Websites are miracles from the heavens. They’re graceful in a way that you can navigate and provide optimal UX in a single place. There are different types of websites for different types of uses. Some are used for commerce while some are plainly used to information. Nowadays, websites differ in purpose and size. Here are some tips to consider on how to style your website.
1. Timeline navigation
In one-page websites, there are some websites that are quite text-heavy or heavy on content. Each scroll should provide a page-like experience, focusing on one element.
Timeline navigation is advised so that users know where they are in the flow of your website and it would be easier for the users to backtrack and get back to other parts of the site.
2. Interactivity
Interactive elements can be the trick that encourages users to stay on your page. Some examples of these are video parallax, animation, and any movement on your site. It encourages more activity from users and increases more time on your site.
3. Think in “Pages”
When it comes to designing a single, scrolling website design thinks in “pages.” Each scroll should provide a page-like experience that focuses on a single element. This creates a distinct sense of organization and flows for the website design.
4. One screen
If you don’t have a lot of content, a one-page design that’s on one screen can provide an even better UX than if you put the content on different screens. Treat this website design like a big navigational element off-site or contact links. It can work well for coming soon designs or simple portfolio landing pages.
5. On-Page Navigation
Websites don’t need to be short of the usual user interface no matter if it’s multi-page or not. You can still incorporate a traditional-looking menu.
6. Organization
It’s easy for the design to get out of hand in a single-page design but it can also create an organized canvas for content. A tight and uniform grid can be one of your best tools. You can use this structure to keep your content organized and grouped in a way that’s easy for users to navigate and understand.
7. Wise Use of Space
Content needs to be spaced in such a way that content changes are clearly established, actions are identifiable, and everything is easy to read. If your website has categories and subsections, it’s better to put a lot of white space to enhance readability and scanning.
A website has many factors that go into it such as design, and its ability to make money for you. But, what you don’t know about Web Design can possibly affect your ability to achieve your marketing objectives. So, before you start designing or even redesigning your site, make sure that you make an informed decision of choosing a quality Web Design Company that can assist you with creating a beautiful profit producing website.
Templates – While templates are easy and affordable, they might be doing more harm than good. Some disadvantages include:
Generic – A disadvantage of a template is that for sure, a lot of people would have the exact same template. Having the same template as everyone is not good for your branding strategy. You would want a design that is fit for your culture and branding. You should have a website that sets you apart from your competition.
Technical Challenges – coding is imperative for web design. This includes HTML, CSS, SEO, JavaScript, Sitemaps, and more which make updating so much easier but when you use a template site, making the changes could be difficult. This is why it’s important to look for a company that will design your website in a way that is easy to manage and update.
Mobile-Friendly Website – According to Forrester Research, a world-renowned research firm, The Mobile Marketing industry will skyrocket to a $2.5 billion dollar industry by the year 2014. Individuals are using their mobile phones for everything from purchases and online searches. What does this mean? If customers are looking for information on their devices, wouldn’t you want your website to be responsive to devices that are frequently used such as mobile phones? With statistics like 20% of the search traffic coming from a mobile device, a mobile responsive Web Design strategy should not be ignored. No matter which route you choose, it’s crucial to implement a Search Engine Optimization Strategy for your website.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – Web design companies have been getting a bad reputation for not knowing what SEO is which is an unfortunate sight because nowadays, SEO is all the trend because it gets a business up on the search engines which is what businesses want. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing visibility to a website. A good website company will be able to do this for you and will know the basic to advanced fundamentals of creating a search engine friendly site. SEO factors that you shouldn’t ignore include:
- Tags – SEO Tags are tags that help search engines identify what the site is about. These tags include meta tags, H1 and H2 tags, title tags, etc.
- JavaScript/Flash/CSS – A good website design company would know how to get around barriers that would make your website hard for search engines to crawl into. They should know how to create a fully functioning and easy to navigate a website for both search engines and human visitors.
- Sitemap – A sitemap makes it easier for search engine spiders to crawl and index your website.
- Internal linking – A big part of SEO is about building links, but it’s also about having a great internal linking structure to make the site easy to navigate. Internal links help search engines find valuable content on your web site.
Copywriting – SEO for your website is important but there are different facets of SEO that are important such as copywriting. Copywriting is writing to sell a product or service. Many web design companies partner with copywriters to help accentuate the entire web design process. This poses an additional cost. Wouldn’t you want to hire a web design company that can create good copywriting and content writing for you?
An effective web design strategy should include elements that will help a website succeed such as:
- Manageable
- User-friendly
- Search engine friendly
- Increase sales
- Customizable
People think that web design is all about creating a pretty website. It can be true to some extent but effective web design is about creating a visually attractive site that is user-friendly, search engine friendly, and is designed to sell; but in reality, there are a lot of factors that go into quality web design. You can’t take a one-size fits all approach for web design because not every website/business will be the same. If you wish to achieve a customized web design strategy just for you, it would be wise to contact a web design company that can create a strategy that’s based completely off your business’ needs.
Artzap Studio offers professional website design and development services for any business. We have our portfolio ready for your viewing on our site. For business inquiries, you may contact us at inquire@artzapstudio.com or call us at 7622-2755.
