10 tips for good website design

As website designers, we have developed many professional websites, and customers often ask us what we consider to be a good website. There are many answers to this question, as web design can of course be influenced by fashion, personal taste and conviction. But for us, building a good website is basically a combination of a good front-end and a good back-end. That is, the encounter you have when you click on the website and the more technical development behind it. Front-end and back-end are often closely linked, but here we will focus exclusively on the front-end in the form of some guidelines for good website design. You can also read more here about what you should consider when setting up a new website.

While a business or organization needs to differentiate itself, there are some basic commonalities of the best websites. We will highlight these in these 10 tips for good website design and touch on best practices in web design.

1. The main message must be prominent on the website

You only have a few seconds to get visitors interested in your website. The most important message should therefore be served interestingly, clearly and where most people look first: at the top left of the homepage or on your landing pages. Users look in a “Z” sequence, and the prioritization of the website design should therefore be built accordingly.

The most important message should always be “above the fold” – i.e. at the top of the website. If the user has to scroll down to find the main message, you risk losing them. It’s important to prioritize your messages, as too many messages steal focus from each other and make the site appear cluttered and confusing.

With a good message that is quickly and easily identifiable, you buy valuable time and visitors will investigate the website further.

Websites have generally become a lot longer than in the past due to the increased use of mobile platforms such as smartphones and tablets. The movement pattern on websites has changed and there is more scrolling, where users move down the pages to find the content that interests the reader the most. This means that there typically need to be more “call-to-actions” across the page. More work needs to be done on the flow down the pages, and it’s important that the individual elements and messages stand out from each other so that the page appears interesting and the user can easily find what they are interested in. It’s important to vary the design so that the important things are highlighted naturally. Different design types such as parallax, film, colored backgrounds, etc. can help to create the right variation.

2. Make it clear what the website is about

Visitors should be able to quickly understand what the website is about and who is behind it. Being honest about who you are and what you stand for is important as it gives credibility to the website. This is ensured through the visual identity and design, among other things. A weak profile or identity-less website, perhaps based on a standard template, can be difficult for visitors to decode. You also run the risk that other companies have used the same template, which would be really boring if it’s your main competitor. To ensure that the user can quickly decode what you want with the site and what you are “selling”, it is necessary to know your target audience and customer persona to understand what they expect from a professional website. By using personas professionally when working with websites, you can create more relevant and engaging content. Our free guide about customer personas is a practical guide on how to develop exactly the right personas for your business. Use graphics, animations and signal colors creatively, but always be aware of the experience you want to give the visitor and especially what you want the visitor to do. Visitors should not be distracted by bland graphics, animation or other noisy elements. Don’t experiment too much with unconventional solutions that confuse more than they help. Even if the designer claims that a logo at the bottom could be exciting and different, it makes decoding more difficult for the recipient.

3. Simple and attractive website design

Colors, design and images should be adapted to the target audience. Simplicity is often what works best, but it can also be the hardest to execute in practice. An airy design gives the website a calmness that appeals to most people. It shows great confidence and energy in the design to leave room for “white space”. You don’t necessarily need to cover every millimeter with graphics or text. Air in the design also provides a much better opportunity to organize the page. White space can allow the most important message to dominate, while at the same time giving secondary messages space further down the page visually separated by “breaks”. On the long websites we create today, it has become easier to organize content across the page. There needs to be a common thread in the design. It should be coherent throughout the entire website. A good front page or landing page must be followed up on the other pages. The visitor should never be in doubt about which website they are on. As mentioned earlier, it’s important to be based on the target audience’s universe – and not necessarily on your own personal tastes or preferences. Good quality images are essential, but often an underestimated element even on professional websites once the website is up and running. There are simple ways to positively stand out from the competition.

4. Typography should be easy to read

Text (and content) is just as important as graphics on a professional website. It’s crucial that it’s easy to read on screen on computers, smartphones and tablets. The internet places some restrictions on the choice of font to ensure that as many visitors as possible can see it properly. Currently, there are around 15 standard fonts to choose from, and some are better than others on screen.

