Unleash Your Creativity by Making an Appealing Website? Discover the Principal of Web Design and Emerging Tools for Web Mapping!!

Abstract :

An engaging and informative website is essential for any business operating today. Designing a website may seem like an overwhelming project, but there are many tools available that can make creating your own site easy, even for beginners with no coding or design experience.

Every business these days has a website. Maybe you’ve noticed some websites are easier to read, faster to load, and just better to use. We call this a successful web design, which leads to a positive user experience (UX). 

The 10 principles of web design are a set of guidelines which help ensure that the interface is visually appealing, user friendly, and effective. Understanding the 10 principles of quality web design can help an aspiring graphic designer build a strong portfolio of work.

Keywords: 

Web Design, Layout

Typography, Color, Imagery

Learning Outcomes:

After undergoing this article you will be able to understand the following 

1. What is Web Design?

2. What's the 10 Principles of Web Design?

3. What's the design elements of web design?

4. A brief on Ten Principles of Web Design

5. Best website designs to inspire you 

6. The process of website development 

7. Tools for sitemapping and wireframing

8. Conclusions

9. FAQs

References 

1. What is Web Design?

Web design refers to the design of websites. It usually refers to the user experience aspects of website development rather than software development. Web design used to be focused on designing websites for desktop browsers; however, since the mid-2010s, design for mobile and tablet browsers has become ever-increasingly important.

2. What's the 10 Principles of Web Design?

Graphic designers who design websites adhere to a set of guidelines which are applicable to all mediums. Quality design adheres to certain rules, even if we are unaware of them when viewing. These design principles help improve any design from amateur to professional, instantly distinguishing a well-designed site from a poor one.

3. What's the design elements of web design?

The 10 Principles of Web Design cover a range of design elements including:

Layout

Typography

Color

Imagery

And much more!

Together, these elements comprise a website that is lovely, easy to navigate, accessible, and optimized for search engines like Google, which help new customers find websites and businesses.

4. A brief on Ten Principles of Web Design

The Ten Principles of Web Design are as follows: 

1. Purpose

Why does the website need to exist? What is its purpose? This is the first question every designer must answer—or rather, they must ask of their client. Defining a clear purpose for a website is essential for meeting the needs of the client and their potential customers.

Usually websites attempt to persuade the website visitor to complete an action (fill out a form, subscribe, make a purchase, etc.) which is referred to as a conversion.

Examples of website purpose:

Sell products or services

Provide information or resources

Entertain or engage visitors

Once the purpose has been established, the designer can use this to inform the direction of the website and define conversion actions. By understanding the purpose of the website, a designer can better select the appropriate design tactics to help the website gain the desired conversions.

Understanding the purpose of the website results in a streamlined design process and a more effective website. Meeting the expectations of the client and serving the needs of the target audience can improve the experience of website visitors.

2. Simplicity

Because a website exists to serve a primary purpose, the pathway to that purpose must be simple and clear, via the navigation and/or menu.

Examples of successful simplicity in website design:

Usability: The easier it is for users to find what they’re looking for, the better. A simple website makes usability intuitive, which keeps users on the site longer, or keeps them coming back as repeat customers.

 

Load Times: 

Simple web designs load faster. Faster loading websites perform better. Every additional second of load time costs a 2.11% drop of conversions. If you have large images, uploaded videos, and fun animations, these could all be adversely affecting your bottom line.

 

Mobile Responsiveness: Websites are viewed on mobile devices more often than desktop computers these days, which is why most designers define mobile layouts first. Then the site must be built responsively, meaning that it will adjust to any screen size automatically. Websites which aren’t responsive tend to perform poorly.

 

Clarity: 

The simpler, the clearer. Website visitors shouldn’t have to go on a digital quest in order to make a purchase or subscribe to your newsletter. Keep things simple and clear to best communicate your message.

The key to a great user experience is simplicity. A website should be easy to understand, navigate, and use for its intended purpose.

3. Navigation

Navigation refers to the structure of a website’s pages, how they are organized, and how users move from one page to another. Consider the user’s potential path through the website. How will they reach the conversion page? If it requires more than 3 clicks, you’re likely to lose them.

