A visually appealing website is an essential part of creating a powerful one. Apart from being user-friendly, the website should be simple to navigate through. It should be lightning-fast in keeping your visitors connected with what you want them to see.
However, a lot of designers make website design errors that can damage instead of helping site functionality. So, in this blog post, you will get an idea regarding 5 common mistakes in website design and how to avoid them. This will make sure your users get an easy uninterrupted experience on both; web and mobile formats
1) Poor Website Navigation
One of the common mistakes is website navigation problems. Users need to find what they are looking for quickly and easily. Messy or difficult-to-use navigation systems will upset visitors. This leads to higher bounce rates and a loss in potential customer conversion opportunities. They could move their search to another website instead. When a visitor is not able to find what he/she is looking for in your pages before leaving, they flee away from your website.
How To Improve Website Navigation
When you design your site, always make sure that the structure of your menu is well organized and logically made with context. This eliminates all the problems concerning website navigation. When naming each item in the menu; use descriptive labels. Use a good search bar to help your users identify content quickly.
In addition to that, you should also implement breadcrumb trails: They make visitors understand where exactly on the site they are. It helps you when you want to move backward in previous pages. Regularly testing the navigation system with real users can reveal these issues. So you may fix it as needed. At the end of all, Simplicity and clear wins for improved user satisfaction always.
2) Slow Website Load Time
If a website takes a long time to load, people who just landed on the site will be frustrated. It can make them abandon your site and go for the faster choices that are easily available to them. This is one of the significant problems in website design affecting user experience and SEO optimization. Research has pointed out that people tend to prefer web pages that load fast. Slow website load time may lead to increased bounce rates and decreased user satisfaction.
Tips To Speed Up Website Loading Times
Try to compress images without losing quality in such applications as Picassa. This helps in avoiding slow-load times on your website. Limit script and plugin usage and bring into use browser caching. Moreover, use the content delivery network (CDN) to distribute site data around the world with the help of many servers. Make use of tools like Google PageSpeed Insights often, in order to check the loading speeds Ensure that optimum design is extremely important. It assists in achieving a positive user experience throughout the browsing sessions.
3) Lack Of Mobile-Friendly Design
Having a better website design that is friendly to mobile devices is now crucial. This is because the use of the internet, especially through mobile devices is on the rise. While optimized for the desktop view, a site should not look bad or worse on the handheld gadgets it is opened with. If done poorly, this could cause you to deprive yourself of a large part of visitors. The clients using mobile devices expect uninterrupted browsing. They can be discouraged by complex websites requiring the user to scroll a lot, pinch, or zoom in and out.
Why Is Mobile Responsiveness Important?
Make sure to adopt a mobile-friendly website design. Using this approach, your site will have the ability to assume the screen size of whichever device is being used. It will provide a perfect view into the context of the objects. When testing your site, always consider its usability, and its aesthetic whether it is being run on a Pc, Mac, Tablet, or iPhone. It should also fit mobile-specific elements into its design. It can include increased button sizes, accessibility options on controls, and touchscreen features that give higher interactivity on portable devices.
4) Inconsistent Branding
Having inconsistent branding in website design may lead to confusion. It could also reduce your brand equity or directly weaken the image of your brand/organization. It is imperative that your business’s image is standardized throughout the multiple areas of your website. From the color schemes, typefaces, and logos down to the specifics of what is written on the canvas. When these elements differ, depending on pages within the given site, it is impacting the subject site’s cohesive and integrated feel.
How To Maintain Consistent Website Branding?
To improve website design, a steady branding technique should be used. Thus, every page must reflect the same color scheme, typography, and imagery as the rest of the pages of the site. Additionally, your company’s logo and brand tone should be clearly visible in every section of the website uniformly. These are the strategies of understanding that will improve trust in the minds of customers where consistent elements will help. Applying the use of guidelines may help maintain consistency among all forms of the brand’s digital presence. However, the main objective of regular auditing is to ensure compliance with the said standards. Adjust accordingly if necessary!
5) Ineffective Call-To-Action
This concept of having an effective call-to-action in website design is very important when deciding where to lead the site visitor. Whether it is the purchasing of products, subscribing to numerous newsletters, or contacting your business. One of the common website design errors is having poorly defined or improperly placed Call-To-Action (CTA). They fail to capture the user’s attention. This can lead to missed opportunities and, therefore, a lower rate of conversion.
How To Create A Clear CTA
To ensure your CTAs are noticed, it is advisable to use colors that are different from the surrounding environment. Where they can be easily seen by the user, incorporate them without fail. Use words that compel people to do something. Facilitate the explanation to the customer of how both they and the business will benefit from performing a certain action.
Always review and optimize the CTAs that you’re using to make sure they are at their best. Clearly display accessible CTAs. This helps in offering clear instructions for the end-users who are going to utilize the developed product. Within the populations, perform live A/B testing for the best outcome within demographics. This could imply variations of the designs, the locations where such features would be placed, or even the methods of arriving at the verbiage.
Conclusion
Make sure to consider these 5 common mistakes in website design and how to avoid them. The aim is to create a website that has an aesthetically pleasing design and excellent navigational patterns. One must avoid making these common web design errors as often as possible.