These six elements of web design should always be kept in mind even though this is not an entire list. As the saying goes, first study the rules, then figure out how to break them.
1. Objective
Be aware of the goals your client has for the website before you begin to develop it. Maybe it’s an online store for dropshipping or a personal portfolio to attract new customers. Whatever the objective, it ought to serve as the design’s primary inspiration. Additionally, make sure to draw attention to any special services that the client provides that support their objective.
For instance, a website for a veterinary clinic might have a tidy, bright, expert appearance with visuals inspired by animals. If a portion of their mission is partnering with the local animal rescue to offer pro bono treatment to rescues, that information could be prominently displayed.
On the other hand, a photography portfolio might avoid bright colors and complex elements that distract from featured photos and instead opt for a simple, understated gallery. Showcasing work demonstrates the photographer’s personal style and passion along with the quality of their work — both of which aim to attract the target customer.
Overall, the client’s service or product drives the design. Whether it’s fonts, colors, or interactive buttons, ensure every aspect of the design has purpose and intention. This is the foundation of great web design.
2. Visuals
Devote time to refining design choices. Examine the space taken up by headers, ensure images are consistent in size and quality, and verify that fonts are legible. Typography, color palettes, images, and videos are all critical components of visual appeal.
A number of sites look great at a first glance, but they should provide a consistent user experience throughout. It’s important to keep fonts and colors consistent and ensure design elements complement each other.
Using web-safe fonts and ensuring your color contrast ratios meet WCAG requirements will not only make your site more visually appealing, it will also make it accessible to a wider range of visitors. Establishing a color palette for your website and setting brand guidelines for accessible fonts and visual standards will streamline your design process.
3. Organization
Organizing visual elements successfully requires knowledge of a few basic web design principles:
Space: This refers to your website’s whitespace —the negative space free of any elements. Whitespace gives features room to breathe and helps draw focus to specific components you wish to highlight.
Visual hierarchy: This refers to organizing your site to prioritize some features over others. If there’s something you want to give importance to, like a call to action (CTA) or a product photo you can highlight it with bold colors or place it in the center of the page. Hierarchy is designed around Gestalt psychology.
Contrast: This refers to the relationship between multiple design elements with differences that are emphasized when shown together, like white font on a black background. Contrast is often used to showcase the importance of an element or highlight differences between two things. You can create contrast with color, size, space, and position.
Scale: This refers to how elements are sized in relation to one another. Product images, for instance, may be larger than their descriptions or pricing. Each element needs to be proportionate to its purpose without compromising usability. So don’t make text too small or let graphics overwhelm the page.
This is just scratching the surface. For anyone looking to elevate their design skills, we recommend studying these ten effective web design trends and principles next.
4. Accessibility
With screen readers and assistive technology affecting how some visitors consume content, design becomes a critical element in ensuring they work as intended. Text and colors need to be visible for a wide range of vision capabilities. All text — including alt text for each image — also needs to work with screen readers.
5. Simplicity
Designs often feature numerous visual elements. When done properly, these elements add to the overall aesthetic and purpose of the site. But when haphazardly included, they can crowd the design and make it difficult for readers to navigate through the site
Strive for a level of simplicity that prioritizes fast loading times, clear navigation, and seamless transitions between pages Nearly half of website visitors abandon a site after viewing just one page — but a quick and easy experience might persuade them to stick around longer.
Rethink all elements that could negatively impact the user experience by complicating navigation or making the message or purpose of the site unclear. Remove unnecessary images, chunks of text that are too long to skim, and bright colors that distract from your navigation or CTA. Keeping things simple eliminates these issues and helps website visitors enjoy their experience more, increasing traffic and conversions.
To ensure your site is living up to its full potential, keep an eye on its performance metrics. Check out these articles to learn how to measure site performance and supercharge performance results.
6. Navigation
Aim to keep navigation elements consistent across all pages. This means keeping everything from menus to links and buttons in the same place, regardless of which page a user lands on. If your homepage design has a link to a hamburger menu in the top-right corner, it shouldn’t move to the bottom-left corner of the “About” page.
This level of consistency needs to apply across devices. If a website looks stunning on a desktop, it should look just as good on a friend’s cell phone. Optimize your pages for multiple devices, including both navigation and the responsive elements that keep pages looking great on smaller, or larger, screens. For more detailed guidance, check out our Intro to responsive design lesson.
Webflow’s accessibility checklist is a good start to learning what’s needed for modern devices to consume on-page content, and to ensure you’re designing with both humans and assistive technology in mind.