As a business owner, you must know that owning a website for your business is a must in today’s online landscape. This is especially true if you work in a highly competitive industry. You will need to do everything that you can to catch the attention of your target audience and stand out. Because of this, you need to make sure to have a website that is properly designed, optimized, and developed. If you need help with your website, you came to the right place. Here at Agile Development, we will be sharing with you a list of mistakes to avoid during web design to make sure that your professional website is a success.
What is Web Design?
Web design is a process of planning, conceptualizing ideas, and implementing them to improve the overall functionality of the website while making sure its aesthetic appeal is not compromised during the process.
A website design has a lot of visual components including colors, fonts, images, text content, videos, and various elements such as buttons, forms, icons, proper spacing, and the overall layout. The design functionality of a website is consists of animation, navigation, speed, user interaction, and experience, SEO, website architecture, responsiveness, etc. Because of how many features go into a single site design, it can be very easy to slip up and make a mistake, so make sure to avoid the following mistakes when creating a site design.
A lack of planning before implementation
One of the most common mistakes in web design is when designers do not give importance to the planning process and layout before implementing and conceptualizing the ideas. It is important to perform extensive user research to understand what the website’s specific clients need. You must do the design planning so that you can design a pleasant user experience and come up with quality content for your site. It’s important to properly understand and identify the needs of clients so that these can be used to create a user-friendly website. For a website to be a success, it must be directed to fulfilling the needs and concerns of your clients.
Slow website loading speeds
Another mistake to avoid during web design is when the website takes a long time to load. Double-check your site’s design elements as they can cause the slowing down of your website and keep it from loading. A fast-loading site translates to the beginning of an improved user experience, so check out some tips to help speed up your website.
- Optimize your site’s images. A website must be quick-loading right from the home page. Make sure to be careful when using pictures, themes, and graphics that might take a long time to load, so make sure to scale down the images and optimize the content that you will be using for your website.
- Modules, plugins, and themes. These are some website elements that can make your website load slowly. These elements need to be updated to their latest versions to help speed things up. Not only does this improve site load speed, but it also helps improve your site’s security.
Before the website goes live, you should make sure to test everything completely so you can handle any necessary changes in case something behaves poorly, especially after updating your site’s plugins and themes. Sometimes, newer site tools can affect the functionality of your site, so you need to test this thoroughly.
Cluttered website
Too much clutter on the landing page can turn away most of the visitors from your website. Make sure to avoid too many text and visual elements that can slow down your website and make your site look messy. Keep in mind that users can make up their minds about your website within a few seconds of opening your site, so you need to look at your website from the eyes of a new user.
Web designers who are not careful with their designs can overload the visitors with too many resources, which results in a cluttered website. To prevent this from happening you must divide your website interface into different website pages, such as the product listing, user interaction, product information, etc. This will be easier for your visitors to navigate and understand. Not only that, but you should keep the principle of minimalist design in mind, as this focuses on prioritizing the most essential elements on your site, trimming away the unnecessary things, and still creating a balanced visual design for your site.
The website is not mobile-friendly
When a website is not optimized for mobile, any user that is using their smartphones while browsing your site will have a hard time navigating on their screens. The website must be properly optimized so that it will be responsive and scale well to a smaller screen or else your visitors will have a hard time when viewing the webpage.
Since the increasing popularity of smartphones, almost every client owns a mobile phone, which means that they are using their mobiles to browse your website. In the 3rd quarter of 2018, around 52.4% of users are using mobiles to browse the internet. This means that more than half of your visitors are expecting your website to be mobile-friendly, so make sure to meet their expectations and plan accordingly so that they can enjoy your content whenever they visit your site.
Faulty design and layout
When designing a website, it must be functional for the users. This means that it needs to be user-friendly, especially if you need them to fill out a form or sign up for a newsletter, join a membership, download a file, or purchase a product from your store. The website must be mapped and built properly for your users to use it with ease. If they find a hard time understanding your content, there is a possibility that they will not come back to your site.
