Website designer
Professional design is not good in itself, but only when it meets the site’s objectives. It should not only attract, but keep the attention of the right user. People will ignore design that ignores people. In this article, we provide examples of website design and talk about the latest trends in this area.
Design Tips for a Successful Website
1. Having a strategy. No matter how beautiful the site is, if the user does not understand its purpose, he will admire and leave without buying anything. Therefore, the design should clearly tell the visitor where he is, what he can do here and why he should stay.
2. Ease of use. Usability covers many parameters, from loading speed to ease of navigation and availability of search.
3. The presence of style. A good website matches the company’s existing marketing materials, corporate colors, and values. At the same time, the laws of composition are observed on it and empty space is used wisely.
It awakens in the user the necessary feelings: reliability, joy, confidence, compassion – depending on the goals of the company.
4. Content quality. It consists of two indicators: the readability of utility. If useful content is unreadable, then the user will never know how valuable it was. At the same time, uninteresting content that is not useful will not save even the best design.
5. Can this site be trusted? A corporate website, where only an e-mail address is indicated as a means of communication, causes mistrust among users. Blogs whose authors are unknown seem unreliable. Stores that do not disclose anything about payment and delivery methods do not receive orders.
So check:
- Is it clear who owns the site?
- Is the company logo visible?
- Are detailed contact details provided: postal address, location map, opening hours, telephone numbers, e-mail address.
- Is there a section on the site dedicated to the company’s employees? The presence of such a section creates the feeling of an already held acquaintance.
- Does the site have customer testimonials and portfolios?
- What is known about the history of the company? How long has it been in existence? Who is the founder? Who are the investors? What are the company’s goals?
- Is there information about warranty returns and service? Terms of use and privacy policy?
On the websites of all well-known companies, there are elements that testify to their reliability.
Latest trends in website design
In addition to complying with the requirements listed above, it is worth considering current web design trends and using those that are applicable in a particular case. What is popular now?
Аdaptability
If earlier only PCs and laptops were used to access the Internet, now there are much more devices with screens of different sizes: smartphones, tablets and wearable devices. To make it comfortable for users of these devices to view the site, you should think about using adaptive layout.
Flat design
Flat design will retain its position as it focuses on the end user. It is characterized by simplicity, lack of unnecessary effects and uncomplicated typography.
Use of animation and video
Background videos and animations are used to make the site more lively and interactive.
Distribution of UI patterns
With the advent of single page web applications, sites are becoming more unified. Numerous web design examples testify to the widespread use of the hamburger menu, short signup form, social media login, long scroll, and more.
To understand whether it is possible to follow a particular trend, ask yourself:
- Will it affect the understanding of the purpose of the site?
- Will the new design make it harder to navigate?
- Will it prevent users from performing actions on the site? (For example, register or leave reviews.)
- Can it distort the brand image?
Navigation is an important design element that helps the user quickly access the parts of the site they need. In this article, we will explain why navigation planning deserves special attention and showcase the best website menu designs.
When a user visits your site for the first time, they don’t necessarily see your home page. He could come by a search query or click on a link to a product or article on a social network.
Therefore, navigation should be present on all pages of the site, which will allow visitors to learn about the existence of other potentially interesting sections. For example, any e-commerce site should contain information about the terms of payment and delivery.
A good website cannot do without navigation for the following reasons:
- It helps you understand what the site is about without going through all the pages.
- Thanks to navigation, the site looks logical and orderly, its usability increases.
- Navigation encourages the user to pause to explore other sections.
- Good navigation is good for SEO because it helps search engine crawlers index your site’s content.
- We divided the selected menu design examples into three groups: horizontal, vertical and drop-down (drop-down). However, several types of menus can be used on the site at the same time – it all depends on how branched its structure is.
Horizontal menu
The horizontal menu is suitable for sites with a small number of sections, as well as single-column sites. Usually it is located under or above the cap.
The disadvantage of horizontal menus is that the number of links you can add to them is limited. Therefore, sites with a complex structure either use drop-down menus or separate different levels of navigation into two menus.
