Web Design Elements: a Few Simple Tips to Help Improve Your Site Design

Sometimes a website can be let down by a few minor issues that spoil all the other hard work that's gone into your design.

Here are a few tips to consider.

1. Design

Create a professional logo design and place it in the header and footer. A site can also gel together if there is a feature or characteristic in the logo that can be reinforced or propagated throughout other parts of the site design. For example, use the logo or icon shape for bullet points.

There are a plethora of web fonts and replacement fonts that can add that creative touch to your site — rounded, square and so on. Try to use font styles that fit in with your brand and overall theme. For example, if you're a creative type of business, a stylised font will harmonise better. Most importantly, ensure that your font can be read across multiple browsers.

2. Composition

Give your website some breathing space. Allow for white space between images and text. Don't think that you have to fill in every area of space on your page — less is often more.

You need to think about how you are going to persuade customers to buy your services or products. We recommend designing landing pages for specific actions. These will help convert customers from, say, paid advertising channels like Google AdWords, and help minimise cost per conversion.

3. Usability

Navigation is important — it must be intuitive. As well as top bar navigation, consider using secondary navigation on other pages on the left hand side. This is convention and works well.

Don't overcrowd your pages with conflicting calls to action. Less clutter is better for the user experience and visitors are more likely to convert to a sale. Be aware of the fold and avoid pushing your content and calls to action down the page out of reach of the customer's view.

Using full width sliders for the home page is probably not advisable. A two-thirds width slider can be better, allowing space for other important attributes like a contact form.

Make use of buttons in your banners and pages, and make them dynamic if you can, with a colour change on hover.

4. Conversions

When writing the brief for your web design, don't forget that if you're going to be using Google AdWords or Facebook ads to drive visitors, you should include the design for landing pages that will help convert your visitors into paying customers.