Make sure to check the site’s analytics to see if there is a visitor decline or bad user retention and assess if the website’s design and layout are properly developed. If the menu layout does not make sense, it can be confusing and frustrating to your website visitors. You must remember to provide your visitors with the best user experience so that they will come back for more instead of turning to your industry’s competitors.
Incomplete call to action
If you own a website, then you should keep in mind that a call-to-action button is important. This will let your visitors know what to do after spending time on your website. Your site must be arranged in such a way that your visitors will know exactly what to do, such as fill out the form, sign-up for the newsletter, buy your products, hire your services, etc. You must provide them with all of the information that they will need to convert. Not only that, but the form fill-up process must be as concise as possible and encourage them to spend at least a few minutes on your webpage before the CTA shows up.
If you check your page visitors and it looks like you are getting a lot of traffic but it seems as though you are not generating as many leads as you wanted, then maybe you are not directing your visitors to the right path, which is your call to action button. You want to convert your visitors into clients, so you need to ensure that your CTA is brief and clear so that they know what they need to do.
Not providing enough information
You must remember that the visitors to your website are curious about your business, so you need to make sure to provide them all the information that they will need from your website. This will prevent you from losing relevant traffic. For example, if you own a business, you must provide important information about your business such as your business hours, store site, and contact information.
If you want your visitors to visit your physical store, then you need to include Google Maps in your location section. You should make sure to input the right address as well as nearest landmarks so that they can easily locate it. If you forgot to place your address then your customers will not be able to find you if they attempt to locate you, which can affect your business’s reputation. Don’t forget to include important information like mobile numbers, phone numbers, and email addresses, as ways for them to reach out to you. Always check your email regularly as clients will likely send emails to contact you, so you need to respond to their inquiries as quickly as possible. Clients like companies that are responsive to their needs.
Using unrelated and inappropriate images
Images and graphics are an important part of web design. By using the correct images on your website, you can effectively convey the core message to your users without them needing to read the entire piece of content. Your images must support your content. Always avoid using incorrect and low-quality photos and invest in professional-quality images as low-quality photos will put off your users and may drive away traffic. In addition to this, make sure to choose relevant images for your site as unnecessary images will only distract and confuse your visitors.
Using incorrect font style, color, font size
Keep in mind that if a website is not readable, it can instantly turn off your visitors to your site. Take the time to choose the right font size, color, and style to achieve the utmost readability so your users can understand your content and be converted accordingly. Keep in mind that a user will make up their minds about your site within a few seconds of visiting your site, so if your content cannot be read, then they will leave your site right away. The right font size, colors, and styles can go a long way in preventing this. Do not forget about your mobile users as you need to make sure that your content can be read on their devices. A responsive website will result in a good user experience, which results in better conversion rates for your site.
The website is not safe or secure
Online security is a point of concern for many online users, so you need to handle the bare minimum for your site. Make sure to obtain a valid HTTPS certificate. This will ensure that you are considered safe by the internet browsers. If you do not have the HTTPS certificate, your visitors will instantly receive messages that your website is not secure and can drive them away to other websites that are secure and safe. HTTPS helps encrypt data from your website and your visitors, so any important information will not be prone to be interrupted by cybercriminals or hackers. It will make the information private and hidden.
If you want to inquire about web services like web design, Agile Development is the perfect solution for you. We have more than 12 years of experience in website services and we have catered to different clients with different needs. We offer a wide range of website services such as web development, web design, and SEO services.
For more information about our services, you can check out our portfolio here. If you want to request a free quote please fill up this contact form. If you have any work requests, please click this link. Please let us know what type of service you need for your website. If you have any concerns or questions regarding our company or the services that we are currently offering please contact us. You can call at (385) 685-0642 or send an email inquiry at admin@agiledev.org. What are you waiting for? Contact us today so we design the perfect website for your needs today!
Recent Comments