Navigation should be intuitive to help with:

User Experience (UX): Navigation is the easiest path to a good user experience. Clear navigation helps users find what they are looking for quickly.

 

Customer Retention: 

The easier it is to navigate your website, the more likely customers will return. A great user experience could result in a lifelong customer (especially if your competitors’ websites are outdated).

 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): 

Search engines like Google rank websites using a variety of criteria—one of which is navigation. Clear navigation helps search engines define what is on a website and determine its relevance to a search query.

The navigation carries a lot of weight with both users and search engines, the two primary audiences for a successful (well-ranked) website that displays prominently in search results.

4. Visual Hierarchy

The design elements, working together, form a visual hierarchy. Using font sizes, colors and contrast, and negative space, designers can guide users through a website and focus their attention on specific areas of the site strategically. An example of this is breaking up large “walls of text” to create natural breaks for the eyes—this improves readability.

A strong visual hierarchy serves to grab attention, organize information logically, improve readability, and even crosses into branding by helping to establish a brand identity. Using the same elements across the site establishes consistency and reflects the personality and values of the brand.

5. Content

A pretty website with nothing interesting to say probably won’t capture many conversions. Ensure your web designs won’t fall into this trap by having a content strategy early in the process. Whether your client provides the copy or you work with a copywriter, there is a saying in the web design world: Content is King.

Much of what search engines use to rank websites boils down to one thing: words. The content on your website matters a great deal, whether you expect human website visitors to read it or not.

SEO: 

Quality content which is updated frequently (typically via monthly blogging) helps websites rank on search engines, essential for bringing in new customers in the digital age.

 

Credibility: A professional website filled with industry knowledge and expertise can go a long way to establishing a credible reputation, both online and off.

 

Authority: By providing valuable information, answering questions, and offering a unique perspective, a business can establish its website as an authority in the industry.

 

Social: Quality content is more likely to be shared on social media, which puts your content in front of a whole new audience!

 

Conversions: 

By highlighting benefits and values of a product or service and providing a clear Call To Action (CTA), a website can increase conversions substantially.  

An example of a CTA is a “subscribe” button. It urges the user to take action and “convert” to a customer.

Quality content is engaging, informative, and relevant. It plays a major role in both web design and marketing. It can help to establish the brand or business as an industry expert with credibility in their industry. The pen is still mightier than the sword!

6. Typography

Typography refers to the fonts and typefaces used, as well as the sizes and colors used. Consistency across the site and brand is best practice.

Typography is important to a website’s success for a number of reasons:

Legibility: 

The coolest-looking font in the world does you no good if it’s illegible. Choose typography that is easy to read and matches the brand voice, then use it to write content that is easy to understand.

 

Branding: 

Typography helps establish brand identity through consistency. Using typography strategically can create a visual identity that helps the brand stand out from competitors.

 

Communication: 

The right font conveys a message—is your brand steady and traditional, or is it playful and innovative? Typography can set this tone before visitors have read a single word.

 

Hierarchy: 

Using different font sizes, weights, and colors can help create a cohesiveness in the look and feel of the site, leading to a more professional and appealing website.

 

Consistency: 

Stick to your established font sizes, weights and colors once selected. Use them throughout your site and any other materials—this is how you establish a cohesive and consistent brand presence.

As you can see, typography plays an important role in website design. Remember, the website has a purpose. Any element not serving that purpose should be reworked to support the main goal.

7. Color

This fundamental design tool has the ability to instantly set the mood, tone, and overall aesthetic of a website. As with every other creative decision, colors must remain consistent throughout their usage on the website, and elsewhere, for the strength of the brand.

Emotion: 

Colors have long been associated with mood. For example, hues like red, yellow, and orange are called “warm,” and can create a sense of excitement or urgency. Hues like blue, green, and purple are called “cool” and can have a soothing or calming effect.

 

Contrast: 

Low contrasting colors can make text hard to read (example: dark gray text on a black background). Using high-contrast colors (example: black text on a white background) can help content stand out against the page, improving readability.

 

Navigation: 

Using color to indicate clickable items or denote the navigation can be very effective.

 

Aesthetics: 

A well-chosen color palette can create a seamless impression of harmony and set the tone for the brand.

