Different designers have different methodologies to create designs, but is there a way to create professional designs with the best results every single time using a set of practices? There are a few best practices that might help you with that. Best practices of web design aim to simplify the web design process into some set of systems and procedures which when followed, lead to a professional web design.
Web Design Practices
Every web designer may have their own way of designing and their own set of practices that they follow to achieve a better and more professional design. But there are certain best practices that are followed by most of designers and in this article, we will shed light on those principles.
Components of Web Design
There are various steps in the process of web design and multiple components of web design. The following are the most important components of web design
- Research and Analysis – taking surveys, and presenting information to stakeholders.
- Creating wireframes and prototypes with tools like Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch, etc.
- Working on Layout and Structure, Typography, Color Scheme, etc.
- Creating the final user interface.
- Working on the graphics and visual elements of the design.
- Measuring how designs are performing, taking feedback and iterating.
Best Web Design Practices
Here is a list of web design practices recommended by experienced web designers for creating professional web designs:
- The Golden Ratio: The golden ratio is the best way to choose the perfect font size for your web design. Choose a base font size for example 14 pixels, then multiply it by 1.618 to find the next font size up. So that is about is about 23 pixels and so on. This will help you make your designs more interesting and a little bit more dramatic.
- Using More Animations: Animations will make your design look more interesting. They can help with catching the eyes of the user but also they can also be used to inform your user what’s happening on the website or to give feedback like a loading screen. Now note that you don’t need to be a motion designer to add animations to your design. Animating any element takes just a few clicks when designing your website.
- Decide on a Primary Action Color: Decide on a primary action color to create contrast between different elements. This will help your visitors know what’s important and maybe what’s not as important. For example, you can use a bright color to draw attention to an order button.
- Find Web Design Inspiration from Other Websites: The best designers always look out for inspiration. Look at websites where you can find really cool designs for inspiration for your own website designs. For example, awwwards is a great website if you are looking for the trending designs.
- Use Grids Effectively: Grids can be used for alignment to create a well-organized and balanced web design. But grids can do much more, you can use them for creating unusual and visually interesting structures. Grids are easy to set up and can help you create better designs.
- Use Flexbox: Flexbox is such an amazing tool for web designers. It can be used to create websites and layouts that look good on any device, any size, any viewport or breakpoint. You can use Flexbox to align elements, create columns, and a lot more.
- Ensure Much Whitespace: If you don’t have enough whitespace on your website, it can feel a little crowded and it’s a sure sign that your design is unprofessional. White space is that empty space on a page that helps to separate elements, improve readability, and just give your website some breathing room.
- Think About the Audience: When designing your website. Think about who is going to be viewing the website, the target audience. Remember that they’re going to be the ones experiencing it and reading it. So make sure it’s easy to understand and navigate. And that can be done by using simple fonts and making sure all the information is easy to find when in doubt.
- When Confused – Use Only One Font: It is tempting to want to express our creativity and using all the fonts that we think look beautiful, appealing, cool, whatever but your audience doesn’t care about your font preferences. Also, the more fonts you use in your website, the slower your website will load. If you want to create some visual interest and hierarchy, you can play with font weight, font size and color. To achieve that, no need for multiple fonts unless you have a specific brand with guidelines for using particular fonts.
- Don’t Overdo Colors: Color, science and color theory can be difficult to understand. So when in doubt, just use black and white, you can also use a light shade of black and a pale off white for a more sophisticated look. If you must add more color to your website, try to avoid primary colors like red, green and blue. Instead, use different shades, tints and tones of those colors to make your design look more appealing. Use a tool to help you choose your colors for your website. For example, coolors is a great website for choosing multiple shades of similar color.
- Focus on Responsiveness: Make sure your website looks good on smart devices and fonts. Because most people experience the internet and your websites on their smart device. So it should look good on it and it should load quickly. For that you can use mobile first approach, use easy to tap call to actions, make larger buttons, use short paragraphs etc.
- Consistent Elements: Make sure that the buttons you have in your design are consistent and you have a system for your buttons. You should choose a primary call to action style and be consistent with it. If you have a secondary call to action style for your buttons, make it different by choosing a more muted color or making it smaller, or simply just making it a link. This helps create a set hierarchical order in your design.
Conclusion
The practices we discussed in this article aim to simplify the web design process into some set of system and procedures which when followed, leads to a professional web design. Every web designer may have their own way of designing and their own set of practices that they follow to achieve a better and more professional design. So don’t just confine yourself into these rules rather use these rules to be more creative.
These web design best practices are meant to ensure that you do the most important things the right way in your design process. Make sure to follow these important practices in order to get a professional web design.