Website design - dos & don'ts

By definition, design is the most conspicuous component of a website. Conveying credibility, reflecting brand values and engaging visitors, website design has immediate impact on your audience. Blending all design elements to communicate effectively with your audience is an art.

But how do you decide what works and what doesn’t? Any design consultant worth their salt will be able to steer you through the process from initial discussion to finished website, but there are some general rules that we have identified through extensive online research. The list below is not exhaustive, but will give some indications as to where to start.

What to consider when designing a website

Before embarking on a website design project you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve, what challenges you face, and the standards your audience expects. You need to understand your firm’s branding and positioning strategy and ensure that all key stakeholders are on side.

To ensure the visual power of your brand message is communicated effectively, ask yourself: what is your website’s core proposition? What are the key ideas you are trying to convey? Who is your target audience? If you have more than one audience, how would you prioritise them? What are the values of your firm? What sort of personality do you feel your firm encapsulates? Finally, how does this all impact on the design? 

Answering these questions will help you to decide on options for a number of design elements such as colour, form and shapes, as well as images and layout. Understanding your target audience is the key to success; website design needs to be conducted with this in mind. In case of multiple audiences, appropriate style variations for different sections of the site are considered to be a good practice.

The colour coding might vary depending on website section; for example our research shows that common practice is to use different colours for each of the sectors or practice areas. However, a consistent feel needs to be maintained throughout the site. Don’t change the layout and typefaces unnecessarily as the eye does not like having constantly to readjust. It is also worth noting that for many of the surveyed websites downloadable materials lacked consistency and coherency with online design. Don’t forget these materials are a part of your design too.

General layout and use of space

Ensure the page structure assists the reader’s natural flow. Plan carefully how the available space should be used: a clean layout that uses a lot of white space enhances a site's looks. As our research shows, cluttered pages give an impression of visual noise, which distracts from the message being portrayed. To prevent this problem, use of white space is essential. This so-called negative space gives the viewer the freedom required to absorb the displayed information.

Website design also needs to minimise eye fatigue, which is caused by a number of factors including contrast, patterns and monotony. Therefore ensure you introduce a sufficient amount of colour to your website to maintain the viewer’s interest. Break up your copy with crossheadings and subheadings; this gives text greater visual interest. Long, unbroken text is likely to put people off.

Use of colour to project a professional look and feel

The appropriate use of colour, both to frame the content and as background, will help portray a professional look and feel of the site. As our research shows, background colours can easily obscure text. Dark-coloured text on a light-coloured background is easier to read than the other way round, so credit is given for subtle and harmonious use of colour and white background.

Make sure the navigation graphics such as buttons and tabs are clearly visible. Hyperlink colours should be consistent throughout the site and not confused with headings text, otherwise people will start clicking on the headings. Typefaces and background colours need to remain consistent.

Colour is a powerful design component and should always be selected strategically to create impact and focus attention. Don’t forget that colours – and colour combinations - have perceived meanings and therefore will affect the viewer’s perception of the firm. Appeal to different target groups by using appropriate colour schemes: neutral tones are more popular and less risky because they are easier on the eye, but don’t be afraid to use bold colour if it enhances your brand or compliments the target audience.

Text, font size and alignment

When assessing sites we always look for a consistency of font style, size and alignment – all of which affect the reader’s interest. If default text settings are too small, text will be difficult to read; too large and in much the same way as capitalised letters, the text will appear to have a ‘shouting’ effect. Keep the alignment of your main text to the left. Centre-aligned text is more appropriate for headlines.

Selection of images

When choosing the images for your website, ask yourself - are the design components original and appealing? Do they support the firm’s branding message? How relevant are they to page content? Do they complement or dominate the page? How do they influence download time? What are the technical requirements of your design (e.g. to aid navigation)?

The images used should complement, not distract from the page content. Make sure you do not restrict significantly the space available by using images that are too dominant. Try to establish a good balance between text, menus and images and allow for some white space to increase the visual power of your message. 

Research your target audience to establish what images are considered to be most appealing to them, and what sort of emotions they portray: perhaps trust, reliability, professionalism, approachability - or completely the opposite…

Make sure the images do not slow your site: speed of download significantly affects a visitor’s experience. Minimise heavy graphics and use of Flash and consider all screen resolutions and website scalability.

Good design takes careful planning, but get it right and even firms on a smaller budget can create a visually powerful website.