals, such as images, videos, graphs, GIFs, and illustrations, so that you can create a visually appealing website.
However, you can’t use any visuals you come across due to complex rules and regulations; otherwise, you could incur legal repercussions! Fortunately, you can get around this by investing in professional photography or using free-to-use stock image sites like Shutterstock, Pixabay, and Pexels to find royalty-free images that align with your brand and content.
Yet, it is essential to use these visuals strategically to enhance your content and present information more engagingly. Incorporate eye-catching images/videos on your homepage, key landing pages, and within published content to capture the eye of new audiences and encourage them to stick around for more. But don’t forget to optimise all the visuals you use for web use to minimise loading times and improve user experience!
User-Friendly Experience
One of your top priorities when designing your website should be user experience (UX), as it is essential for seamlessly guiding visitors through your website. Thankfully there are many ways to achieve this, from implementing an easy-to-understand navigation menu and using concise labels for each menu item to adding a search bar at the top of the page and chatbots so queries can be resolved quickly.
Using these features, you can ensure that user experience is always a priority and that essential navigation options are always accessible, reducing the risk of visitors getting lost or frustrated.
Additionally, include visible calls-to-action (CTAs) that direct users to key conversion points, such as contact forms, product pages, or subscription options and use distinctive colours to ensure they aren’t missed.
Mobile-Friendly Design
We live in an age where it’s rare for our phones to be out of our hands for more than five minutes because we use them for almost every aspect of our personal and professional lives. One of the most popular uses for our smartphones is online shopping, highlighting the need for a website that supports mobile browsing.
Unlike computers, where you can see the whole website on screen, when you use a phone to browse, you can only see a little bit at a time, which is why it is essential that your site can adapt to different screen sizes and devices so that it functions optimally on desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
Optimise your website for mobile devices by implementing responsive design techniques, including a mobile-friendly layout, legible typography, and touch-friendly elements. To ensure that it works, you must conduct testing on different devices and screen sizes to ensure a smooth and consistent experience for all users.
