How to Design an Attractive Website

The web is getting more and more crowded by the day. There are over 5 billion indexed web pages, with hundreds of websites being added every day. To say that it’s challenging to stand out in such a crowded space would be an understatement.    

As technology evolves and the volume of available information increases, users’ attention spans continue to decline: from 12 seconds in the 2000s to less than eight seconds, as stated in a Microsoft report. So you have up to eight seconds to produce the right first impression on people who land on your website. From the moment they access your homepage, it’s a matter of seconds before they decide whether they stick around or move on.

There is a misconception that adding many elements will produce visual interest to your page and make it more captivating. 

Modern interface designs are more about minimalism. Minimalist web design thrives on simplicity, stripping away excess design elements. It’s easy to get yourself trapped in squeezing in as much content as possible, but it will distract visitors from the essentials. What’s more, it will impact your site’s performance. 

The user’s decreasing attention span plays a crucial role in the design of a website. The fewer users have to read, click on, and perform any action, the better they will be able to process and evaluate your message. 

Keep your website clean and spacious, remove clutter so that users can focus on what matters. Create a simple, functional layout for the homepage to make it easy to load and navigate. Plan on the organization and position of the content, color schemes, text style. Employ whitespaces in between the elements to improve readability and help direct users’ focus on what you want them to see. Include clear call-to-action buttons (CTA) to encourage your visitors to do the action you intended.

Color is a vital aspect of your website’s appearance. The correct blend will make your site look alluring and proficient. As a rule, the brand’s theme and voice determine the color choices for the site. If your brand uses multiple colors, pick three of them at most. 

Use one of the colors as a foundation of your site design, another color should put a contrasting accent to highlight the crucial elements like CTA buttons and one more color for a font. Stick to this color palette and use them consistently for the same purposes across all your pages. Maintaining the visual coherence and reflecting it in your other information media will strengthen your brand’s identity.

Videos and images are more engaging than large bulks of text. Visualization helps convey information easily, and, certainly, it adds to the site’s aesthetics. 

Most people perceive visual information better. Users better recall things that they saw than recall what they read. On top of that, homepages with video can significantly improve conversions. 

Use rich media like video, stunning imaging, and captivating text on the landing page to make the first 8 seconds attention-grabbing. The idea is to have less text and more media elements.

However, don’t put beautiful pictures for the sake of adding pictures to your website. They must reflect the message and essence of your business. Also, keep in mind that not all devices can deal with high-resolution videos. Here is an example of a web design solution with a striking image on the background and short text created by ApexTech specialists.

Navigation needs to be as simple as you can make it. Also, take into account that your site will be accessed on a range of devices, including desktop, tablet, laptop, and mobile phone. Users won’t hang around trying to find what they are looking for, so make it easy. Furthermore, easy-to-use navigation helps search engines index your content and contributes to a seamless user experience. 

Whether you opt for a standard drop-down menu, horizontal list, or hamburger, the most important is to locate it in the place where users expect to find it. Your consumers should feel comfortable navigating between your pages. Prominent navigation menus are well-organized and structured based on the importance of each section.  

When designing, follow the user-first approach to deliver superior UX. Think of design format, information architecture, imaginary and visual elements, smooth navigation, and unify these components into a harmonious user-first design.

The latest statistics indicate that more than half of global internet traffic comes from smartphones. Mobile web traffic has slightly overtaken desktop, and it tends to grow.  It means that your website should look at its very best on any device, your visitors may browse.  

If you develop a website from scratch, consider mobile responsiveness from the start. If you already have a site that is not mobile compatible, there are several methods to fix that. Using mobile editor apps or a responsive web design will help you adapt the design and layout to fit the screen sizes of smartphones and tablets. 

Once your mobile version is ready, test it from the user’s perspective. It should contain fewer page elements than the desktop version as you have limited space.

The digital design world has embraced simplicity, focusing on the fundamentals. From a visitor’s perspective, minimalistic design with whitespaces, less content, and a clear message makes websites easier to navigate for a more exciting experience. That doesn’t mean it has to be boring. Add your brand’s individuality and a pinch of creativity. Make your website in your unique kind of simple. Engage your customers while making your site feel familiar.

A well-designed website doesn’t just look great, it also performs great by providing engaging content and smooth navigation so that users can easily find exactly what they need.

Consider these six tips as a starting point to help you evaluate your existing website and incorporate elements that make for an aesthetically pleasing website. There are many more critical factors, such as loading speed, content readability, usability that also come into play. Yet, there is no one-fit-all solution. Web design is an art that requires imagination, creativity, an eye for detail, and a will to experiment. 

Improving your site design is a goal that may require investments. The ApexTech team is an expert in custom web development and design. We will be glad to help you build a highly responsive website that reflects the uniqueness of your business. Contact us to start converting users into customers today!