Web design just keeps getting easier with all the popular website builders including: Squarespace, WordPress, Cargo Collective, and more. But for the uninitiated web designer, too many build-it-yourself tools may steer you in the wrong direction if you’re not careful. If you do decide to build your own website for 2016, here are a few tips you should keep in mind while choosing your official web design.
Limit Your Hamburger Menu
As these web designs have become the “go to” design for simplicity and modernization, the hamburger menu does not work for EVERY site. Also, your discovery rate will be reduced from your viewers.
Keep in mind, the average viewers spend less than 15 seconds on your website, meaning, viewers will not go through the list reading every single topic listed on one tab. This will cause less open and click-through rates.
Avoid the Carousel Front-Page
There are several disadvantages to using the carousel style on your front-page, including:
- It Hurts SEO: lack of content = difficulty to get meta information into a page.
- Affects performance: with high-res images, this may slow down the performance of your home page load time.
- Content is pushed below the fold: content is forced to move to the bottom of the web page, which may become frustrating for customers that need to constantly scroll down for accessibility. More scrolling and loading is inefficient for user experience.
Steer Clear of Complex Screen Load
- Animation and Video: is only effective for certain practices, but if you can avoid it, do so! A bad video or animation design can ruin all expectations for your current and future customers.
- Parallax Scrolling: may come to good use and become trendy, but we still see problems with pages lagging with constant loading issues.
Refrain From Too Much Typography
Key rule: Don’t use more than two typefaces, as variations create confusion. If you are unsure of what this means, be safe and use one typeface, and manage the text with color and size instead. This will give your more options on stylizing your text for legibility.
Using these tips can help you avoid a potentially harmful website design mistake. Remember that your website should be professional, as well as conveying a clear message about your business.
When in doubt, take some time to review your favorite websites and ask yourself what it is about the design that makes it easy to use. And don’t hesitate to have friends, family, co-workers, or anyone around you review your website and provide feedback. And if you find yourself really struggling, it may be time to call in a professional to design a user-friendly website.