The internet moves fast, and old-fashioned websites age like milk.
It’s natural for your once-trendy website design to grow out of touch. Although most of us website owners understand this, awareness and action aren’t the same thing. It can be tough to tackle a website overhaul on your own, particularly when multiple site components need to be refreshed all at the same time.
To help you start, we’ve listed four of our favorite website design strategies that will give your page a boost.
1. Get Logical
What do you want your website to accomplish?
This is the primary question you should ask yourself before overhauling your UI or content layout. Changing things for the sake of change isn’t a smart move. This is particularly true if your users have grown accustomed to your layout; flipping your website on its head will only confuse your users without some structure to ensure that your changes align with your business goals.
Each element of your web design should be built around your business strategy. Learn how to build and use a logic model to guide you in this process. These frameworks help you organize and structure your design elements to keep them aligned with whatever goals you input. Think of it as a North Star for decision making: As you restructure your website, a logic model guarantees that your design elements will be tied to your business goals without sacrificing the on-page elements that are still working.
2. Tighten the Screws
While there may be some arguments within your organization about how best to structure your web design, there’s one aspect of your site infrastructure that isn’t up for debate: back-end efficiency.
According to Adobe, you lose 39 percent of your audience from the get-go if your images (or other on-page elements) take too long to load. After building your logic model to guide your improvements, tightening the screws of your web development should be the next element you tackle with your overhaul.
Assess each of your site’s integrated plugins, APIs, coding scripts, and all embedded media to make sure things are running smoothly. Ditch the Flash, and make sure your images are optimized across size and file type. Slow loading times cost businesses upward of $2.6 billion each year. Your viewers won’t wait long—make sure a sluggish site doesn’t drive them away.
3. Consider Their Experience
So, you’ve created a logical framework for adjustments, and you’ve optimized back-end infrastructure for maximal efficiency. What’s next?
Your third step is one that must be taken in your users’ own shoes—reviewing your web design with the user experience (UX) in mind.
Too many brands design web pages with what they think its customers will want, rather than what they actually want. A 2015 web usability report by KoMarketing highlights the priorities of users and on-site behaviors, particularly for e-commerce-oriented webmasters. Upon reaching a company’s home page, users want to see the following:
- Information about a brand’s products or services (86 percent)
- Company contact information (64 percent)
- “About Us” information (52 percent)
What does it mean for you and your website? Basically, if you want your users to take further action on your site, they need easy ways to find the information they want to see. Sure, for online businesses, this will take the form of contact information and product descriptions, but the principles apply to every type of site out there. Navigation must be intuitive for users and must reflect the priorities that users have when visiting your page.
4. Add Some Polish
Of course, your web design can’t all be logic models and statistics—you have to make it appealing, too. Website aesthetics make a big impact on how users perceive your website, and by extension, your brand. You know the drill here:
- Break up your text with eye-pleasing white space
- Use color deliberately to influence your users’ emotional state
- Avoid clutter and confusing navigational menus
- Create variety through careful use of images and embedded media
We’ve talked about best web design practices before, but we must reiterate how important they are from the very first second that users arrive. Research has found that up to 75 percent of a person’s judgements on site credibility are based on site aesthetics.
Web Design Strategies That Power Your Brand
Quality web design is equal parts art and science. The statistics and data can only take you so far. When it comes to finding marketable strategies, there’s no substitute for experience. If your website is slow, outdated, or otherwise in need of an overhaul, don’t be afraid to make some tweaks to see what works. And remember, if you’re wary about tackling the job on your own, the services of a dedicated web design company may be all you need to help bring your site back to life.