Research by Nielsen Norman states that most visitors leave our website within the first minute. The high exit rate means you have very little time to keep a reader hooked to your website for a final sale or a conversion.
In today’s highly competitive markets, smart websites are focusing more on user experience and usability. Web page design is paramount for conversions and it needs to leave an impression that leads to conversion and helps in customer retention as well.
Here is a list of helpful design guidelines to use on your website design project to ensure high page visits and an increased average time spent.
- A simple design
Most visitors come to your website to take a specific action or to find particular information. An effective website should avoid putting too many design elements that will end up distracting the visitors.
A simple web design helps visitors to navigate easily while maintaining its appealing look. Simplicity is the name of the game that will increase the conversion rates.
- Consistency
Consistency matters a lot in website design. The look and feel should be consistent throughout the page. Plan everything in advance by ensuring that the color schemes, backgrounds, typefaces, and the tone of your writing are all consistent throughout the development stage.
This doesn’t mean that all the pages on your website should have the same layout. Each page can have a specific type of layout that has been used consistently. This will help visitors to understand what they are likely going to find on a specific page.
- Arranging website elements
A website should be simple and help visitors easily navigate toward the most important elements. The visitors are constantly on the look-out for a well arranged and organized website.
When available elements fall short of usability and user experience, they will seek for actions or search for information on other websites. You need to position several elements like color, text size, and menu bars in a way that they find it easy and natural navigating.
- Ease of navigation
A highly efficient website should be easy to navigate. Research shows that 94% of web visitors feel that easy navigation is very important.
Exceptional website design has simple navigation elements on the bottom and the top. Use of breadcrumbs helps visitors to know where they have been navigating. The “three-click-principle” is ideal as users get information within three clicks.
- Accessibility
Technology has revolutionized the way people access information. Globally, more than 50% users are now searching for information on tablets and smartphones. this means websites have to be more creative without sacrificing performance.
If your website design is not compatible with some devices, it will lose the battle to your competitors. Ensuring your website conforms with various platforms will increase its productivity.
- Conventionality
If there is nothing wrong with some of your elements, don’t change anything. There are some elements that users have become familiar with over the years, so don’t try changing them to be unique. This will most likely increase the bounce rate. Some of the conversions that users know include navigation menus and logos.
- Credibility
Users aren’t entirely impulsive but they can be calculated in their actions. Your website should display clear information to build credibility. Most visitors weigh in both the honesty of the information and how easy it is to navigate to come up with a decision on your brand.
The information about products or services and their prices should be clear and concise. Customers don’t have to spend a ton of time searching for the information as this will frustrate them.
- User-centric
An exceptional website design should allow users to provide feedback. This gives you a chance to work on the elements that need some improvement. Delivering the best user interface, user experience, and usability has to be the ultimate goal for the website to be considered as user-centric.