Your website’s design is the first impression you make on a user and one of the fastest ways they’ll determine what they think about your brand. In fact, according to one study from Google, users form opinions about a website’s design within 50 milliseconds of visiting it – that’s 1/20th of a second!
If you’re looking to design a website that’s inviting to users and drives positive results for your business, then you’ll want to avoid making design errors in favor of an attractive, user-friendly design.
At Webspec, our web design team works every day with clients across a wide range of industries, helping them craft custom designs that tell their unique stories. In the process, we come across several common design mistakes that good websites should avoid.
Here’s a look at five common errors that could be holding your site back — and what to do about them.
Not Using Enough White Space
Hear us out: White space is good. There’s no reason to be afraid of it!
Websites that don’t use enough white space, also called “negative space,” appear cluttered and are harder for users to navigate. Using white space properly allows each of the elements on your page to breathe and guides your user’s eyes, making your page easier to read and digest.
Here are some tips for using white space:
- Use the white space in a way that’s balanced across the page, not lopsided in one area.
- Use white space to draw emphasis to the primary elements on the page to help users understand the page’s hierarchy.
- When you’re working on a design, experiment with different amounts of white space to see what works best visually.
- Check how the white space will appear on different screen sizes (more on mobile optimization later).
By following some of these best practices, you’re well on your way to using white space effectively in your design.
Using Mismatched Images & Icons
A good website design looks cohesive within each page and remains consistent from one page to another. Breaking with the style will be jarring and disorienting for your users. Ideally, images should use coloring that matches your site’s style and established aesthetic. This should remain consistent throughout the website. The same mistake is made with icons. You want your icons throughout your site to fit into your website’s overall style to maintain that cohesive feel.
Reinventing the Wheel on Each Page
Reusing elements throughout your site is helpful for your users, allowing them to become familiar with how your site looks, feels, and functions as they navigate it. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel!
Some ways to do this are by keeping similar colors and styles throughout the site and reusing elements like backgrounds, buttons, and content block formats. This will help make transitions from page to page less jarring for users.
Maintaining consistent spacing and padding will also help the layout appear cohesive. It’s also important to stay consistent with your choice of typography. Using too many different fonts or styles makes your page less cohesive and hurts readability.
By reusing elements like these and maintaining consistency, you’ll have a much more user-friendly website that will also look great!
Using Hard-to-Read Fonts or Uneven Text Sizing
The number one rule with any website design is that it should be legible. While it can be tempting to go overboard with fancy font choices, it’s important to ensure that any font you select is easily readable. Google Fonts are a great option to use for this.
Another important factor in your text’s visual appeal is your font size. Websites that use a font scale, such as the golden ratio, will carefully choose font sizes for headings, paragraphs, buttons, navigation menu items, and more, based on a calculated method that reflects that scale. This will give the website more visual harmony.
Following those recommendations will create website fonts that are easy to read and are pleasing to the eye.
Neglecting Mobile User Experience (UX)
More than half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices. For any website built in 2024, it’s vital that it creates just as good a user experience on a mobile device as it does on a desktop computer.
Creating a seamless mobile experience includes making your website responsive to the size of the screen it appears on, ensuring it loads quickly, and ensuring it’s easy to navigate using a smaller screen. Keep mobile users in mind while you’re designing your site and testing it prior to launch.
Investing in a positive mobile experience can help draw more traffic to your site, increase conversion rates, and keep people coming back.
Avoid These Mistakes. Work With Iowa’s Expert Web Design Company!
By avoiding these common pitfalls, you’ll be well on your way to a strong website design. If you’re looking for more web design inspiration, check out our guide to some of the web design trends that are defining 2024. Ready to work with a web design company that will bring your design vision to life? Contact us today to get in touch with our web design experts!