7 Major Steps in Designing a Website
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Designing your own website could be a task and designing website features that were once cutting-edge and novel may now appear dated, overused, and clichéd. We understand that you would not want that when visitors to come to your website to lose conversion because it appears obsolete or breaks important web standards.
Having said that, you don't particularly have to be a digital genius to create your own website. In this blog, we will follow some easy-peasy steps to follow through-
There are 7 simple steps in the web design process -
- Defining the goal and approach of your website
- Looking into current web design trends
- Selecting a platform
- Choose Templates and Themes for your Websites
- Decisions around your Brands
- Optimizing your website
- Publish your websites online
Let's discuss all these steps in detail
- Defining the goal and approach of your website
The first step in making any website should be a clear goal from the go and why you should start developing it in the first place. Along with simply comprehending your market and creating a content strategy, you also need to think about what your USP (unique selling point) is and how you want to come across.
Your audience can easily figure out why and how you are showing up on your website, whether is it to make money or boost your personal profile. Your brand is immediately reflected in the design of your website, therefore it must be engaging and real.
What do you hope to accomplish?
Once you are clear on the objective or goal, the emphasis changes to the action you want website visitors to take when they arrive. Whatever the goal of this website is, whether it is to present data? To market goods? To attract signups? Basically, how you respond to this will ultimately determine how your website appears and functions.
Your landing page should be laser-focused around one product or deal, with a clear CTA (call to action) accompanying it, advises Crowdspring, a leading digital branding firm. Any business' success depends on its ability to comprehend its customers. It implies that you can alter and enhance the experience you provide in order to better meet their needs. The result of doing something directly affects the revenue.
- Looking into current web design trends
It is a known fact that web designs are ever-changing, nevertheless, there are a few well-established trends that you might wanna go through. One thing to keep in mind during this step is that no matter how popular a trend is, it is not necessary that it will be appropriate for your website design. You have to choose your niche and design accordingly.
Design is recognized as the most significant aspect of a website by 48% of users, therefore it's crucial to take your time and research what your rivals are doing. Knowing whether you want to fit in with your company or create a stir in each location is crucial because each will have a different style.
It is always a wise decision that you should always conduct your research by industry rather than by age or gender. The following are some points to consider when discussing web design:
(a) Micro-interactions
When a user interacts with a website, there are brief animations known as micro-interactions that happen. For instance, when you "respond" to a post on Facebook, the appropriate animated emoji will appear.
Micro-interactions are used to add individuality to websites. Micro-interactions add a human touch point that actively gives your website's users the impression that they are speaking with you.
Micro-interactions, which include clicking, hovering, scrolling, and other activities, are crucial for establishing a connection with consumers. Although they might not be appropriate for respectable white-collar enterprises, most websites could use some interaction.
(b) Brutalism
If you believed that this tutorial wouldn't teach you anything about architecture, we regret to inform you that you were mistaken. The construction of mid-twentieth-century buildings served as the idea for brutalist web design, which many people find unsightly but which really functions.
Brutalism is a straightforward, audacious, and startling approach to web design that is derived from the French term "brut," which means "raw." It's not for everyone, but those hoping to revolutionize their sector should definitely pay attention.
(c ) Chatbot Assistance
Chatbots are no longer just novelties; instead, they are becoming more and more crucial to customer-facing services. Time and money savings are two of chatbots' main appeals. They are available around the clock, giving you more time to take care of other things. Additionally, they spare you the cost of hiring employees to serve as customer support reps.
Although chatbots are far from flawless, they are constantly developing their emotional intelligence and their capacity to offer personalized support. With so many chatbot services available, there has never been a better time to deploy one.
- Selecting a particular Platform
Whenever a high-quality web design is mentioned, going to a professional agency is the first option to get your work done in an efficient manner. Top businesses are often excellent, but they can be exorbitantly pricey. But do not fret, as there are alternatives regarding this like e-commerce platforms and website builders.
Another option that we can go with is sites like WordPress. You only need to be aware of WordPress.org's status as the most widely used platform for website design. It is technically free to use and allows you complete control over the appearance of your website. We say this because you will actually have to pay for web hosting, security, a domain name, and any other plugins or themes you require in order to make your website up.
Just like WordPress, another tool that can be used for website designing is Wix. You have complete creative freedom because of its simple drag-and-drop editor, which enables you to add all of your stuff and position it any way you see fit. You have complete creative freedom because of its simple drag-and-drop editor, which enables you to add all of your stuff and position it any way you see fit.
There are obviously many options available, all of differing quality, but we've done the research and found the best products available. We are able to present the top choices for creating your very own website now as a result of a mix of professional study and exhaustive testing.
