How to Boost Your Web Design: 10 Main Steps You Should Follow

Creating a truly good website design can seem both easy and hard. On one hand, there are many techniques and practices that have become staples. On the other hand, web design trends are constantly changing, so it can be difficult to keep up sometimes.

That being said, if you want to make the most of your web design, there are several specific things you can do to achieve this. Hence, here are the ten main steps you should follow to boost your web design.

#1 Plan Well and Do Your Research
First of all, you need to create a clear plan of action based on the research you do. The research you will do beforehand will help you create a more effective plan and avoid forgetting about essential elements of good web design. Moreover, you should also research the latest trends in web design to decide whether you want to use any of them.

Once you know what you want to incorporate in your web design (e.g. horizontal scrolling, minimalism, etc.), you will need to create a step-by-step plan you can follow. Start with the basics such as building a sitemap and then move on to specifics such as adding internal and external links.

#2 Remove Unnecessary Elements
Before you can start adding new elements to your website, you will first need to remove unnecessary elements from it. This is necessary to improve the visual look of the website to make it less crowded. Likewise, this will help you improve your site loading speed – the fewer “heavy” elements you have, the faster your website will load.

First, remove elements that aren’t necessary but rather supplemental. Clear up ambiguous terminology and remove stocky images. Next, remove confusing elements and those that you want to change. For example, if there are broken links as well as irrelevant links, you should remove them or substitute them with working and relevant links.

#3 Utilize White Space
Once you remove many elements from your website, you will see that there is a lot of empty space. On one hand, you can fill it up with new things. On the other hand, you can utilize some of it as white space to enhance your web design.

Essentially, white space is meant to make your website more visually appealing. It can be used to make your pages look less crowded while also dividing your content into sections. If you know how to use white space smartly, you can truly take your web design to a new level.

#4 Build Intuitive Navigation
Navigation is critical for user experience which is why you need to pay a lot of attention to it. The best way to improve your navigation is to build it with intuitive use in mind. Intuitive navigation is the one where users can navigate your website without distractions or obstacles and not get lost during the process.

When building intuitive navigation on your website, think about how you can link your pages between each other in a logical way. Try to have several main pages that brunch out and link to subpages. Test your navigation to see if users browse your website the way you intended them to and whether they are comfortable.

#5 Use Color Theory
Color theory is a designer’s best friend – that’s why you should never ignore its importance. The easiest way to make your web design visually appealing is by using the basic rules of color theory. Besides, it is also something you will need to establish your visual branding and make your website look distinct.

By utilizing color theory correctly, you can also bring attention to specific elements on your website. Doing this will help you improve conversions by focusing user attention on action buttons (e.g. social sharing buttons, purchasing buttons, subscription buttons, and so on).

#6 Add Pieces of Social Proof
Adding pieces of social proof to your website is a way for you to make your brand more trustworthy and the claims you make more legitimate. In most cases, social proof comes in the form of customer feedback such as reviews and testimonials, expert quotes, and media coverage of your brand.

Obviously, you need a separate page with customer testimonials and reviews. However, you can still use pieces of social proof on other pages. For example, you can quote experts and media outlets that talked about your brand and add these quotes on your front page. Likewise, add customer reviews on product pages.

#7 Remember About SEO
It goes without saying that search engine optimization is crucial for search rankings, but some web designers still seem to forget about it. Some of the most important elements include:
•    URLs – The URLs you use for different pages need to contain the keywords relevant to those specific pages.
•    Page Titles – Write page titles and content titles that contain relevant keywords. Don’t make the titles too long.
•    Meta Descriptions – Create short but precise meta descriptions for different pages while using the main keywords of those respective pages.
•    Alt Tags – Add alt tags to your images.

#8 Optimize for Mobile
Another aspect of SEO is mobile optimization. However, optimizing your web design for mobile is not only necessary for SEO alone. It is also something you need for delivering high-quality user experience, improving website functionality and navigation, and keeping up with web design standards.

Mobile optimization is expected by users because so many people today use their smartphones and tablets to browse the Internet. That’s why you should optimize your web design for mobile devices and make sure that all the functionality is the same for both desktop and mobile versions.

#9 Test Everything and Fix Errors
As mentioned earlier, testing is important for building intuitive navigation. In addition to that, testing is necessary to ensure that everything else functions well on your website. Even once you have built everything, you should still continue testing different elements and improvements to keep making your web design better.

At the same time, testing is crucial for finding errors and bugs. Once you find them, you need to fix them as soon as possible – and then test these elements again. You can start with more common errors like error 404 and then move on to more elusive and rare ones.

#10 Add Action Elements
Last but not least, don’t forget to add so-called action elements to your web design. These are elements that will make users perform specific actions. When adding these elements, make sure to utilize color theory and white space smartly and bring more attention to these elements with their help.

In most cases, action elements come in the form of CTAs that can appear throughout your texts as well as separately on the page. You can also add CTAs in the form of buttons for making purchases (e.g. “Buy” or “Add to cart”), subscribing (e.g. “Get notifications”, “Subscribe to the newsletter”), and social sharing (e.g. “Share on Facebook”).

Wrapping Up
All in all, creating a high-functioning website with good design is definitely possible even for someone with relatively less experience. Follow the tips in this article to help you plan your own web design strategy and execute your plan successfully.