When designing a website, it’s important to keep a clear vision in mind, but sometimes inspiration can kick in and take your design down a different path. Web design is all about inspiration and presenting your brand in the most creative way possible, without causing confusion. That’s why web design principles are so important to follow when developing your website.
Below are 32 web design principles that will help guide your creativity in the right direction, making your website’s end result both creative and user-friendly.
Web design layout principles:
1. Attractive page layout that keeps your target audience’s attention
2. Navigation area that’s easy to find
3. Consistent header design layout and logo positioning
4. Footer should include copyright, contact details and any useful links/resources
5. Information-rich page titles, that reflect the page’s content
6. Use a good balance of white space, content and images
7. Responsive page design that adapts to smartphone and tablet screen sizes
8. Home page loads within 3 seconds
Web design navigation principles:
9. Website navigation is user friendly
10. Each navigation link is clearly labeled and carry the same design
11. For easy usability, provide breadcrumb navigation where necessary
12. Make sure all links within the main navigation aren’t broken
13. Provide a 404 page that can be used to navigate back to the main home page
14. Break down your website’s navigation into parent and child pages (Services > Web Design)
15. Any blog content should lead onto suggested content, keeping the user on the site
16. Simplify the navigation process on mobile and tablet devices
Web design colour & image principles:
17. Your brand colours should be used consistently throughout all the elements within your web design
18. Your chosen colour scheme should consist of a maximum of four colours, excluding neutral colours
19. Font colours should contrast sufficiently with their background colours, making content easy to read
20. Every image or graphic should serve some purpose to the content that it is paired with
21. Within each img tag, use an alt description to accurately describe any images use on your site
22. Choose brand colours that both contrast and complement each other
23. Use lighter colours when presenting large amounts of content to make the page feel less crowded
24. Any animations or videos used within the sites design shouldn’t distract the user from the website’s content
Web design content presentation principles:
25. Content shouldn’t include any outdated information
26. Instead of using “read more” or “click here”, describe the content your site is linking to
27. Use a maximum of three fonts; one for headers, one for content and one for accent/aesthetics
28. All content should provide links to external or internal pages containing complimentary content
29. If info-graphics are used to convey information, standard text content should accompany it
30. Font size, font colours and font styles should be used consistently throughout each web page
31. With blog content, the most recent articles should be shown first
32. Each page and article should be checked for grammatical errors before being published
