As a web designer, the overall design of the websites you make essentially acts as your online calling card to potential clients. It is crucial that your website is well-designed so that you not only attract qualified leads, but encourage them to purchase your product or sign up for your services as well.
It can take up to several months to launch a great website, and it’s natural to make mistakes as part of the design process. However, you can save yourself a lot of headaches by understanding the six common web design mistakes many web designers make so that you can avoid them.
Your Web Design Is Too Complicated
When designing your website, you should always focus on the customer experience journey. Take extra care that everything is easy to navigate, understand, and check out. If your customer must click on so many links to get to their intended destination or if your website takes too long to load, you risk putting them off and going to your competitor instead.
The best way to avoid this is to partner or consult with a trusted SEO company that specializes in affordable web design services. These businesses have the knowledge and expertise to highlight the customer journey experience in your web design at every stage of the process.
Your Web Design Is Vague
Ask yourself, “What do I want the user to do?” If you’re building an ecommerce website, your goal is to encourage users to take action, whether that’s buying your product, trying your service, or scheduling an appointment with you or your team. If your website is focused more on education, you’d still want the reader to take action in the form of sharing your post to gain more traffic.
Thus, your website needs to have strong and clear call-to-actions (CTAs). You don’t necessarily need to have CTAs that hard sell your service, but you still need to guide the users so that they know what to do next.
Your Web Design Is Cluttered
Any good web design agency worth its salt knows that the best websites are those that are clean and easy to look at. Regardless of your industry, your website needs to project clarity and professionalism. Don’t be tempted to add too many elements to your user interface (UI) just because it looks nice. Remember that the typical customer wants a seamless shopping and viewing experience. A great website lets users clearly understand what you offer and does not overwhelm them with different colors, fonts, and buttons.
When it comes to web design, simpler is usually better.
Your Web Design Looks Fake
When users enter your website, they need to feel that you’re a professional company that does exactly what you say you offer. You need to build brand credibility by running a fine comb through your web design. For example, make sure that your website has complete contact information, does not have excessive graphics or pop-ups, and runs smoothly. Working with the rest of your web design team can help minimize performance issues, such as testing for slow loading times and broken elements.
Your Web Design Is Not Mobile-Optimized
Now, more than ever, developers need to build a website that works well on mobile devices. Most people do their online research on their phones, so you need your web design to be optimized for screens of all sizes.
This is especially important if the website relies heavily on online booking and scheduling. Your potential clients need to be able to easily check out from your website on their phones. One great way to check for this is to use your website yourself as a potential customer. Notice any gaps in your design and how you would feel if you entered your website as someone else.
Your Website Is Not Accessible to All Groups
An underrated but powerful market is the differently-abled sector. According to the World Bank, there are one billion people, or 15 percent of the world’s population, with some sort of disability. This is a target market you should consider when designing your website. When working with your web design agency, make sure to create a UI that can be navigated by all users.
This can include having the option for larger, easy-to-read fonts, including more diverse and inclusive photographs, and having test groups with differently-abled individuals.
Conclusion: Always Think of the Customer
While your website is a reflection of your brand, it should always be designed with the end user in mind. Think about how your potential customer will feel when they come across your website and how fun their experience will be. Whether your goal is to inform or encourage a sale, your website should be easy-to-use, clear, and professional.
Keep experimenting with your web design ideas to find the perfect balance between what you want your website to look like and what your user will experience. Most importantly, remember to avoid the six design mistakes mentioned so that the design process is faster and much simpler!
