What is Web Design?

Planning, conceiving, and organizing information for the web are all parts of web design. Today, building a website involves more than just its appearance; it also takes into account its whole operation. User interface design, web apps, and mobile apps are all included in web design.

Did you realize that the way your website is designed may significantly affect how well it performs in search engines like Google? This blog will provide you with some useful tips on how to design a website that not just looks great but also works well and achieves high search engine rankings. 

Choosing a Web Design Tool

Using a desktop application or a website builder are the two primary methods for creating websites. The tool you choose to use will be highly influenced by the size of your team, your budget, the kind of site you want to construct, and its technical specifications.

  1. Desktop Apps 

Designers must generate their designs for desktop apps and transmit them to a development team so they may be turned into code. Photoshop and Sketch are the most often used desktop applications for website design.

This is usually the norm for big and/or complicated websites since it enables the designer to concentrate on the overall aesthetic while delegating all technical difficulties to the development team. Unfortunately, because numerous resources, skill sets, and team members are needed, this process may be costly and time-consuming.

It is advantageous to utilize a website builder to create a website with less technical needs in order to avoid hiring a developer.

  1. Website Builders

Today’s market is flooded with website builders that provide a variety of features and services. Popular website builders with varying design capabilities, template choices, prices, and overall editing experiences include Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, and Pagecloud. 

Make sure to do your homework, test out free trials, and decide which platform best suits the requirements of your website.

Website builders produce responsive or adaptive websites, each of which offers a unique construction experience. Below, we’ll go through these ideas in more detail so you can decide which builders are right for you. Understanding the possibilities and constraints of various website design tools is crucial if you don’t know how to code. For instance, while being the most popular website platform, WordPress is not well-liked among graphic designers due to its restricted customization choices.

Web Design Elements

It’s crucial to take both the website’s aesthetic and functionality into account while creating it. The performance and usability of the site as a whole will be maximized by using these aspects. The usability of your website is determined by factors like an intuitive user interface, proper use of visuals and pictures, well-written and strategically placed content, and color scheme. The effectiveness of your website is measured by its speed, positioning, searchability, and capacity to draw in visitors.

Visual elements

Here is a brief summary of the components you should take into account while developing your website to ensure everything functions properly. Each chapter will include pointers and advice to get you started. 

Written copy: Text and design on your website work together fundamentally. For the purpose of producing a design that is coherent and has balanced features, it is crucial to have your content writers and designers collaborate. Use text blocks to create text chunks that will complement your pictures and photos.

Fonts: Pick a typeface that works well with your design as a whole. The font on your website should complement the color scheme, visuals, and pictures on it while also enhancing its overall tone. You may find the ideal match for your typeface with the use of tools like Canva’s Font Combinator. Even within their software, web design tools like PageCloud provide a wide variety of font combinations.

Colors: One of the most crucial factors to take into account when developing a website is the use of colors. Remember that there are numerous myths about the psychology of color, therefore it’s more crucial to concentrate on colors that go with the overall look and feel of your website. Integrate your brand’s color palette with the messaging you want to get over to your audience.

Layout: The usability & functionality of your site will be significantly impacted by the way you opt to organize your material. There are a few key ideas to bear in mind while selecting a layout, but there are no set guidelines to follow. Avoid selecting an overly exciting layout that can distract from the ideas you want to deliver and keep in mind the demands of your target audience.

Shapes: Using visual components in web design may help with the overall aesthetic of the site and with the smooth integration of text and pictures. The attention of your site’s visitors may be directed and the general flow improved by combining pleasing colors and forms. 

Spacing: For websites to be aesthetically beautiful and simple to use, spacing is a crucial component. Your design will use space in one form or another into every aspect. The right use of whitespace is essential to achieving the ideal balance between text, images, and graphics in a design. Consistent spacing might make it easier for people to traverse your website. Modern web designers undoubtedly prioritize the idea of whitespace.

Photos & Icons: Amazing designs have the power to convey a lot of information quickly. Strong visuals and iconography are used to accomplish this. Select pictures and icons that bolster and support your point of view. There are countless possibilities available if you conduct a fast Google search for stock photos and icons.

Videos: Web designers are increasingly incorporating video into their designs. When utilized effectively, videos may provide people with an understanding or experience that word or picture alone cannot provide. Remember that guests’ eyes are drawn to moving pictures, much like when a TV is on in a restaurant. Make sure your movies don’t conflict with or overshadow other crucial components.

Functional elements

When building your website, it is essential to take these functional components into account. For your website to perform well and provide your users with the greatest experience, good search engine rankings are essential.

Navigation: One of the key factors in determining whether your website is operating effectively is its navigation. Depending on your target audience, your navigation may have several functions, including facilitating the discovery of your site’s features by new users, facilitating quick access to your pages for recurring visitors, and enhancing the user experience for all visitors. For further navigational advice, look at these best practices.

User Interactions: Depending on their device, your site visitors can engage with it in a number of different ways (scrolling, clicking, typing, etc.). The finest website designs make these interactions simple so that the user feels in charge. Here are few instances:

  • Never let audio or video autoplay.
  • Never highlight text until it can be clicked.
  • Check that all forms are responsive on mobile devices.
  • Keep pop-ups away.
  • Keep against scroll-jacking. 

