Designing a company website can be a daunting task, as it involves many obstacles that can stifle the emergence of new ideas. One of the risks in this process is losing sight of what our target audience truly needs—a phenomenon commonly referred to as “tunnel vision.” Working on the same website continuously can lead to a narrow focus, making it essential to step back and rethink your approach occasionally.
So, this blog post aims to provide fresh insights and practical tips to help you do just that with your web design in Werribee.
1. Design in Shades of Gray, Then Add Color
If your web design company in sydney starts with wireframes before moving on to visual designs, you understand the value of beginning with shades of grey. Transform your wireframe into a grayscale visual design, add your photography, and then gradually introduce colour to design elements one at a time. This method prevents your website from becoming “overdesigned” and ensures that the most critical elements stand out.
2. Add Web Fonts to Your Corporate Style Guide
As of 2015, incorporating web fonts into your corporate style guide is essential to ensure that your website maintains the same standards as your corporate documents and collateral. Google Fonts is an excellent resource for finding suitable web fonts. Once you select an appropriate font, define its usage in your style guide to ensure consistent application across your web design in Werribee.
3. Bury Those Social Media Icons
After working hard to attract visitors to your web design in Werribee, it’s counterproductive to invite them to leave by placing social media icons prominently. Instead, tuck these icons away in the footer. If visitors are on your site, you want them to stay, learn, and possibly inquire about your services—not to get distracted by company photos on Facebook.
4. Ditch the Slideshow/Carousel
Home page slideshows or image carousels were once a popular way to cram a lot of information onto the first page of your website. However, most visitors don’t stay long enough to view all the slides. Additionally, the messages and images are often not relevant to their initial visit. Focus on the single most important takeaway for visitors—usually, a clear explanation of what your company does—and eliminate the rest.
5. Simplify Navigation
While it might seem counterintuitive, reducing the number of options available to your visitors can help guide them to the most valuable content. So, simplify your website navigation by eliminating dropdown menus, especially multi-tier ones that are difficult to navigate. Plus, reduce the number of links in your header or sidebar to avoid overwhelming visitors.
6. Remove Sidebars
Sidebars have been a popular web design trend in Werribee for the past decade, especially on blogs. However, many companies are finding that removing sidebars from their blogs helps focus readers’ attention on the article and the call to action at the end. So, consider implementing this tactic by exploring the new Content Hub theme collection on the Envato marketplace.
7. Get Colour Inspiration from Nature
If you’re struggling to find the perfect colour combination for your website or a call-to-action graphic, look to nature for inspiration. Use your camera to photograph natural scenes around you or find landscape photos online. Then, use a colour picker to select colours. Nature’s palette is always harmonious and can provide unique and attractive combinations for your design.
8. Step Away from the Computer
Great design starts with thorough planning. Sketching your ideas on paper or a whiteboard can help you iterate through a design, refining and adding details as you go. This method also facilitates collaboration, allowing team members to contribute their ideas. It’s easy to erase a pencil from paper or marker from a whiteboard and make quick changes. Once you have a concrete plan, snap a photo with your mobile phone and start working on it digitally.
9. Use Pinterest to Create Mood Boards
Pinterest is a fantastic tool for collecting and organising ideas for a new website or redesigning part of an existing site. Create a mood board with your favourite images, colours, layouts, patterns, sample websites, and concept materials. The advantage of Pinterest is that other designers share their mood boards too, providing a curated collection of resources that you can use.
10. Increase Your Font Size
Typography plays a crucial role in your web design in Werribee. Text is already challenging to read on a computer screen, so making important information stand out is vital. One way to achieve this is by increasing your font sizes, especially for headings and key text blocks. Also, consider enlarging the size of your standard font to improve overall readability.
11. Use White Space
It might seem surprising, but using white space effectively is a design hack that many websites could benefit from. Not every blank area on the screen needs to be filled. Even though white space and simplicity are trending, many companies still try to cram everything into a small space or, worse, “above the fold.” Allow your design room to breathe, and your website visitors will find information more easily.
12. Use the Squint Test
A quick way to determine what stands out on your website is to back away from your computer screen and squint. Most elements will become blurry, and only the larger, colourful, and more prominent features will remain visible. This technique helps designers understand what a first-time visitor might notice when scanning your website. Will the visitor notice the most important information?
Conclusion
This blog post has covered a variety of design hacks to improve your website. However, you may need professional assistance to implement these changes efficiently on your website. If you do, contact Make My Website today. It’s an excellent web design company in Geelong that offers various digital services, from web design to SEO to email marketing.