Today, it is possible to create font controls on websites so that special fonts can be used. This allows you to use a corporate font. A consistent and clear visual identity that extends to the choice of fonts significantly improves the quality of a website. However, it is still wise to stick to font control of the headlines only, so that the page does not become heavy to load. Remember to check the rights to the font if you choose a special font. It can be expensive to use a font that you don’t have the rights to use. That’s why it’s often an advantage to use so-called “open source” fonts that don’t have to be paid for.

5. A clear call to action

Whether the site is used as a communication platform, sales channel or something else, it’s essential to have a clear call-to-action design on the website. What do you want visitors to do on the website? And what does it take to get them to click through?

Call-to-actions on websites today can be much more than just a click to another page. It can be a mobile call, text message, forms, social media sharing, etc. At the same time, there shouldn’t be too many options. A page with many call-to-actions can be confusing for the user.

Testing with different text and graphics can be a good way to find out what works for your site. It’s sometimes surprising what a different color or the right choice of words can do for click-through rates.

There can be many reasons why you can’t get your website to convert optimally. You can read more about that here in 10 reasons why your website doesn’t convert.

6. User-friendliness

User-friendliness is essential for your website to be great. It should be easy to navigate around the website. The visitor must be able to find the information quickly. As a starting point, it should never take more than three clicks to get to the desired information. This means a logical menu structure where all levels are well thought out. Is an extra level necessary or can you do it smarter? Larger sites can benefit from a search function.

Clear buttons – preferably with a hover effect to indicate that you are hovering over a link – help the user to orientate themselves and move through the page in an appropriate way. Clear buttons and easy navigation have become even more relevant with the rise of small laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Responsive web design has become an important part of a good website as it ensures that the website works optimally on different devices. The website automatically adapts to the size of the screen. Graphics and images move and scale up or down. You can read more about responsive web design here.

7. Clear contact information

If the website does its job and sparks interest, the next step from the visitor may be a desire to contact the company to find out more. Here it is important that the contact details are very clear. On many websites, contact information and the employee overview are still the most visited pages.

If it’s clear how to contact the company, it gives you peace of mind. It gives a good sense that there are people behind a website. It’s also a good idea to tell the story of the company on a subpage or at the bottom so that a potential customer can get a better sense of the business partner.

8. Social Media

Many companies and organizations have embraced social media. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snapchat, etc. have become important elements in communication with the world around them. There is no doubt that there is a good synergy effect in being present on multiple media. This gives you the opportunity to influence and interact with as many of your target audience as possible. It is therefore important that the company’s social media presence is a natural part of the web design. It should be easy to follow the company on social media, but this should only happen on the basis of a well thought-out social media strategy. There are many great opportunities to use social media for more “serious” purposes than before, and there’s no doubt that it will continue to develop a lot in the coming years. This will require a constant focus on which social media platforms make sense to invest in to create value for businesses.

9. Test your website design

A good and professional web design will only be optimal if it is tested by those it is aimed at. What was ideal from the designer’s point of view is not necessarily the right idea when it comes to the practical use of the website. Web design testing can be done on many levels. It doesn’t necessarily have to be super scientific to work as intended. Sometimes a simple test in a group can be very valuable in the process. At the same time, a website should never be seen as something that is fully developed. New usage habits and possibilities with websites can mean that you need to continuously adjust elements of the website.

The web design can also have a big impact on the speed of the website and how it is experienced in different browsers. A poor experience due to slow loading time or poor display in one browser on different platforms can result in a lost sale. There are a wide range of tools available online to test these things. For example, we can recommend the Pingdom speedtester, where you can quickly (and for free) get an overview of the speed of the website and what challenges there may be with large images, JavaScript or other issues. Google also offers an effective tool in the form of their PageSpeed Insights. Testing websites in different browsers is a little more uncertain, as you can’t rely 100% on the tools available online. Testing live in the current browser is still the safest option. For lack of a better option, BrowserStack can be used, but in our experience the results should be taken with a grain of salt.

10. Always have an updated website

The last tip is not directly connected to the web design itself, but more to how the visitor experiences the website. Updating the website is perhaps one of the most important points – and at the same time easy to do something about. A website that is not updated seems untrustworthy. In bad cases, it can actually scare potential customers away. Then it is better to be less ambitious in the web design, so that it requires less maintenance. Don’t have the news take up half the page if you don’t have the resources to keep it up to date. Use the space for something else and give the visitor a different experience instead.