- Choose Templates and Themes for your Websites
Once the goal of your website is clear, this defines what will be the requirements from the templates and current web designs. The design of your website is called a template, which is often referred to as a theme. Imagine a template as the basic framework of your home before you start to fill it with all of your stuff.
It's really easy to sort through templates and select ones that apply to you because they are typically categorized by industries. Templates with integrated features that are pertinent to each category will be available. Each category will have templates with built-in features tailored to that industry to save you time and effort.
For instance, if you need a website for your “plant shop”, you could easily go under the template section and can choose what fits you the best. Since it's a template, we believe that it would already contain a menu page, contact information, and all the items related to a brand-new plant shop.
Before you start altering, you may see any template to have a good concept of how it will look and, more importantly, whether it will meet your demands.
- Decisions around your brands
This step is appropriate to start the website designing process. When creating your website, take into account how everything you do relates to your complete brand.
The story of your brand is conveyed through a variety of design elements, including color scheme, font choice, and imagery.
- Scheme of colors
One of a brand's most important communication tools is color. In fact, a signature color can increase brand identification by 80%, according to Color Matters.
Understanding how color is used in relation to your sector is vital since there is a lot of psychology underneath how people see color. Here is an infographic we've created to assist you.
Here is an infographic we put together to assist you in understanding the meanings and applications of various colors.
The majority of brands use one primary color, followed by two or three secondary colors. With one-third of the top 100 brands utilizing blue in their logos, blue is the most common color.
- Font Design
The typeface you choose has a significant influence on how visitors perceive your website, much like color does. It's important to lure website visitors with the right atmosphere because the average user will only read 20% of the text on any given page.
White-collar companies will naturally choose to adopt traditional font styles. Fonts like Arial and Helvetica, which are associated with professionalism, are appropriate when talking about important issues.
However, a company that is more jovial or whimsical might want to look into more abstract fonts. However, it's crucial to find a balance between interest and readability; you don't want to turn people away.
- Images are what transform a basic website into a visual feast.
Images just stick in the mind, but visual material is important for boosting clicks and engagement on a more fundamental level. One study found that when we hear something, we only retain 10% of it; but, when a picture is included, we retain an astounding 65%.
Having said that, take care not to over-image-load your website. Although several high-quality images may appear amazing, they can make your website load slowly. If your website takes a while to load, web users are impatient and will leave.
- Optimizing your Website
Since you now have a clear idea as to what you want to include on your website, there are two factors that come into play here and that is Location/Positioning and SEO.
Positioning describes how your material is organized and where it appears on each page. The method of optimizing material involves making changes to it so that it will appear higher on search engines like Google or Bing.
The specifics of both are covered here, along with an explanation of their significance.
- Positioning
According to reading behavior research, people frequently consume content in an "F" format. Simply put, this indicates that website visitors will scan a page in the shape of an F. This explains why navigation bars are almost always visible at the top of websites. When someone visits the website, they are drawn to it immediately.
- Optimization
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of making adjustments to your website to improve the caliber or number of visitors who land on your pages.
Even though your site may not appear to have changed, making changes to the content, pictures, and responsiveness can have a significant impact on how well it performs in search engine results.
A few of the most crucial things you can do when creating an optimized website are listed below:
- Metadata
Beyond your actual content, metadata, or page names and descriptions, is the simplest way to explain to Google what your site is all about. Users can learn more about your website before clicking by looking at the metadata that displays in the search results.
- Image compression
Usually, image files are rather huge. This implies that having a lot of pictures on your site can slow it down, making visitors impatient and driving them away before it has even finished loading.
- Publish your website online
It is crucial that before going live all the functions on the website work; to make sure that everything is in place.
All website builders and e-commerce platforms will feature preview mode, so ask your loved ones, friends, and coworkers to use it and see if they can identify any issues. You can even ask members of the public to test it out and provide feedback.
While publishing your website online, you should frequently look out for the following:
- Make sure that all the links are functional and lead to another page successfully.
- The content is accessible and readable.
- The homepage is never more than three clicks away.
- Make sure that your website looks pleasing on all kinds of devices like smartphones, desktops, or tablets.
- Every page loads in no more than 5 seconds.
To Conclude-
Voila! Your website is ready for use. It is now time to unwind and assess. Monitoring the effectiveness of your website is crucial. You must continue to work and advance. Most platforms come with built-in analytics or at the very least offer downloadable apps. As an alternative, you can integrate Google Analytics with your website to measure things like, how many visitors you're getting per page, the average duration of time consumers spend on each page, your bounce rate, rate of conversion. These statistics, referred to as behavioral metrics, assist in letting you know which websites require your attention.
Don't be hesitant to take inspiration from the greatest, and keep an artistic eye on your rivals.
Follow the above-given tips and add your personal touch to your work, this will give you an edge over others and will pave your way to success.