For example, this site uses both a hamburger drop-down menu and a second horizontal menu.
Vertical menu
The aspect ratio of modern monitors is such that the width is much greater than the height. By placing the menu on the side, we free up space for content at the top of the page.
At the same time, vertical navigation is usually located on the left, since this way it is better perceived by native speakers of left-to-right languages.The use of icons is also common. Also, sometimes the vertical menu can be minimized and only display icons.
Due to the fact that vertical menus can accommodate a large number of links, sometimes they simply grow to a gigantic size. In such cases, you should consider using a vertical or horizontal drop-down menu.
Dropdown menu
Drop-down menus are suitable for sites with a branched structure: stores with a wide range of products and a large number of product groups. They help to hide subsections and not litter the site space.
The disadvantage of this type of menu is invisibility, so secondary data is placed in it. At the same time, the designer must make sure that the user understands that it is the menu in front of him.
And in the case of combined menu types, you will need to decide which parts of the menu will expand and contain additional subsections.
Large drop-down menus can use graphic elements to help direct the user’s attention.
Fat design
Now that the trend of creating flat or “flat” website design is widespread, we have selected 5 great examples of its use for you. But first, let’s remember why “flat” design over the past few years has become, de facto, synonymous with modern web design.
Why is flat design so good?
First, minimalism, as an integral part of flat design, provides brevity of expressive means and clarity of composition. Here it is appropriate to recall the main motto of minimalism – “Nothing more!”. Having got rid of excessive embellishment and graphic effects that repeat the properties of real objects, the interface has become more “digital”.
Second, flat web pages emphasize good typography. It can be argued that the active development of web typography came along with the “flat” design. Content comes to the fore, and this is extremely important in the modern flow of information.
Thirdly, web pages with a “flat” design are devoid of a lot of visual effects and therefore have a smaller size. This feature of flat design was useful for us when creating adaptive versions of sites, because simple forms are easier to load and display on the screens of various mobile devices.
Using these features of “flat” design, you can solve a number of important tasks on your site. Let’s take a look at some good examples of flat design and what it does on these pages.
Design layout
Before starting to work with the site, the main and subpages are drawn from scratch and edited by the customer, if necessary. Ideas for creating a site can be found by studying the sites of competitors, but only from those who are already successfully working.
Creating a design layout is divided into several sub-stages:
- The number of layouts of the main page prescribed in the TOR is created
- Edits and fixes
- Creating nested page layouts (categories, about us, products and services, optimization for the mobile version).
- Again, edits and corrections, if necessary.
It is important to note that if you want to make changes, then this is your right. Creating a website design is directly related to creativity and the result may not please everyone. Discuss the details with your web designer.
The layout may not have a content part. At this stage, it is not needed. It is enough that the general structure is clear and the elements of the site are drawn.
Choosing a domain and hosting
Domain and hosting are the two cornerstones of creating any website. Even if you do not understand deeply in site building, then you need to know these concepts.
Domain
Domain name (domain) – the name of your site. It is set for convenience.
Who is a web designer
Someone says that such a specialty implies only website design, someone adds design, layout, logo creation to this, and someone even considers a web designer to be a multi-armed wizard.
In fact, a web designer is the person who works with the graphic part of the site, that is, creates a layout from scratch according to the approved terms of reference.
But here, everything is not so simple, since there are many more steps before drawing the layout. To understand all this, let’s start with the roots of website development.
When a person needs a website, he turns to a professional studio or looks for a freelancer on the Internet. Then there is a discussion and a special document is filled out – a brief, which allows the contractor to study the customer’s problem in more detail.
The next step is to draw up a technical task, after its approval, the development of the site begins. The so-called “classic” construction consists in the analysis of the target audience, prototyping, creating a layout, layout, programming and testing.
If we are talking about a studio, then the web designer in it is only engaged in creating a layout, which is most often done in Figma, but there are also those who work in Photoshop, although this is already the last century.
It all looks something like this: frames, layers, elements, grid and a lot of design.