Color can have a significant impact on users’ first impressions of a website. Using a strong color palette consistently can improve the user experience and site performance.

8. Consistency

As mentioned above, consistency is key in web design. It can help with brand identity and awareness, usability and navigation, and aesthetics—which can help create brand trust.

Building trust is crucial for a website hoping to gain conversions. Nobody wants to give their personal information to an untrustworthy website or person.

That’s where consistency can help.

By presenting the brand in the same manner, tone, voice, colors, and more, the audience knows what to expect. The brand is seen as reliable and trustworthy. This can help gain conversions and drive website traffic.

9. Accessibility

Web accessibility refers to the practice of building websites that can be accessed and used by people with disabilities—visual, auditory, physical, and cognitive. Websites must meet web accessibility requirements and be compliant with web guidelines like W3C.

Although W3C compliance is for those with disabilities, they help everyone:

User Experience (UX): Accessible websites are often easier to access, navigate, and use—regardless of the user’s disability status.

 

Legal Requirements: 

Just as public buildings must have wheelchair ramps and public signage must have Brail, websites must also accommodate those with disabilities.

 

Inclusivity: 

Web accessibility guidelines ensure that everyone may access and use the internet, making the web a more inclusive place for all.

 

Social Responsibility: 

Creating accessible websites contributes to a more equitable society, helping to ensure that everyone has access to online services and information.

 

Search Engines: 

Accessibility is most definitely on Google’s checklist of website green flags, which means it has a significant impact on how your site ranks in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Web accessibility guidelines are a fascinating and complex study. An interest in this aspect of web design could serve a web designer well, as a niche specialty.

10. Mobile Compatibility & Responsiveness

As more people view websites on their mobile devices than desktop devices, responsive web design is a must. Websites that are not optimized for mobile will offer a poor user experience (think pinching and zooming simply to read homepage copy) and will suffer in search engine results.

5. Best Website Designs to Inspire You in 2024

The best website designs which will inspire you are the following :

Hyer

Mubasic

Digital Cover

IBM

Superlist

Swab the World

Newest Americans

Spotify Design

Andy Warhol

Human Interaction Company

Garoa Skincare

1917: In the Trenches

The Octopus

Nomadic Tribe

Diana Danieli

George Nakashima Woodworkers

Crypton.trading

Overflow

Frans Hals Museum

Simply Chocolate

NOWNESS

Rainforest Guardians

Protest Sportswear

The Teacher's Guild

Virgin America

ETQ

Mikiya Kobayashi

Guillaume Tomasi

Amanda Martocchio Architecture

Donaldson Clinic

Pony Studio

Lacoste Heritage

Unseen Studio

RCA Records

Cyclemon

Silencio

Alexander McQuin

Gapsy

Leif

6. Steps of Website Design 

The steps to design a website requires the following 7 steps:

1. Goal identification: Where I work with the client to determine what goals the new website needs to fulfill. I.e., what its purpose is.
2. Scope definition: Once we know the site's goals, we can define the scope of the project. I.e., what web pages and features the site requires to fulfill the goal, and the timeline for building those out.
3. Sitemap and wireframe creation: With the scope well-defined, we can start digging into the sitemap, defining how the content and features we defined in scope definition will interrelate.
4. Content creation: Now that we have a bigger picture of the site in mind, we can start creating content for the individual pages, always keeping search engine optimization (SEO) in mind to help keep pages focused on a single topic. It's vital that you have real content to work with for our next stage:
5. Visual elements: With the site architecture and some content in place, we can start working on the visual brand. Depending on the client, this may already be well-defined, but you might also be defining the visual style from the ground up. Tools like style tiles, moodboards, and element collages can help with this process.
6. Testing: By now, you've got all your pages and defined how they display to the site visitor, so it's time to make sure it all works. Combine manual browsing of the site on a variety of devices with automated site crawlers to identify everything from user experience issues to simple broken links.
7. Launch: Once everything's working beautifully, it's time to plan and execute your site launch! This should include planning both launch timing and communication strategies — i.e., when will you launch and how will you let the world know? After that, it's time to break out the bubbly.