Animations: Numerous online animation techniques exist that can draw viewers’ attention to your design and encourage interaction with your website by soliciting comments. 

The addition of “like” buttons or forms, for instance, helps keep website visitors interested. To prevent developer involvement if you’re new to web design, we advise keeping your animations basic.

Speed: A sluggish website is disliked by everybody. When a page takes more than a few seconds to load, a visitor may easily decide not to stay on your site or come back. No matter how attractive, a slow-loading site will not function well in search (i.e., will not rank well on Google).

There are no guarantees, but top site builders often compress your material for quicker loads. Make sure to conduct thorough research on the website builders that will best suit the material on your website. For websites with huge and/or numerous photographs, PageCloud, for instance, optimizes your images to guarantee quick loading times. 

Site structure: Both search engine optimization (SEO) and user experience (UX) are significantly influenced by a website’s structure (SEO). Your website should have no structural problems that prevent people from effortlessly navigating it. 

It’s likely that “crawlers” are having trouble navigating your site if people are having trouble doing so. A crawler, often known as a bot, is an automated computer that scans your website to assess its operation. A bad user experience and a low site ranking might result from inadequate navigation.

Cross-browser & cross-device compatibility: All devices and browsers should display a stunning design with polish (yes, even Internet Explorer). If you’re creating your website from scratch, we advise employing a cross-browser testing tool to speed up and improve the effectiveness of this laborious process. 

The cross-browser testing, however, is normally handled by the company’s development team if you’re utilizing a website construction platform, leaving you to concentrate on design.

Types of Website Design: Adaptive vs. Responsive

It will be easier for you to choose the website builder that will meet your website design goals if you are aware of the advantages and disadvantages of adaptable and responsive websites.

Online articles on a variety of website design trends may be found by you (fixed, static, fluid, etc.). However, in today’s mobile-centric world, just two website styles—adaptive and responsive—should be used to correctly build a website.

Adaptive websites

Two or maybe more versions of the website that are tailored for different screen sizes are used in adaptive web design. Based on how the website determines what size needs to be shown, adaptive websites may be divided into two primary categories:

  1. Adapts based on device type 

The “user-agent” parameter in the HTTP request sent by your browser to a website lets the server know what kind of device is attempting to access the page. 

Based on the device attempting to access it, the adaptable website will know which the site’s version to display (i.e. desktop, mobile, tablet). On a desktop, problems will occur if the browser window is shrunk since the website will still show the “desktop version” instead of adapting to the new size. 

  1. Adapts based on browser width 

The website switches between versions utilizing breakpoints (specified width widths) and media queries (a CSS feature that enables a webpage to adapt to multiple screen sizes) instead of the “user-agent.” 

As a result, you will have versions with widths of 1080 pixels, 768 pixels, and 480 pixels instead of a desktop, tablet, and mobile version. As a result, you have greater creative freedom and a better user experience since your website will adjust to different screen sizes.

Pros 

  • WYSIWYG editing (what you see is what you get) 
  • Without using code, creating custom designs is quicker and simpler.
  • Compatibility across devices and browsers.
  • Quickly loading websites.

Cons

  • “Device-type” websites may appear broken when viewed on a desktop browser window that is too tiny.
  • Restrictions on some effects that are only possible with responsive web pages.

Responsive Websites

Flexible grid layouts can be used for responsive websites that are based on the proportion that each element occupies in its container. 

For example, if a header occupies 25% of its container, that percentage will not vary no matter how the screen size changes. While adaptive websites simply adapt when they reach a breakpoint, responsive websites are continually altering to fit the screen size. Responsive websites may also employ breakpoints to provide a unique design for each screen size.

Pros 

  • Excellent user experience across all screen sizes and gadget types.
  • Because responsive website builders are frequently inflexible, it is difficult to “break” the design.
  • There are several templates at your disposal.

Cons

  • Substantial design and testing is necessary to ensure quality (when starting from scratch).
  • Custom designs might be difficult to implement without having access to the code.

It’s crucial to remember that website builders may incorporate both responsive and adaptable features. By way of illustration, Pagecloud has unveiled a number of technologies that enable your content to behave responsively even when the website is still adaptable. 

E-commerce

Website design includes e-commerce websites heavily. The ideal online shopping experience for your clients depends on having an online store that is simple to use, informative, and correctly represents your items.

Check out our post on the 5 simple stages to building an e-commerce website if you want to learn more about opening an online store!

Next Steps 

You should now have a better understanding of the fundamentals of web design after reading this article. Let’s explore some essential components for creating a website that is both attractive and useful:

  1. The user should always come first: Since your users will eventually decide if it is worthwhile to visit your website, user experience should be prioritized in your design.
  2. Select the finest website builder for your requirements: Consider the main purposes of your website and pick a builder that will satisfy those purposes. 
  3. Balancing visual elements: To prevent an overly exciting website that takes away from the ideas you are attempting to express, it’s critical to maintain a balance between your text, images, multimedia, and color scheme.

Now that you’ve learned the fundamentals of website design, be sure to read additional blogs to discover more about various website builders, design trends, design aspects, and much more.