An online consumer’s first visit to a business’ website creates a lasting impression, and it could equate to either gaining a potential customer or losing one. Thus, a website needs to be one that attracts a visitor at first glance, and engage them enough to keep them from clicking away. This is why importance must be given to Web design theory for designers to be able to help one’s website produce positive outcomes.
An experience-centered design maximizes the use of aesthetics in conjunction with other factors to create an impact and invoke a reaction among a website’s visitors. In short, as Unbounce puts it, it’s not just about having a pretty page but rather, it’s structuring the page to make it effective. The other factors include use of colors, layout, directional cues, typography, and text and visual content. It also involves the more technical aspects of the Web page, such as its effectiveness regardless of what device the visitor is using, linking, load time, among others.
Here are some thoughts on 4 key Web design theory elements:
- Layout
The way design elements are put together on a page is perhaps the first aspect that one notices on a website. A page that’s too crowded or chaotic can overwhelm a visitor. However, it’s not only the number of things placed on the page that produces this effect, the position of each item relative to the others also contributes to the feeling of “too much” or “too little”. Thus, the position of images, buttons, ads (if any), videos, social media feeds, banners; the number of columns and the width; the size of visual content — all these must be taken into consideration when designing a website.Furthermore, using directional cues, both explicit (e.g. arrows and lines) and suggestive (imagery) is an effective strategy that either directly or subtly guide visitors to take action.
Bad content structure is among the top reasons why visitors leave a Web page - Color
The colors selected for the overall theme, the background, the fonts, and the borders, along with the use of contrast, the use complementary hues, and the lightness and darkness, all play a big role in making or breaking a website. There are underlying factors to be considered, such as the brand’s color, the gender and age of the target market, the emotion that it conveys, along with possible cultural connotations. - Typeface
The choice of typeface contributes not only to how a Web page looks but also how it feels. This involves not only the specific font selected, but also the font size, the distance between letters, words and lines, the number of words per line, how the text flows, the contrast between the font color and background, and overall readability. - Text
There is a threshold to the amount of text visitors are comfortable reading; for instance, those visiting sites dedicated to science papers might be fine with a wall of words, but those who are looking for beauty tips might prefer short bulleted text. These must be put into consideration when deciding how to place text on a page. The use of hierarchy to arrange topics makes for easy reading, as well as help visitors find what they’re looking for more easily.The bottom line is Web design has a lot to do with the psychological impact it can have on visitors. There are subtle yet effective ways of attracting (or repelling) potential customers through design.
If you want to have a website that creates a lasting impression, and gain potential customers, feel free to contact us today.
Sources
6 Landing Page Design Posts
Directional Cues
An Exploration of Type-focused Websites