7. Tools for sitemapping and wireframing

• Pen/pencil and paper
• Balsamiq
• Moqups
• Sketch
• Axure
• Webflow
• Slickplan
• Writemaps
• Mindnode

8. Conclusions

In today's Web development, a good page design is essential. A bad design will lead to the loss of visitors and that can lead to a loss of business. In general, a good page layout has to satisfy the basic elements of a good page design. This includes color contrast, text organization, font selection, style of a page, page size, graphics used, and consistency. In order to create a well-designed page for a specific audience. The developer needs to organized and analyze the users' statistics and the background of the users. Although it can be hard to come up with a design that is well suited to all of the users, there will be a design that is appropriate for most of the audience. The better the page design, the more hits a page will get. That implies an increase in accessibility and a possible increase in business.

9. FAQs

Q. How long does it take to build a website?

Ans.:

If you have chosen a professional website development company, then it would take around 1 to 4 months starting from scratch till the end for basic information websites with less functionality.

Website builders can help you in building your website quicker but, it’s quite hard to rely on it as you have to handle everything right from scratch. Advice or opinion from an expert may help in producing better results.

Q. How long will it take to get to the 1st page of Google?

Ans :

Normally it would take a minimum of 6 months for your website to appear on the 1st page of Google and it completely depends on the difficulty of the keywords used in your website. It is quite unpredictable as nowadays the competitors are quite high and almost every business are keen on establishing SEO optimized websites.

References 

• Barrell, Dylan. Agile Accessibility Explained: A practical guide to sustainable accessible software development, Amazon Digital Services, 2019.
• Blanck, Peter. eQuality: The Struggle for Web Accessibility by Persons with Cognitive Disabilities, Cambridge Disability Law and Policy Series, 2015.
• Boudreau, Denis. The Inclusive Speaker: How to Truly Connect With All of Your Audience Without Leaving Anyone Behind, Prominence Publishing, 2023.
• Burgstahle, Sheryl. Creating Inclusive Learning Opportunities in Higher Education, Harvard Education Press, 2020.
• Burgstahle, Sheryl. Universal Design in Higher Education: From Principles to Practice, Harvard Education Press, 2008.
• Byrne-HaberByrne, Sheri. Giving a Damn About Accessibility, UX Collective (PDF download, SoundCloud audio), 2021.
• Byrne, Jim. 60 hot to touch Accessible Web Design tips – the tips no web developer can live without!, Jim Byrne, 2006, (ISBN: 978-1-4116-6729-7).
• Chisholm, and May. Universal Design for Web Applications: Web Applications That Reach Everyone, O'Reilly Media, 2008.
• Clark, Joe. Building Accessible Websites, New Riders Publishing, 2002.
• Coolidge, Doner, Robertson, and Gray. Accessibility Toolkit - 2nd Edition, BCcampus, 2020.
• Coombs, Norman. Making Online Teaching Accessible, Jossey-Bass, 2010. "Making Online Teaching Accessible" is downloadable from Bookshare.
• Cunningham, Katie. The Accessibility Handbook, O'Reilly Media, 2012.
• Digital Education Strategies, The Chang School. What You Can Do to Remove Barriers on the Web, The Chang School, 2020.
• Duckett, Jon. Approachable Accessibility: Planning for Success, Wrox, 2005.
• Dowden, Martine and Michael. Accessible XHTML and CSS Web Sites Problem Design Solution, Apress, 2019.

• Albers, Josef. The Interaction of Color, Yale University Press, 1971.
  It explains the critical contextual relationships of color. How and why colors change their appearance.
• Arnheim, Rudolph, Art and Visual Perception, University of California Press.
  The most thorough and academic book about design principles.
• Bouma, Pieter Johannes. Physical Aspects of Colour, 2nd Edition, Philips Technical Library, Macmillan, London, 1971.
• Clulow, Frederick W. Colour: Its Principles and Their Applications, Fountain Press, London, 1972.
• Coady, Geri. Color Accessibility Workflows, A Book Apart, 2017.
• Coady, Geri. Five Simple Steps,, A Book Apart, 2013.
• Delauney, Sonia. The New Art of Colour, Viking Press, 1978 (Reprint of 1926 Edition).